Book Review: Just One Look

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Just One Look     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Harlan Coben
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character   Amateur Sleuth
Dutton, May 2004, $25.95, 384 pp.

Grace Lawson met her husband while in France and for her it was déjà vu, a feeling that he was her soulmate and logically he felt the same way to. They married and moved back to the states and are living in their own home with their beautiful children. They are very happy together until the day Grace goes to the photo store to pick up some pictures they developed. One of them doesn’t belong with the rest. It is a picture of two young women and three men taken a couple of decades ago and she thinks one of the men in the photo is Jack.

When she shows him the picture, he stonewalls her by going into another room and shortly after he drives away from the house. Grace waits for him to return, but he never comes home so she goes to the police. Jack calls her using a code word to tell her he’s in trouble. The man who kidnapped Jack also killed many others and he isn’t hesitating to murder Grace if she keeps on asking questions.

Harlan Coben writes a superb crime thriller using so many red herrings, twists and turns that readers keep their eyes glued to the pages trying to figure out who is after whom and who is the mastermind calling the shots. The heroine is a strong willed person who refuses, even in the face of threats, to stop looking for her husband though one must wonder about the safety of the children. When she does find him, it is in less than ideal circumstances. JUST ONE LOOK is one of the most satisfying crime thrillers of 2004.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner