A few weeks ago, I rhapsodized about Harlan Coben’s “No Second Chance.” Well, I wanted a second chance to be taken on a gut-wrenching Cobenesque literary trek, so I picked up and quickly devoured his latest novel: “Just One Look.” He continues to defend his title as a champion storyteller. Dan Brown, no stranger to weaving taut tales of terror himself, calls Coben “the modern master of the hook-and-twist – luring you in on the first page only to shock you on the last.”
In this latest offering, Coben focuses on a fictional “Boston Massacre” – not the one where Crispus Attucks fell to the Redcoats, but a deadly stampede at a rock concert in the old Boston Garden that was triggered by gunfire. Coben guides us through a serpentine series of plot twists, introducing us along the way to a fascinating menagerie of characters – Jack, Grace, Cram, Sandy, Rocky, et al. Throw in a soupcon of double identity, add a dash of kidnapping, fortify with a meaty organized crime figure with a soft spot in his heart for one of the protagonists – and you have a tasty bouillabaisse of a pot-boiler fit for the taste buds of any discriminating reader of the crime genre of novel.
Enjoy!
Al
Thank you Al!
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