Harlan Coben: The John Irving of Thrillers

I just finished my first Harlan Coben book. I’d seen his name on the shelves of the local bookstore for quite some time (usually when I was looking for a new book by Tim Cockey); but never picked one up. I’d seen the trailer for a French film based on one of his books that looked really good, but I never made the leap to reading him. Now that I have, I plan on reading his complete oeuvre ( I may have just misused that fancy word there).

So far, so great. Although having picked up a second novel it seems that much like Irving (wrestling, boarding school, infidelity) he has several themes/actions that appear in all if not most novels. So far he seems to really like protagonists that are Doctors and live in NJ. They also have childhood reminiscences of bullied children and guilt about it. Usually they have one parent involved in some awful tragedy.

I can heartily recommend NO SECOND CHANCES, and I’m about twenty chapters deep into HOLD ON TIGHT.

So far, it looks like Mr. Coben has made a new fan.

~ by chrismcdevitt on October 27, 2009.