Cheat Sheet for Writing A Harlan Coben novel:
-an event that happened a long time ago that affected the lives of the loved ones
-one pretty hip guy who is quick with wit and sarcasm
-main character must be a professional white male who helps inner-city black characters-it's ok to throw out all stereotypes possible, as long as the main character justifies it by performing his civic duty of helping them out
-add a ballsy female side-kick, and give her at least one manly characteristic (if she's not lesbian, then make sure to also...
-add a homosexual character into the mix
-make sure to add a powerful, rich man who tries to give the hero a hard time
-location to use: the woods-it's a great place to hide a crime where evidence can easily be hidden and not have witnesses; that way you can make an unsolvable murder take place that will come back to haunt the hero later on
-the hero will start getting cryptic messages or emails that can't be possilble because the sender has been presumed to be dead for years
-an undertone of could the hero have been the murderer?
-what big secret did the presumed-to-be-dead character run away from?
-an ending they never saw coming even if it doesn't quite wrap up nicely

I'm sure I could probably add more, but these are just some of the points I could remember. To be fair to Mr. Coben, I have only read two of his books, the other one being "Tell No One". Both read at the same fast pace and with the same voice for the main character. I gave it two stars only because Mr. Coben does get you hooked into the story right away and I couldn't seem to put it down once I started reading . However as I kept reading this book, I kept noticing how similar it was to Tell No One. I began to think that somewhere in his desk, Mr. Coben has a list written out on a yellow legal pad sheet on how to write a suspenseful novel. If I used all the elements listed too, could I pull off writing a successful novel too? I wonder. The ending was not wrapped up for me as it felt like the author was trying to give it a "mouth-hanging shocker ending that you never saw coming". In the end, it just left me feeling that I don't ever have to read another Harlan Coben book again because I'll be left with a feeling of "I've read this before".