Hold Tight

There is one thing you can always count on when you read a Harlan Coben novel - There is no way you will find it boring. His books are always fast-paced page turners, and Hold Tight is no exception. Coben returned to his former glory with this one, as I feel his slight diversion from his usual style in The Woods didn't really work effectively. Hold Tight reverted back to the familiar formula that has made him a huge success in this genre.

If you have never read a Harlan Coben novel before and you are contemplating reading Hold Tight as your first Coben experience, then prepare for one hell of a ride. Make sure you have a decent allotment of free time before you start to read it, because once you start you won't want to stop until you reach the gripping conclusion. Seemingly unconnected plots and characters weave in and out throughout the course of this book, and it always keeps you guessing right up to the last few pages.

I've now read about eight Coben novels, and while I'm starting to be able to somewhat predict the 'plot formula' somewhat, they are always a fun read and I never decipher all the answers before they are revealed.

Darren G. Burton

Real Life Dramas - Volume One

I enjoy Harlan Coben's work a lot. I've been reading him for years. The Myron Bolitar novels remind me a lot of Robert B. Parker's Spenser series, and I love Myron's sidekick, Win - one of the deadliest, coldest guys in the room.

When Coben shelved the Bolitar series, temporarily, and started doing the stand-alone thrillers, I wasn't too keen on the idea. However, TELL NO ONE made an instant believer of me and introduced me to another side of the author's bag of tricks. Nobody writes thrillers like Coben does.

Except Coben himself. He's written other novels in a similar vein, all with vicious little twists. Which is a problem only if you've gotten to looking for those twists and have stopped believing in what the author is doing. Most of those plot zingers require the reader to not be looking for them. Admittedly, I have been.

But just when I'd become wary of Coben's writing style and got harder to fool, he changes his writing yet again in HOLD TIGHT. Coben dives deeply into the parental pool in this novel, bringing up and discussing all the myriad questions parents have to deal with on a daily basis when it comes to protecting and guiding children. How much supervision is too much? How much is too little? How does a parent control what information a child receives about sex, drugs, and rock and roll when that information is out there on the street? And next door?

Coben is a caring parent. I understood that by reading between the lines. His previous books show that as well. I met him once at a BoucherCon. He's an entertaining and giving guy, the kind of author readers love to meet.

During the course of the novel, Coben also takes his readers on a tour de force of the software that's available out there to help watch over your child. I have to admit, I thought a lot of it was really invasive and would never do it. However, just how far would you go as a parent to protect your child? That question keeps bouncing back through the frantic course of the novel. Every time I thought I had an answer, Coben threw something else at me till I didn't know what I would do.

Much of the action centers around the Baye family. Mike and Tia are a doctor and lawyer respectively. They're educated and caring people. However, their teenage son has become something of a concern to them: he's moody and withdrawn. Compounding those normal worries that plague parents through a child's adolescence is the fact that Adam's best friend recently committed suicide. Mike and Tia are understandably concerned.

As a result of the breakdown in communication, Tia talks Mike into putting spyware on Adam's computer. That eventually triggers a landslide of no-return regarding their relationships. Adam goes missing, and the parents frantically try to find him. That same night, Mike is beaten and almost killed in an alley while trying to follow the son of a local policeman and one of Adam's school buddies.

But that's just the main plot. Coben introduces a lot of other characters with equally compelling storylines, and none of them seem to really touch on each other. When they do, and Coben pulls them together nicely, it's amazing how much a community actually impinges on each other without knowing it - especially when they have kids.

I was dazzled by the intricacy of the plot in the end, but I literally had to keep a scorecard to remember who was doing what to whom. Coben is an excellent writer when building character, but there were just so many of them in this novel that I felt overwhelmed at times.

HOLD TIGHT is an excellent novel, though. It provides sleek writing that will take you out of your everyday world (though by exposing you to your worst fears if you're a parent), thought-provoking subtext, and a story that will impact you for a long time afterwards. This is one you're going to want to read, think about, and talk to other readers about.

Another book that came into the library recently that was on my hold list was Harlan Coben latest novel, Hold Tight. This book kept me reading a bit past my bedtime. The action was constant and tight, although the plot was a bit difficult to keep straight at times. There are a lot of different stories that come together at the end, and occasionally it's hard to remember just who is who...

Mike and Tia Baye are struggling with their son, Adam. He's becoming more withdrawn and sullen, and the parents decide to monitor his computer to see what's going on. This monitoring reveals that Adam is keeping some sort of secret, and he decides to run away to attend a party rather than obey his father and go to a hockey game with him. Mike puts everything on the line to find Adam and reunite the family. Meanwhile, there are a number of other stories going on... A psychotic killer is picking seemingly random women off the street and killing them in a very gruesome manner, all to find out some information that he believes they hold. Another father is furious with his small daughter's teacher, as he made a snide comment about the child's physical appearance that has made her the target of ridicule at school. The teacher is someone who has always taken pride in his work, and the comment was something he highly regrets. But he also realizes that his mistake could cost him his career. All these stories (and a few others) swirl along at their own pace, and slowly start to come together as the relationships between the characters start to reveal themselves.

As I mentioned, the action was constant and the characters drew me into their struggles. I think every parent can empathize with understanding a withdrawn child, especially when it appears that there might be a life-threatening situation developing. I would have preferred see the plots start to intersect sooner in a way that started to hint at the relationships involved. As it was, things were kept up in the air until nearly the very end. And even at the end, a major twist happens that causes a few readjustments in the mindset of the reader. Hold Tight is an enjoyable read, so make sure you have some uninterrupted time before you get started...

Wow, wow, WOW! I challenge anyone to begin this book and then manage to put it down before the very end. Reading it is like eating Lay's potato chips... you can't read just one (page, that is!).

Gripping, exciting, interesting, unique... what appears to be two or three separate stories weave in, out and around each other until the final pages, when all is wrapped up... but not in an unbelievable, deus ex machina way, but in a "Oh my gosh, so THAT'S what was happening" way. I loved the juxtaposition of modern technology with the age-old concerns of parents -- how to, and how much to, protect our kids.

Some best-selling authors rest on their past accomplishments, with successive books becoming thinner in the plot and thicker in the page count. Kudos to Coben for raising the bar again and again.

A typically great thriller from the master Harlan Coben. This one really makes you think about how you raise your children and how much privacy you should give them. As usual, this is an exciting page turner that will stay with you long after you finish the final page. It give you some closure to The Woods as well, wrapping up the Cope/Lucy story.