"An ordinary snapshot causes a suburban mother's world to unravel in an instant. When Grace Lawson picks up a newly developed set of family photogr...
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Nov 15, 2010
Miss
rated it: 
Although it was still a decent read much like his other novels, it could be time for Coben to change a little of his formulaic writing. The plot in this novel is so confusing that the last two to three chapters were devoted to explaining it all. It almost felt like the rest of the novel were just fillers.
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Apr 18, 2011
Connie
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I really enjoyed this book, felt the suspense and action made it a page turner. However, I HATED the reason for all the secrecy, seriously lame, I wanted a big conspiracy and got, they were drunk, he stole my song and we didn't want to lose the trust fund. Blah, unsatisfying.
"The stages of grief: Supposedly the first is denial. That was wrong. The first is just the opposite: Total acceptance. You hear the bad news and you understand exactly what is being said to you. More...
"The stages of grief: Supposedly the first is denial. That was wrong. The first is just the opposite: Total acceptance. You hear the bad news and you understand exactly what is being said to you. More...
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Nov 15, 2010
Angie
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Harlan Coben manages to snag your attention within the first few pages of his books and then reels you in like a helpless fish until you are so ensared in the story that there is no way you can put the book down until you reach the end. This book is no exception!
I will admit that there were a few parts in this book that were slightly far-fetched, but then again, reality can be a bit far-fetched sometimes. Overall, it was another great suspense story from Coben. If you enjoy his More...
I will admit that there were a few parts in this book that were slightly far-fetched, but then again, reality can be a bit far-fetched sometimes. Overall, it was another great suspense story from Coben. If you enjoy his More...
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Nov 15, 2010
Emily
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This book seemed to have good reviews, but I didn't enjoy it that much. It moved pretty slow and I felt there were wasted pages. I hate to give bad reviews, but I don't think I would reccommend this one.
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Nov 15, 2010
Becky
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This is my first Coben book. It totally held my attention and was a pretty quick read for me. I couldn't wait to figure out who was responsible for Jack's kidnapping. While I felt for Grace who finds herself in a horrible situation, I just didn't really connect with her. She took off on her own search for her husband which seemed unrealistic to me. Especially with two children to protect. I can't imagine myself in that situation but don't think that I would have acted in the same way.
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Nov 15, 2010
Yulia
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Harlan? Yulia? Harlan? Yulia? True enough, this is my first try at one of his books, at Frank's recommendation, and despite the typo in the second sentence (tsk tsk) I do appreciate the simile it contains. Oddly, Frank says he read in an interview that Coben" doesn't choose the names of his novels. How strange, to leave that up to a publisher. Is it this way with most writers? Or is he not invested enough in titles to put up a fight?
But in all seriousness, this book h More...
But in all seriousness, this book h More...
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Nov 15, 2010
David
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This was one of Coben's best books - if not THE best. First it grabs the reader's attention with a prologue in which a killer who is about to be executed admits to an Assistant US Attorney that he killed his sister (not the crime for which he is being executed)
Then it launches into the main story, when an ordinary middle-class wife and mother discovers a picture of what looks like her husband in a context in which she would not expect to find him. Then the confrontation and then the More...
Then it launches into the main story, when an ordinary middle-class wife and mother discovers a picture of what looks like her husband in a context in which she would not expect to find him. Then the confrontation and then the More...
