Don't let go

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With unmatched suspense and emotional insight, Harlan Coben explores the big secrets and little lies that can destroy a relationship, a family, and even a town in this powerful thriller.Suburban New Jersey Detective Napoleon “Nap” Dumas hasn't been the same since senior year of high school, when his twin brother Leo and Leo’s girlfriend Diana were found dead on the railroad tracks—and Maura, the girl Nap considered the love of his life, broke up with him and disappeared without explanation. For fifteen years, Nap has been searching, both for Maura and for the real reason behind his brother's death. And now, it looks as though he may finally find what he's been looking for.  When Maura's fingerprints turn up in the rental car of a suspected murderer, Nap embarks on a quest for answers that only leads to more questions—about the woman he loved, about the childhood friends he thought he knew, about the abandoned military base near where he grew up, and mostly about Leo and Diana—whose deaths are darker and far more sinister than Nap ever dared imagine.

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9780525955115
9780698411661
9781501217678
9780525501510
UPC
9781501217678

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Similar Titles From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These books have the appeal factors suspenseful, fast-paced, and intricately plotted, and they have the genre "thrillers and suspense"; and the subjects "murder," "secrets," and "missing persons."
These books have the appeal factors suspenseful, fast-paced, and intricately plotted, and they have the subjects "secrets," "detectives," and "missing persons"; and characters that are "well-developed characters."
These books have the appeal factors suspenseful and fast-paced, and they have the genre "thrillers and suspense"; and the subjects "murder," "secrets," and "missing persons."
These books have the appeal factors suspenseful, fast-paced, and intricately plotted, and they have the genres "thrillers and suspense" and "psychological suspense"; and the subjects "secrets," "missing persons," and "deception."
Missing people and cold case murders are linked in these compelling novels featuring dogged cops and shattered lives. Though Don't Let Go is lightning-fast and After I'm Gone takes its time, both focus on the emotional fallout from long-held secrets. -- Mike Nilsson
These books have the appeal factors suspenseful and fast-paced, and they have the genre "thrillers and suspense"; and the subjects "murder," "detectives," and "missing persons."
When women vanish without a trace, the men in their lives uncover their secret pasts and, in the process, unearth the answers to larger mysteries. Don't Let Go is fast-paced and suspenseful while Watch Me Disappear is moodier and more intricate. -- Mike Nilsson
These books have the appeal factors suspenseful, fast-paced, and intricately plotted, and they have the genre "thrillers and suspense"; and the subjects "secrets," "detectives," and "missing persons."
These books have the appeal factors suspenseful, action-packed, and fast-paced, and they have the genre "thrillers and suspense"; and the subjects "murder," "secrets," and "brothers."
These books have the appeal factors suspenseful, fast-paced, and intricately plotted, and they have the genre "thrillers and suspense"; and the subjects "secrets," "missing persons," and "murder suspects."
These books have the genres "thrillers and suspense" and "adult books for young adults"; and the subjects "twins," "brothers," and "murder suspects."
These books have the appeal factors suspenseful, fast-paced, and intricately plotted, and they have the genre "thrillers and suspense"; and the subjects "murder," "secrets," and "missing persons."

Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
Like Harlan Coben, Don Winslow writes both suspense and mystery novels. Winslow's suspense is a little lighter in tone, but both authors create intriguing, sympathetic characters and quick, clever storylines. Winslow's mysteries are complicated and satisfactorily resolved, with plenty of snappy dialogue and humor, though they focus more on character than plot. -- Shauna Griffin
Both Thomas Perry and Harlan Coben's plots twist and turn and twist again with endings that often leave the reader breathless. Their works feature ordinary people faced with unexpected and devastating problems. -- Katherine Johnson
Both Gregg Hurwitz and Harlan Coben write compelling, often violent, tales of suspense featuring innocent, everyman protagonists placed in nightmare situations from which they must extricate themselves and their families. A breakneck pace drives these tales of secrets and revenge. -- Joyce Saricks
Sean Doolittle and Harlan Coben write standalone suspense stories that feature good people in trouble. The complex stories are character-driven and show how good people, by their poor choices, become entangled in murder. The stories are dark in tone and filled with action and violence. The suspense builds dramatically. -- Merle Jacob
Kathy Reichs and Harlan Coben write fast-paced, action-packed adult mysteries. Both authors have also created spin-off teen mystery series loosely related to their adult books. Though Reich's teen works tend more toward science fiction, teen protagonists confront danger at every turn in both authors' compelling, suspenseful books. -- Kelly White
Breakneck pacing, crafty characters, and twisting plots are three things readers of both Stuart Woods' mysteries and Harlan Coben's suspense novels will enjoy. -- Shauna Griffin
Sparkle Hayter's mysteries, which star hapless, saucy tabloid news reporter Robin Hudson, are lighter in tone than Harlen Coben's mysteries and have a little more exposition and description, but move quickly nonetheless. Readers will be drawn in by the zany humor and eccentric characters. -- Shauna Griffin
Readers who enjoy memorable characters and swiftly moving and engaging plots will find enjoy Harlan Coben and Brian Freeman's books. -- Shauna Griffin
Both Alison Gaylin and Harlan Coben write compelling, suspenseful tales of ordinary people caught up in terrible circumstances that, while out of the ordinary, somehow feel all too plausible. -- Shauna Griffin

