Harlan Coben is one of my favorite mystery authors. His plots are intricate, and his characters are fully formed. He keeps the reader guessing and usually ends with a shocking surprise. That is all true in No Second Chance.
The book opens with Marc Seidman, a surgeon, waking up in the hospital, recovering from a gunshot wound that nearly killed him. He learns that his wife was killed in the attack and his infant daughter is missing. He soon receives a ransom note and, with his father-in-law’s generous help, pays a $2M ransom to recover his daughter. But Seidman, in violation of the kidnapper’s demands, involves the police. The kidnappers get spooked and make off with the money without returning the daughter. A subsequent phone call tells Seidman that he will get “no second chance.”
That is almost the case. But 18 months after the failed ransom drop, he receives a phone call giving him that second chance – for another $2M. In those 18 months the police have developed a theory that Seidman was responsible for his wife’s death and that the ransom demand was just a way to extract money from his father-in-law. They lack proof but they are suspicious. For this reason and others Seidman does not involve the police in the second ransom. Instead he contacts his old flame, Rachel, an ex-FBI agent, to assist. Things go badly again. Both Marc and Rachel are injured, the money is again lost and his daughter again is not returned. But the police uncover evidence that Rachel is involved in the murder/kidnapping. Who is Seidman to trust?
This is a deep plot with many twists and turns. But all of those twists are very plausible. A well-conceived plot in a well-written book. Classic Coben.
9 out of 10.
