"Don't let go" by Harlan Coben

Written in the present tense, this thriller has a no-holds-barred cop-investigator solving a crime that seems to link to the death of his twin brother fifteen years earlier. The tension builds up to the half-way point when the whodunnit element starts to give way to thriller writing. There's plenty of raw violence involved. And of course, there are always several twists at the end.

But Coben is the king of the one-liners:

• "Daisy wore a clingy black dress with a neckline so deep it could tutor philosophy." First line of the book! Great start.
• "She could feel the eyes of the male patrons crawling down her bare legs like earthworms." Still on the first page.
• "The mark peered into the class of whiskey in front of him as though he were a gypsy with a crystal ball." We're on the second page now. The image is easily available.
• "Money can't buy you happiness ... but if you handle it right, money buys you freedom and time, and those are a lot more tangible than happiness." (C 7) Not sure you can describe either freedom or time as tangible but you get the idea
• "The food is 'farm to table', though when you order eggs, I'm not sure what other route they'd go." (C 7)
• "This is one of the moments when words would be like an appendix - superfluous or harmful." (C 9)
• "I can't unring that bell." (C 14)

December 2018; 347 pages

Other Coben books reviewed in this blog:

• Gone for Good: my favourite so far
• Hold Tight