Tell No One
by Harlan Coben
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Book Reviews of Tell No One
Book Review: Tell No One
Summary: 5 Stars
Are you ready to go on a bone chilling heart racing quest? Well in the book "Tell No One" by Harlan Coben you do just hat. This mystery takes placefirst at Lake Charmaine and later in Manhattan. Dr. David Beck a serious obsetrician who's remined every day for the past eight years the heart-breaking tragedy of his wife's disapearance. "I keep on hearing the gleam lake, the pale moonlight, and the piercing screamsof the night shewas taken". Everyone tells him it's time move o, to forget about the past once and for all. But for David Beck there can be no closure. One day a message appearded on his computer, a phase only him and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is faced with the impossible that some where, and somehow, his wife is alive. And he's been warned to "Tell No One".
Harlan Coben author of "Tell No One" used tons of realisticdetail. He saids "There should have been a dark whisper in the wind". Also, Harlan Caoben used humor threw out the whole book. He saids, This was Homer Simpson as in the TV show The Simpsons. Alot of things go on in this book but the main problem is that Dr. David Beck's wife Elizabeth has been taken fromthe Lake on their anniversary. He does not no if she is died or aliv. Eight years go by and all of a sudden Dr. Beck gets a email, a message with a phrase only he and his wife know. The comparisons with other books and genres are really differnt. Like in the book "Little Women" its sad, back in the early 1900's, and mainly a love story. And in "Tell No One" its up to date, a thriller, and full of suspense. This book is very differnt from other mystery books. For example, in "The Hardy Boy" series, they have books based on finding ghost, and coal-mine robbers, and is more of a out-doorsy missions. And "Tell No One" is more like CSI Miami and suspensly hair raising, bone chilling mystery. "The Hardy Boy's"books are anmatures compared to "Tell No One". Their are a few comparisons with works by the same author. Harlan Coben's book "Gone For Good" is a novel of suspense just like "Tell No One" and thats how the compare. Lastly, I love Harlan Coben's use of style. He has a very crative style, he uses alot of personification and metaphors. His use of tones and the characters attiudes are writtin very well. And he makes you feel right here investigating.
I believe anyone who likes mysteries, and drama will like this book. And why is because once you start this book you can not put it down. I felt like I was right there in the book, I thought the book end great.The book just kept getting better and better. My reading process was good I picked it up and read the back page summary and was instantly hooked.I read it nonstop from the very first page to the very last!
Book Review: Top o' the Trash Heap? Or a Two Way Street?
Summary: 4 Stars
After reading Coben's "No 2nd Chance," I was convinced I'd found a new favorite in an author. Favorite authors can be difficult to come by these days. But then I read "Deal Breaker," Coben's first Myron Bolitar mystery, and it had a pretty pukey aftertaste. One book is a possible favorite, the other would taste like puke if served up as an entree. What's a man to do but give Harlan Coben another chance, right? I had a few to choose from, and I chose "Tell No One." Well, I'll say right away that the prologue and first chapter immediately pissed me off. That's not a good start. But on the other hand, Harlan Coben is a bestselling author, and other authors such as Dan Brown and Jeffrey Deaver endorse his work. HMM. Does that make him a great author? We'll get to that later.
Now in all honesty, Coben's a master storyteller, there's no denying that. And he does that with the good Doctor, David Beck, weaving together a web that isn't about to untangle itself! This is about a love lost, and a hope that burns deep, never willing to put out the flame. Beck's wife was taken from him, and everything he thought he'd lost just may give him an 8 year glimmer of hope. Is his wife, Elizabeth, actually alive? Just maybe. But there is one catch...TELL NO ONE! You wanna play games? Then make sure you make the right move, because somebody will always be watching! Oh yeah, Harlan Coben puts together a story that makes a thinking person think even more. And the ending is electrifying, and highly satisfying!
But back to my original question. Is he really that great of an author? I guess he is pretty slick! But in his own way he is highly deliberate. He lets you know what kind of company he keeps through his writing. He makes for certain that there is no mistaking what you read in his works. For some authors that's great. For Harlan Coben, that's great. But where does that put him? With "Deal Breaker," he was at the top of some trash heap, if you ask me. And as far as best-selling authors endorsing his work? Oh well, that's nice. I know what pissed me off in this, and there's no need for me to hash and re-hash. But I know. And even though it did get under my skin, it showed some minor humanity. And even a little bit of humanity, combined with a great story is enough for another look. For me it is kind of a two way street. There were some things that got on my nerves, but there was even more that I liked. Am I right? Will I enjoy Coben other works and offerings? I've got "Gone For Good" and "The Innocent" waiting on my shelf to find that out.
Book Review: Nearly Perfect Thriller, but Too Many Balls in the Air
Summary: 4 Stars
The tension and drama in "Tell No One" begins from the first page. Author Harlan Coben has written a gripping thriller that grabs readers and keeps them enthralled until nearly the story's end, with a unique twist on the killer that you won't see coming.
The story opens with a married couple, David and Elizabeth Beck, who have gone off to their family cabin in the woods to celebrate their anniversary. While skinny dipping at the lake after dark, an incident occurs that will change the course of their lives. Elizabeth is kidnapped, David is knocked out and left for dead. All this is mere prologue to the real story, however.
