Tell No One in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Sep 22, 2011 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it it was ok

Shelves: crime, novels, mystery, contemporary, fiction, suspense, ultimate-reading-list

I tried this because it was on the Ultimate Reading List for Suspense, and that's the only reason I gave it over fifty pages, because the writing here, oh, it is painful in a way that I can't believe this is just a weak book for this author, but the work of a hack. No sappy cliche is left unwritten. There are popular thriller writers who can boast strong prose--Dean Koontz and Dennis Lehane spring to mind. Coben is evidently not one of them. The way he bounces between first and third person and I tried this because it was on the Ultimate Reading List for Suspense, and that's the only reason I gave it over fifty pages, because the writing here, oh, it is painful in a way that I can't believe this is just a weak book for this author, but the work of a hack. No sappy cliche is left unwritten. There are popular thriller writers who can boast strong prose--Dean Koontz and Dennis Lehane spring to mind. Coben is evidently not one of them. The way he bounces between first and third person and his pedestrian prose reminded me of James Patterson.

I can live with pedestrian prose if the characters are vivid creations or the plot really clever. However... The hero? A pediatrician, David Beck, who works in the inner city who says he tries not to play "Benevolent White Man" (I kid you not, the character uses that phrase to describe himself.) He has a lesbian sister who has a son she conceived through artificial insemination she's raising together with her partner, a plus-size model. All police officers in the book are pot-bellied, big nosed thuggish fascistic morons (but the neighborhood drug dealer has a heart of gold). The villain? An Eeeeevil billionaire. What else? If you're liberal, you may very well find the socio-political sensibility condescending, and if conservative, unbearably PC. I managed to find it both.

I'll say this for the novel. If I read past page 50 because of the recommendation, I kept reading because Coben does a good storytelling striptease. Thus the (generous) two stars. I once read that the key to any novel is control of information, and I think that's never truer than with a suspense or mystery novel. This one does have an intriguing premise. Eight years ago Beck's wife and sweetheart from childhood, Elizabeth, was seemingly killed by a serial killer. Except on the anniversary of her disappearance Beck is sent an email with a link to a live webcam on a busy city street. And when he clicks there on the screen is his wife looking back at him. Coben throws us just enough intriguing tidbits every once in a while that I kept reading to find out what was at the bottom of the mystery.

So, last straw? That the ending to me was such a cheat I wanted to throw the book against the wall. The worse kind of trashy book is the kind to make me read for hundreds of pages and then makes me soooo sorry for every hour of my life I'm not getting back. ...more

13 likes · Like · see review