Just One Look Review

Just One Look by Harlan Coben

(from the back of the book)

When Grace Lawson picks up a newly developed set of family photographs, there is a picture that doesn’t belong – a photo from at least twenty years ago with a man in it who looks strikingly like her husband, Jack.  And though Jack denies her suspicions, he disappears that night, taking the photo with him.

In the days that follow, plagued by doubts about her marriage and herself, Grace begins to realize that others are looking for Jack and the photograph – including one fierce, silent killer who will stop at nothing.  When the police won’t help her, and neighbors and friends alike seem to have agendas of their own, she must confront the dark corners of her own tragic past to keep her children safe and learn the truth that might bring her husband home…

This book has a quick start right out of the gate.  You don’t have to wait a long time for something to happen.  And it never stops for long.  The suspense starts right away and Coben manages to keep it going.  There are enough twists and turns and false leads and partial answers that lead to new questions that you don’t lose the tension along the way.  There is a lot going on here.  You jump from scene to scene and have to keep track of a lot of characters (some of whom you never actually meet) in a complex plot.  A very complex plot.  There are people who are not who they appear to be, pasts that come back to haunt people, memory loss, creepy killers and just about anything else you can think of.  They are all pieces in a puzzle you don’t have the picture for so it is a surprise when you finally see how they all fit together.  And the surprises keep coming to the very last page.  There are some points that are a bit of a stretch and push you almost to the point of unbelief and it also stops just short of being too convoluted and becoming confusing.  But it is written well enough that it never really loses you.  It’s a good fast paced thriller.