Eight years later, after Elizabeth's body has been found, and the killer imprisoned for a series of murders of young women, David receives an email message from his dead wife. By now he is working as a doctor in an impoverished New York neighborhood, but he is still haunted by the loss of Elizabeth, whom he has known since childhood. At first he thinks it must be a cruel joke, but the email shakes David to his core because the email contains information so specific that no one else except his wife could have written it. And the final warning that comes in the message: "Tell No One" is the book's title.
A later email arrives along with a link to a street camera, and for the first time, David thinks he sees a woman who could only be his wife. His sister's partner, a close friend who's familiar with the world of advertising, tries to show David that the image could have been a manipulation of videotape. Yet David will continue to pursue the clues...to their deadly end.
Along the way, both old and new plots will develop, bodies will be found at the lake house, David will be accused of murder, and a local gangsta (whose son David has been treating medically) will come to his rescue as David is pursued both by police and unknown thugs who are out to kill him. As the tension builds and bodies pile up, new clues and questions emerge. Everyone appears to be hiding something: Elizabeth, her family, her friends, and David himself.
It's a taut, tense journey from beginning to end. At some point near the end, the story becomes so convoluted that the author loses some of his game, trying to keep all those balls in the air until the story's end. He does it, but he weakens the plot slightly. Overall, however, it's a gripping journey into the lies families tell each other and a great read.
Book Review: I Didn't Rush Out To Tell Anyone about "Tell No One"
Summary: 3 Stars
Let me begin by saying that I am not a major fan of suspense-thriller novels, so I read this book after my wife walked away from it feeling confused and disappointed. I was intrigued by the fragments of the story she shared with me, and so I picked it up and gave it a read.The novel, "Tell No One" by Harlan Coben, is a somewhat dis-jointed novel about a husband who loses his wife while on a getaway with her at a family cabin. He is attacked and left for dead, and when he recovers, he discovers his wife is taken.
Eight years later, having long believed that his wife is dead, he receives a strange Email that suggests that she is anything but. Before long, the story delves into a tale of deceit, murder, corruption which ultimately leads the husband into a world that put his life in great peril.
Sounds like fun, doesn't it?
It is, but the novel, written partially in the first person, partially in the third, reads more like a screenplay than a novel. The characters are shallow, with little or no development which often leaves the reader feeling indifferent about the situations they are placed in. Coben's ability to depict some of the graphic acts taken on various characters throughout the novel read more like a "how-to" manual than descriptive narrative, leaving the reader feeling grossed out and unsettled (which may be the desired effect), but his inability to translate that method of storytelling to the thoughts and motivations of his characters again leave the reader feeling unsympathetic to the plight of the victims.
To his credit, this story moves quickly, and does not drone on with the exposition so many writers of this genre employ, placing and presenting background for the situations and events in a way that can often bore the reader, or be insulting to their intelligence, but I think this novel could have used a little character expositon to give them depth and belivability.
For those looking for an incredible, unbelievable story that they can escape into for a few hours, this novel is probably for you. However, do not expect it to be a great literary work-its not. Its very predictable, relying on graphic violence to fill the void of genuine suspense. If you are looking for a more intense novel in this genre, try Thomas Harris's "Lecter" novels. They hit the mark far more solidly than this effort.
Scott Kolecki
Book Review: Tell Everyone To Skip This Book
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm sure I've read worse books than Harlan Coben's "Tell No One", but at the moment, I'm hard-pressed to think of one. James Patterson's "When the Wind Blows" is certainly in the running. "Tell No One" is about a thirty-ish New York pediatrician whose wife had ostensibly been murdered,eight years before, by a serial killer while the childhood sweethearts were frolicking at his grandfather's abandoned summer camp. Suddenly the good doctor begins receiving e-mails from his presumably dead wife containing information only the two of them could have known. So far, so good.Coben has us genuinely intrigued and engrossed in this "Diabolique"-like scenario. From this exposition the book goes downhill, as a convoluted, far-fetched plot shot through with holes confusingly weaves through enough layers of ruling class corruption, cover-ups, deceptions and "surprises" to suffice for a dozen potboilers of this ilk. Unfortunately, Coben's writing "style"-to use the word advisably- is all too well-suited to this at time laughably implausible yarn. Aside from his confusing switching from first to third person, to say Coben's prose is as spare as it is pedestrian is like observing that Al Roker could stand to lose a pound or two. Now, there's nothing wrong with bare-bones prose when utilized by a master such as Hemingway, for whom less was more. Sadly,in Coben's case less is even lesser. This third-rate prose style is further sabotaged by the author's relentless penchant for shopworn cliches and similes and metaphors so egregious that even the likes of Mickey Spillane wouldn't think twice about blue-penciling them.Thus, we are treated for lines like "His pounding heart was like a bird desperately trying to escape from a cage.", or "the shocking realization hit him like a falling piano." Plot contrivances abound, along with the de rigeur stock characters infesting this genre: the politically correct creation of characters such as the lesbian couple raising a child(the doctor's sister is gay), and our hero's tough, felonious, yet supportive and protective Afro-American drug dealer allies -really a patronizing, modern update on the "noble savage". As "Tell No One" tripped, stumbled and fell toward its predictable climax,I was already envisioning the mediocre, yet unreasonably profitable film that will no doubt ensue from this dismal fare. Don't fail to miss it!