Published Reviews

Booklist Review

Coben, an internationally best-selling thriller and mystery writer and holder of a trifecta of U.S. crime-writing awards (the Edgar, the Agatha, and the Shamus), misfires in this stand-alone mix of suspense novel and detective story. As with just about every Coben novel, this one starts with a wow of an opening, in which a meeting in a bar quickly takes a devastating wrong turn. The plot then turns to suburban New Jersey cop Nap Dumas, who knew the victim and investigates the murder. Dumas is about 30, still living in his father's home, constantly brooding about the death of his twin brother and the break-up with his girlfriend within days of each other, 15 years ago. Coben uses the device of having Dumas write in the second person to his dead brother, and unfortunately, all the expository You will remember quickly become trite. And he writes in an arthritic, Chandleresque tough-guy style (a woman has a neckline so deep it could tutor philosophy) that just doesn't fit a 30-year-old. The story itself sputters along on coincidence, rare for this master of plotting. For determined Coben fans. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Very few A-list crime writers can claim to have had 10 number-one New York Times best-sellers, but Coben can. His latest may be a misstep in many ways, but that won't stop the lines from forming to buy it.--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly Review

Coben's new protagonist, suburban New Jersey cop Nap Dumas, is a witty and heroic sleuth who is not afraid to break the law when it comes to giving woman-batterers a bit of their own back. Nap's everyday world is shaken up when he receives word that his high school crush Maura Wells's fingerprints were recently found near the murdered body of another schoolmate, a Pennsylvania cop. Maura disappeared 15 years ago on the same night Nap's twin brother, Leo, and his girlfriend, Diana, were killed by a speeding train. Always suspicious of Leo's "accidental" death, Nap is convinced Maura's abrupt departure was connected, and he's driven to find his lost love and discover what happened on that long-ago night. Actor Weber has perfected his sarcastic wise-guy delivery reading the author's Bolitar series. For much of Nap's narration, he only has to toughen it a little, but when the going gets rough, he effortlessly enters the full-out performance zone. Weber skillfully presents the detective's assorted witnesses, suspects, friends, and foes. But his major set piece is his enactment of Nap's ever-more-frantic thoughts and emotions during a torture scene at the end. It's convincing, chillingly effective, and award-worthy. A Dutton hardcover. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Library Journal Review

New Jersey detective Napoleon (Nap) Dumas has been brought into a neighboring county's investigation of a cop killing. Nap is questioned because the love of his life, Maura, whom he hasn't seen since high school, is a suspect. Although Maura has never been convicted of a crime, her fingerprints are in the database because Nap put them there. His obsession with finding her and the reason she left has consumed him for more than 15 years. Now the evidence indicates that there is a connection among the murdered police officer, Maura, and Nap's own twin brother, Leo, who was found dead along with his girlfriend in high school. As Nap searches for answers, he realizes there are even greater questions to ponder, and one of them is about his brother's death and if it really was an accident. Verdict Coben (Stay Close; Gone for Good) knows how to deliver an exciting thriller expertly. His latest novel is no exception. Longtime readers will be lining up for this new stand-alone and new fans will be made. [See Prepub Alert, 3/13/17.]-Cynthia Price, Francis Marion Univ. Lib., Florence, SC © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kirkus Book Review