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Nov 15, 2010
Amy
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Nov 15, 2010
Jan
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I am in awe of Coben's masterful ability to weave such an intense storyline and when you think the story has wrapped up, he hits you with a zinger on the last few pages!! Grace, involved in a mini-disaster at a rock concert that killed some 18 people when she was a teen, discovers a photo in her recently developed photographs and, when showing it to her husband, he freaks and disappears that night. Her husband is not who he seems to be and the secrets just keep on coming...and so do the scary
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Dec 28, 2011
Anjali
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I read my share of non-fiction and literary fiction, but what got me started as a serious book reader was murder mystery or thrillers. No matter how heavy a book I am reading, give me a thriller any day and I am happy. I can’t read them too many in a row, but they are great as fillers and act as brain bleach when you are done with a heavy read and don’t have the energy to pick another similar book. They go fast, you don’t need to think too much about them and they satisfy your curiosity of ‘what
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Jun 24, 2011
Joy
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Excellent book by an author I just discovered in recent months. I've read several of his series of a private investigator/sports agent, but this was a stand-alone book. It was very good! The story was of a woman who picks up newly developed family pictures and finds a picture in the stack that really doesn't belong. Soon after she shows it to her husband, he suddenly leaves their home and disappears. That sets up the intrigue of whether he is hiding someting, a victim of some sinister plan,
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Mar 21, 2011
Annie
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I liked this book by Harlan Cobain because it wasn’t seeped in lurid, gory details with bad language, and the lowest most debasing criminal acts, like some of the mystery books for adults. This novel did have clear, detailed, crisp writing, a twisty plot and hardly any bad language. It didn’t quite live up to the promised thrills and chills; but I liked how the main character was an ordinary person involved in an unordinary event. Grace is an artist, resisting suburban boredom but she loves h
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Jun 10, 2011
CJ
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First of all, I LOVE Harlan Coben's books, especially the Myron Bolitar series. And Win. Coben is a master of suspense and his very creative analogies never fail to make me laugh out loud. That said, I found Just One Look to be just one tad too busy: far too many points of view, disjointed at times from too much jumping about, and way too heavy on superfluous descriptive passages. On this last, let me just say, if the description is pertinent to the storyline in some way or necessary to set an i
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Nov 15, 2010
Susan
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This story has a lot of holes and convoluted twists to make the plot work. It wouldn't last a minute in a literary criticism class, but it sucked me in good with the first paragraph and didn't let me to until the last word. Even as I 'read with my ears', I could hear the flaws and I didn't care. A 20 year old photo turns up in Grace Lawson's prints that she picks up from the shop. And that photo starts a chain of events that literally tears her life apart.
Nov 25, 2011
Amanda
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I haven't really read a lot of "murder mystery" type books. I never look at the books by those authors as something that I "have to read". They don't really grab my attention and I feel like they sometimes have too much political things going on (police, lawyer, etc are always involved and there is always the legality system that rears it's ugly head & makes me want to skip all sections that have to do with it).
This was recommended to me by a co-worker and it wasn' More...
This was recommended to me by a co-worker and it wasn' More...
May 13, 2011
Nancy
rated it: 
Not as good as 'No Second Chance.' I found the blend of violence and ordinary suburbia a bit too raw for my taste.[return][return]Coben certain created engaging characters.[return][return]Some quotes;[return][return]'I'm a swarm of useless facts.'[return][return]Being a mother, Grace thought, was a lot like being an artist -- you are always insecure, you always feel like a phony, you know that everybody else is better at it than you. The mothers who doted obsessively on their offspring, the ones
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Nov 15, 2010
Weinz
rated it:
Why is it when people hear you enjoy reading that they automatically assume that you read the same books they do? A neighbor reccomended this one. I don't think the friendship will survive. I may have to move.
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Jan 05, 2011
Darcy
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As I was reading this book my mind kept wandering. About page sixty I realized that I didn't care who killed the sister and what the deal was with the picture, so gave it up. This is not the book for me.
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Nov 15, 2011
Jen
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Gripping from the moment I started this book. I can't really say what it was, but this book grabbed me an only let me go for a few short breaks. It left me scared to go to bed at night, and rushing through the work day counting down hours til I could get back to it. The first 2/3 kept me riveted, then it slowed for a bit allowing me to actually reurn to real life anfd get things done in the house, but the end was amazing. Far more than I expected, and such a shocker. I really need to get more bo
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Aug 01, 2011
Susan
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Grace Lawson picks up her photos at photomat, and finds an old photo mixed in of five people, one of whom is possibly her husband. When her husband sees the photo, he takes off with no explanation and Grace is left to pick up the pieces. I wanted to like this book more than I did. The plot is intriguing and does keep you interested. However, some of the characters are just too over the top, the links between characters are a little forced, and their is a weird exchange at the end of the book tha
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Sep 25, 2011
Erin
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While I really love Harlan Coben's books, this one unsettled me. The "bad guy" was just horrific. What he did made my skin crawl and made it hard for me to sleep some nights. While I love these kinds of books, I'm not a fan of torture and over-the-top violence. I also wasn't sure that it really wrapped up like the author thought it did. I felt very unsatisfied at the end.
I gave it four stars because I was compelled to read this book often. It had great characters and More...
I gave it four stars because I was compelled to read this book often. It had great characters and More...
