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A review by beckyyreadss
Missing You by Harlan Coben
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I wanted to read this book because I enjoyed Tell No One and wanted to read more of Harlan Coben’s work. This one was in Waterstones in a buy one gets one half price, and I saw that this was being made into a TV show with Netflix so figured it was worth a read, however I was just bored.
This book is based on NYPD Detective Kat Donovan and when her best friends decide to sign her up for a dating website, she doesn’t think anything of it, until she stumbles across a profile that she recognizes, and she feels her whole world explode, as emotions she’s ignored for decades come rushing to the surface. Staring back at her is her ex-fiancé Jeff, the man who shattered her heart and who she hasn’t seen in 18 years. Kat feels a spark, wondering if this might be the moment when past tragedies recede, and a new world opens to her. But when she reaches out to the man in the profile, her reawakened hope quickly darkens into suspicion and then terror as an unspeakable conspiracy comes to light, in which monsters prey upon the most vulnerable. As the body count counts and Kat’s hope for a second chance with Jeff grows more and more elusive, she is consumed by an investigation that challenges her feelings about everyone she ever loved – her former fiancé, her mother, and even her father, whose cruel murder so long ago has never been fully explained. With lives on the line, including her own, Kat must venture deeper into the darkness than she ever has before, and discover if she has the strength to survive what she finds there.
I liked Kat and was rooting for her the whole way. I had so many questions on the history but I was more hooked by Brandon finding her and asking questions because he was concerned about his mother. I would have loved for this to be dual POV and how Brandon finds out this information about Kat and his own investigation. I liked that we got an answer by the end of the book because I thought we were going to finish this book without finding out who killed Kat’s father. I didn’t mind the storyline and that there was a start and a finish, and the story flowed.
Unlike Tell No One, I wasn’t hooked from page one, it took a while for the storyline and the action to kick in and it sort of dropped in the middle and towards the end which is where I think the dual POV for Brandon would have made it better. Plus, we didn’t know who Titan was, was he known to the police? Did the gangbanger know him? What happened to him? I felt like I was left with more questions than answers especially with the big reveal, what happened after that? We have no clue it ended there.
I don’t think this was the best of Harlan’s work, but this is what happens when the first book you read of an author is five stars and then you expect every book of theirs to be five stars.
Graphic: Torture, Kidnapping, and Murder
Moderate: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Death of parent
Minor: Cancer, Chronic illness, and Alcohol