Play Dead by Harlan Coben - 3.5 stars rounded up to 4

[Ellen]

David Baskin is a basketball phenom playing for the Boston Celtics. Laura Ayers is a retired supermodel who now runs her own fashion empire. When the two meet there is instant attraction and before long the two have eloped to Australia for a quiet honeymoon. Laura's mother had been adamantly against the pairing but could not give Laura a plausible reason for her objections. Suddenly Laura finds herself widowed on her honeymoon as David has drowned in a vicious riptide. When she returns to the US, Laura is unable to shake the feeling that David cannot possibly be gone.

Six months later a previously unknown basketball player tries out for the Celtics and easily makes the team. Mark is quiet, nearly to the point of rudeness, but has amazing skills. Laura's Aunt Judy, a dedicated basketball fan, cannot get over the similarities between David and Mark's ball play. Her suspicions serve to start in motion a killing spree that has its' roots 30 years ago. Someone has a deep secret they are willing to kill to keep hidden.

In a short letter at the beginning of the book, Coben warns that his debut novel was written when he was quite young and had not found his writing chops as yet. Despite this, it is a good story with a lot of interesting characters. One important secret seems a tad implausible but it doesn't take away from the suspense of the novel.