Feb 27, 2011
Jennifer
rated it:
So I think I am a Harlan Coben fan now. This book really caught my interest although the ending kind of made me sad!
Grace Lawson is the survivor of the Boston Massacre.... a rock concert that ended in a stampede with over 18 people dead and many more injured. Grace who was crippled during the aftermath of the horrific massacre finds her husband, Jack, in France. Their past a blank slate... at least that is what Grace thinks -- she can't exactly remember the night she became crippled... More...
Grace Lawson is the survivor of the Boston Massacre.... a rock concert that ended in a stampede with over 18 people dead and many more injured. Grace who was crippled during the aftermath of the horrific massacre finds her husband, Jack, in France. Their past a blank slate... at least that is what Grace thinks -- she can't exactly remember the night she became crippled... More...
Nov 05, 2011
Brittiany
rated it:
Someone slips an old photograph into Grace Lawson's recently developed pack of photos... when her husband sees the photo he takes off into the night without so much as a "goodbye". When her husband doesn't return, the photo is the only thing she has to go on to find him. It leads her to a past she had no idea he had... It also causes her to ask for help from someone from her own past in which she wishes never existed...
I'm really liking Harlan Coben. This book definitely ha More...
I'm really liking Harlan Coben. This book definitely ha More...
Jan 14, 2012
Catherine
rated it:
Getting close to my goal of reading ALL of Harlan Coben, with only three titles left to read: Caught, Shelter (#1 in his new teen series about Mickey Bolitar's nephew), and Stay Close. Though highly suspenseful mystery/thrillers they're all beginning to seem very much alike.
The beginning of Just One Look finds suburban housewife, Grace, picking up some just developed pictures and finding a picture of her husband taken 15 years previously, starting repercussions that involve kidnapp More...
The beginning of Just One Look finds suburban housewife, Grace, picking up some just developed pictures and finding a picture of her husband taken 15 years previously, starting repercussions that involve kidnapp More...
Nov 15, 2010
David
rated it:
I'm learning to appreciate Harlan Coben's ability to weave multiple plot twists together into a page-turning nightmare of thrilling proporion.
In Just One Look, the closest thing I have to a complaint is to say that the twists just keep on and on and on and on and on. The plot twists and revelations filled me up like I had just enjoyed a full Thanksgiving Feast.. One more twist and I felt like I would have exploded, but the revelations were carefully dropped one at a time and finall More...
In Just One Look, the closest thing I have to a complaint is to say that the twists just keep on and on and on and on and on. The plot twists and revelations filled me up like I had just enjoyed a full Thanksgiving Feast.. One more twist and I felt like I would have exploded, but the revelations were carefully dropped one at a time and finall More...
Nov 15, 2010
Nike
rated it:
Harlan Coben is one of those who writes at a level of "sophistication" whereby almost none of his characters are likeable. The heroine remains likable until the last pages of the book (there is no hero) and then the author takes that away from the reader, almost. I like books with a likeable hero and heroine, but that's just me. To pull off this jaded world view, the plot becomes extremely complicated, until it finally casts doubt as to the goodness, fairness or honor of every single c
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Nov 15, 2010
Tony
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Harlan Coben- Just One Look (Signet 2005) 4 Stars
Grace Lawson has a life she loves, a great home, loving husband, and wonderful children, but one day it all seems to just unravel. It all starts when she discovers an old photograph mixed in her new roll of film, in the photograph is a man who looks just like her husband Jack. When confronted Jack denies it, but disappears with the picture. Now Grace must sort out just what is going on, but she soon realizes that she is not the only on More...
Grace Lawson has a life she loves, a great home, loving husband, and wonderful children, but one day it all seems to just unravel. It all starts when she discovers an old photograph mixed in her new roll of film, in the photograph is a man who looks just like her husband Jack. When confronted Jack denies it, but disappears with the picture. Now Grace must sort out just what is going on, but she soon realizes that she is not the only on More...
Nov 15, 2010
Shell
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Grace Lawson has put her life back together after a tragedy at a pop concert left her severely wounded and 18 other young people dead. She has a nice house, loving husband and 2 wonderful children. When looking through some photographs she has just picked up from the developers, she finds a 15 year old photo of 5 young people, one of whom is her husband slipped in amongst them. She senses instantly that something is wrong and shows the picture to her husband, Jack. Without a word, Jack leave
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Nov 15, 2010
Tiffiane
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