Stay Close

by Harlan Coben

Harlan Coben masterfully demonstrates his trademark combination of page-turning thrills and unrivaled insight into the dark shadows that creep into even the happiest communities...

Megan is a suburban soccer mom who once upon a time walked on the wild side. Now she's got two kids, a perfect husband, a house with a picket fence, and a growing sense of dissatisfaction. Ray used to be a talented documentary photographer, but at the age of forty he finds himself in a dead-end job posing as a paparazzo pandering to celebrity-obsessed rich kids. Broome is a detective who can't let go of a cold case - a local husband and father who disappeared seventeen years ago - and spends the anniversary every year visiting a house frozen in time, the missing man's family still waiting, his slippers left by the recliner as if he might show up any moment to step into them.

Three people living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect, will find that the past never truly fades away. Even as the terrible consequences of long-ago events crash together in the present and threaten to ruin lives, they will come to the startling realisation that they may not want to forget the past at all. And as each confronts the dark side of the American Dream - the boredom of suburban life, the thrill of temptation, the desperation that can lurk behind even the prettiest facades - they will discover the hard truth that the line between one kind of life and another can be as whisper thin as a heartbeat...

• ISBN10: 0525952276
• ISBN13: 9780525952275
• Publish Date: 20 March 2012 (first published 1 March 2012)
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Out of Print: 27 August 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Dutton Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 387
• Language: English

Reviews

[ibeforem]

This was a decent Coben stand-alone, but in my opinion, far from his best.

Megan is a run-of-the-mill so, ccer mom in suburban New Jersey, except she has a secret. She used to be a stripper, and for years, she's been on the run from a terrible event in her past. Except history is repeating itself and the urge to return to her past life is getting stronger.

Basically, men who are treating women badly are turning up dead, and the prime suspect is Megan's ex-boyfriend, a once-successful photographer who has now lowered himself to being hired as fake paparazzi. There are several twists and turns, and while I found the final resolution satisfying, there was something missing in the journey.

I think I just didn't connect that well to Megan. She claims to love her family (a husband and two children), but you don't really see it or feel it much. She seems to long for the excitement and lack of stability she used to have as opposed to the secure and fortunate life she currently has, and I couldn't relate. So if you've never read Coben, this probably isn't the place to start. Pick up Tell No One or The Woods instead.