A pair of present-day murders bring the past alive for a New Jersey cop still mourning the twin brother he buried 15 years ago.The last few weeks of high school often bring out the graduates' appetites for unaccustomed risky behavior. But no one in suburban Westbridge has ever been able to explain what Leo Dumas and his girlfriend, cheerleader Diana Styles, were doing on the railroad tracks that made them get hit by a train or why Maura Wells, the girlfriend of Leo's twin, Napoleon, "Nap," chose that night to disappear. Now, in one of those sudden lightning flashes only Coben (Home, 2016, etc.) could have thought of, that night comes roaring back with the discovery of Maura's fingerprints in a car driven by a murdered Pennsylvania cop. Sgt. Rex Canton was shot during what would have been a routine drunk-driving stop if Rex hadn't been off duty and specifically targeting the man who shot him. Detective Nap Dumas, who still regularly talks to his dead twin, knows he can't work an out-of-state homicide, even one that links Maura, his vanished girlfriend, once again to Rex, one of his high school classmates. In fact the connection is even deeper, for Leo, Diana, Maura, and Rex were all members of Westbrook High's Conspiracy Club, a group evidently designed to nurture the naturally anti-establishment paranoia of adolescents through the ages. When one of the club's two surviving membersHank Stroud, a math genius who's been wandering the streets of Westbridge for yearsis also murdered, Nap resolves to question the other survivor, Beth Lashley, who's now married, living in Ann Arbor, and practicing cardiology. He soon finds that Beth's resolve is equal to his own: she's separated from her husband, announced a professional sabbatical, and gone AWOL. What secret could the Conspiracy Club have discovered that would remain so dangerous for so long? Sadly, the answers are neither as interesting nor even as surprising as the setup. This may be the first time most of perennially bestselling Coben's readers will beat his hard-used hero to the solution. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Booklist Reviews

Coben, an internationally best-selling thriller and mystery writer and holder of a trifecta of U.S. crime-writing awards (the Edgar, the Agatha, and the Shamus), misfires in this stand-alone mix of suspense novel and detective story. As with just about every Coben novel, this one starts with a wow of an opening, in which a meeting in a bar quickly takes a devastating wrong turn. The plot then turns to suburban New Jersey cop Nap Dumas, who knew the victim and investigates the murder. Dumas is about 30, still living in his father's home, constantly brooding about the death of his twin brother and the break-up with his girlfriend within days of each other, 15 years ago. Coben uses the device of having Dumas write in the second person to his dead brother, and unfortunately, all the expository "You will remember" quickly become trite. And he writes in an arthritic, Chandleresque tough-guy style (a woman has a "neckline so deep it could tutor philosophy") that just doesn't fit a 30-year-old. The story itself sputters along on coincidence, rare for this master of plotting. For determined Coben fans.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Very few A-list crime writers can claim to have had 10 number-one New York Times best-sellers, but Coben can. His latest may be a misstep in many ways, but that won't stop the lines from forming to buy it. Copyright 2017 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2017 Booklist Reviews.
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Library Journal Reviews

Since he's the author of ten consecutive No. 1 New York Times best sellers and a winner of the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony awards to boot, it would be nice to know plot details here. No such luck, but I can report that it's a stand-alone.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal.
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LJ Express Reviews

New Jersey detective Napoleon (Nap) Dumas has been brought into a neighboring county's investigation of a cop killing. Nap is questioned because the love of his life, Maura, whom he hasn't seen since high school, is a suspect. Although Maura has never been convicted of a crime, her fingerprints are in the database because Nap put them there. His obsession with finding her and the reason she left has consumed him for more than 15 years. Now the evidence indicates that there is a connection among the murdered police officer, Maura, and Nap's own twin brother, Leo, who was found dead along with his girlfriend in high school. As Nap searches for answers, he realizes there are even greater questions to ponder, and one of them is about his brother's death and if it really was an accident. Verdict Coben (Stay Close; Gone for Good) knows how to deliver an exciting thriller expertly. His latest novel is no exception. Longtime readers will be lining up for this new stand-alone and new fans will be made. [See Prepub Alert, 3/13/17.]—Cynthia Price, Francis Marion Univ. Lib., Florence, SC (c) Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews

New Jersey cop Nap Dumas, the hero of this outstanding standalone from bestseller Coben (Fool Me Once), is shocked to learn that fingerprints at the scene of a crime—the shooting death of a fellow cop and high school classmate during a traffic stop—belong to Maura Wells, Nap's high school sweetheart, who disappeared 15 years earlier. Maura went missing at the same time that Nap's twin, Leo, and Leo's girlfriend, Diana Styles, were hit and killed by a train. Maura's reappearance sends Nap to see Augie Styles, Diana's father, a police captain and his mentor. Nap comes to suspect that the deaths of Leo and Diana may not have been an accident and are connected to a secret military base that they and a few other students called the Conspiracy Club were investigating at the time. When Nap begins tracking the surviving club members, it gradually becomes clear that someone or something is now trying to eliminate them. Coben keeps Nap and the reader blindly guessing as he peels back layers of deceit reaching back 15 years, revealing nesting dolls of deadly secrets. Five-city author tour. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest Literary Agency (Sept.)

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Copyright 2017 Publisher Weekly.
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