Publishers Weekly
01/13/2020
This subpar thriller from Edgar winner Coben (the Myron Bolitar series) pairs an improbable lead with an improbable plot. In 1986, a boy, who looks to be between six and eight years old, is found living on his own in the woods near Westville, N.J. Flash forward 34 years. The boy is now known simply as Wilde, “a beautiful man with his dark sun-kissed complexion, his build of coiled muscles, his forearms looking like high tension wires.” Wilde is also a genius and a brilliant PI. His detective skills are called upon after his late best friend’s mother, celebrity lawyer Hester Crimstein, learns from her teenage grandson that a bullied classmate of her grandson, Naomi Pine, has disappeared from her Westville home. Naomi’s father falsely claims that his daughter went to visit her mother, raising suspicions of foul play. Naomi’s story is somehow connected with the presidential aspirations of Sen. Rusty Eggers, a nihilistic tyrant viewed by some on the left as even more of a threat to America than Donald Trump, a hard-to-swallow plotline that Coben does nothing to make feel plausible. This gifted author is capable of better. 7-city author tour. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
"Gripping . . . a must-read."—9to5Toys
Library Journal
★ 03/01/2020
In 1986, a young boy was found living in the woods in Ramapo Mountain State Park in New Jersey. He was about six to eight years old, spoke English, but had no idea of his name. Thirty years later, Wilde, who was adpoted and raised by criminal defense attorney Hester Crimstein, still prefers being outside. When a teen girl, Naomi, who had been cruelly bullied goes missing, Hester broadcasts about the case on her television show and asks Wilde to help with the search. The investigation takes Wilde and Hester deep into the ugly underbelly of wealthy elites who never face repercussions for their actions. Wilde soon realizes that the secrets he's uncovering could destroy more than one girl's life. This riveting, action-packed novel by the author of the best-selling Run Away is intense from the first page, with dramatic plot twists eerily reminiscent of current political and social scandals. VERDICT Fans of complex heroes caught up in world-changing events will relish this latest from a master storyteller. [See Prepub Alert, 8/25/19.]—Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN
MARCH 2020 - AudioFile
Steven Weber returns to narrate the newest Harlan Coben thriller. The Weber-Coben pairing makes for a super suspenseful listen. When his classmate goes missing, Matthew Crimstein turns to his grandmother, Hester, for help. Hester, a feisty criminal lawyer and TV personality, engages Wilde, a private detective of sorts, who was discovered years ago living on his own as a child in the woods. Weber masterfully gives Hester a big attitude and a strong New York accent. His acting talents also shine in his performance of sulky, awkward teenagers and class bullies. Weber is perfectly in step with the pace of the action, which is interspersed with touching relationship scenes and terrifying depictions of the vulnerability that arises from our reliance on social media for our facts. E.Q. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2019-12-23
Coben's latest darkest-suburbs thriller sets a decidedly offbeat detective on the trail of a crime with overtones unmistakably redolent of once and future presidential elections.
Wilde is called Wilde because nobody's known his real name from the moment a pair of hikers found him foraging for himself in Ramapo Mountain State Forest 24 years ago. Now over 40, he's had experience as both a lost boy and a private investigator. That makes him an obvious person to help when his godson, Sweet Water High School student Matthew Crimstein, expresses concern to his grandmother, attorney Hester Crimstein, that his bullied classmate Naomi Pine has gone missing. Matthew doesn't really want anyone to help. He doesn't even want anyone to notice his agitation. But Hester, taking the time from her criminal defense of financial consultant Simon Greene (Run Away, 2019) to worm the details out of him, asks Wilde to lend a hand, and sure enough, Wilde, unearthing an unsavory backstory that links Naomi to bullying classmate Crash Maynard, whose TV producer father, Dash Maynard, is close friends with reality TV star-turned-presidential hopeful Rusty Eggers, finds Naomi hale and hearty. Everything's hunky-dory for one week, and then she disappears again. And this time, so does Crash after a brief visit to Matthew in which he tearfully confesses his guilt about the bad stuff he did to Naomi. This second disappearance veers into more obviously criminal territory with the arrival of a ransom note that demands, not money, but the allegedly incriminating videotapes of Rusty Eggers that Dash and Delia Maynard have had squirreled away for 30 years. The tapes link Rusty to a forgotten and forgettable homicide and add a paranoid new ripped-from-the-headlines dimension to the author's formidable range. Readers who can tune out all the subplots will find the kidnappers easy to spot, but Coben finds room for three climactic surprises, one of them a honey.
Now that Coben's added politics to his heady brew, expect sex and religion to join the mix.
