Harlan Coben - No Second Chance (2003)
"If you contact the authorities, we disappear. You will never know what happened to her. We will be watching. We want two million dollars. Get the money ready. Go home and wait. There will be no second chance."
Dr. Marc Seidman lives a well ordered, ordinary life. He's a respected plastic surgeon who works mostly on kids with deformities. He has a nice middle-class existence in the suburbs with a wife and a 6-month-old daughter. Things are going along smoothly until, in the blink of an eye, everything is changed forever.
The Seidman family are the victims of a horrific attack, the aftermath of which leaves their beloved daughter Tara missing. Marc realizes every parent's worst nightmare and his feeling of helplessness is acute. A doctor used to saving other people's children, he now fears losing his own.
From the very beginning of the story, Coben lets his readers know that they are in for a tense ride. "When the first bullet hit my chest, I thought of my daughter." The plot moves at near lightning speed after that stunning first line, only occasionally slowing down to fill in the blanks.
At times the suspense in No Second Chance is almost painful, so finely tuned is the feeling of desperation and jeopardy. Interestingly, it is not with guns and car chases that the author crafts his tightly wound plot--although the book does have some of those--but rather with feeling and emotion, raw pain and anguish that become the reader's as well as the characters'.
One of the usual trade-offs for a story of such rapid momentum is any kind of meaningful characterization, and that is the case here. Dr. Seidman is too often unbelievable in his actions, and he seems to develop little throughout the course of the book, despite the world-shattering things that happen to him. The more we get to know Marc Seidman, the more we learn that there just isn't a whole lot there.
His helper in much of the drama, former FBI agent Rachel Mills (who is also his former lover), is likewise one-dimensional, to the point where we're never really sure who she is or what she's doing. This is also a problem with some other secondary characters who pop up in the story. (An old classmate from high school who used to live in the Seidman's house is particularly weak.) These walk-ons end up feeling more like plot devices than actual people.
Putting aside the book's various weaknesses still leaves the gripping plot, which is likely to hold the interest of all but the most critical readers. The author certainly knows how to tighten the screws on his audience, and he does so with agonizing regularity throughout. True, a more careful read might reveal the story's flaws and some holes that never quite get filled. But a book like this is supposed to be read quickly, and doing so is sure to keep you entertained and racing towards the surprising ending.
Harlan Coben is probably best known for his series of books featuring sports agent-detective Myron Bolitar (Deal Breaker, etc.), but he continues to earn acclaim for his stand-alone thrillers, of which No Second Chance is the third in a row (following the similarly themed Tell No One and Gone for Good). Although this latest work is an improvement over the previous two, Coben's fans can't help long for the glory days of Bolitar. Here's hoping he'll return soon.
Posted by David J. Montgomery in Book Reviews | Permalink
