Tell No One Book

After hearing excellent things about Harlan Coben's books I decided to buy a second hand copy of Tell No One from Amazon Marketplace. I thought at £1.82 I really couldn't go wrong and even if I hated it, it wouldn't really matter. The book was published in 2001 and was his first stand alone novel since his creation of his popular Myron Bolitar series.

The story begins with David and Elizabeth Beck, a young married couple, travelling to Lake Charmaine in Pennsylvania, a place they have visited since they knew each other as children. The romantic breaks ends with Elizabeth's kidnapping and murder and David left for dead in the lake.

Eight years after her body was found, Elizabeth's murderer is in jail on death row but David can't move on and thinks about her every day. When David receives an email from an unknown address on their anniversary, containing information that only he and Elizabeth knew, as well as a link to a video feed that would only be live for a minute at 'kiss time' - again a term that only Elizabeth would know. The video reveals a live image of an older Elizabeth who tells David, simply, "I'm sorry".

Is it a practical joke or is Elizabeth still alive? As David digs deeper into the mystery surrounding the night at the Lake it appears that someone is trying just as hard to keep the past covered up and David begins to fear for his own life. He ends up on the run, accused of her murder with only the assistance of Elizabeth's father, his sister's lover and a drug-dealer who owes him after he saved his child's life.

The main character is clearly David and I found him a likeable protagonist. The story is told from David's point of view and a reader you find that you start thinking from his perspective although we never know everything about him. He has spent 8 years mourning his dead wife in a state of misery never moving on, however, when questions arise about his wife's murder he proactively looks to solve it once and for all, not caring who he comes up against. He is a doctor who genuinely cares about his patients, especially TJ and his father Tyrese who feature throughout the book. He has good relationships with his sister Linda and her partner Shauna who is one of the only other characters explored in detail throughout the book. She is a high profile model with powerful contacts and one of the people that David feels that he can trust. Hoyt Parker, Elizabeth's father, is a retired Police Officer who has always grieved for his daughter and perhaps blamed David for what happened to her. As the plot develops, it becomes obvious that Hoyt harbours a dark secret and more information than he lets on about the circumstances surrounding his daughter's death.

Elizabeth really only appears in the book at the beginning before her murder. However, her character is explored throughout the book as David tries to uncover what happened to her and why. When some photos appear of Elizabeth covered in bruises from 8 years ago and David starts to look in her diary, it seems that he does not know everything about his wife's life and that she may have been keeping secrets of her own. What is obvious throughout the book, however, is that David and Elizabeth loved each other deeply and that he will do anything to find out what happened.

The book was every bit as gripping as people say it is and reviews tell me! I stayed up until 2.00 am the first night and spent the whole next day finishing it off so it took less than two days to read. It really is page turning stuff! The storyline was complex with intertwining storylines but written in a way that was reader-friendly for anyone from teens to an older audience, without being trashy. The author describes the relationships in the book beautifully and pulls you into the story from the very start.

Before I read the book I had heard that it was full of twists and turns which I love in a novel. However, this meant that I was looking out for them the whole way through and wasn't particularly surprised when certain revelations were made. I was actually quite disappointed that I knew what had happened to Elizabeth before the end as I would have preferred the suspense to continue until the final pages, although the final twist did make up for it slightly! It was an exciting ending because although the twist was a small thing in regards to the whole story, everything you thought through the book sort of changes in a second. However, no more secrets and a fairly happy ending - that's all I want in a book!

It's one of the best books in its genre that I've read in a long time and I would not hesitate to recommend. However, I would suggest not reading too far into it or many other reviews because this did ruin it for me in a way. A great 4/5!

Every year the Doctor David Beck and his young wife Elizabeth meet at the same deserted lake to rediscover their love for each other and inscribe one more year into 'their' tree. But that year was the last. Elizabeth was kidnapped and Beck knocked unconscious. By the time he woke up his wife had been discovered dead and horribly mutilated. For eight years he grieves. Then one afternoon he receives an anonymous e-mail telling him to log on to a certain web-site at a certain time using a code that only the two of them knew. The screen opens onto a web cam and it is her face he sees. This starts an inexorable chain of events as Beck tries to find out if Elizabeth is truly alive and what really happened that summer night. Soon he's a wanted man as the FBI try to pin Elizabeth's murder on him and everyone he turns to seems to end up dead...

Tell No One : Paperback : Orion Publishing Co : 9781409117025 : : 28 May 2009 : David Beck has just received an email from his dead wife... The thriller and Netflix hit which made SUNDAY TIMES No.1 bestselling author Harlan Coben a household name. 'A pulsing, pacy, devour-at-one-sitting thriller' OBSERVER