Sunday, July 19, 2009
Hold Tight by Harlan Coben .
This is a fast paced 432 page crime/thriller which starts when a woman is murdered and continues by describing a teenager who is coming to terms with the suicide of his friend and his parents are worried about him. This is a great book and I cannot find a fault with this novel. I vote this book a HIT and I have given it 5 stars on the Book Army website. Of the 22 books I have rated on Book Army, only 4 other novels have been given the top score of 5 stars by me. With Hold Tight, Harlan Coben ticks all the right boxes for me. I think that Harlan is a very clever man and this book is a thinking-mans' thriller.
The story is very polished, the plot is very tight. This novel covers a lot of ground and is very entertaining. What is different about this novel compared to other thrillers is the number of active characters involved. Hold Tight has 19 major characters but the joy of the story is the sheer diversity of these characters. This is a story of real life across the whole community and not a tiny section of society. Every character is different and has their own special role to play in this story. But it is more than this, Harlan does not tell this tale as A speaks to B and then something happens. Harlan tells the tale from the viewpoint of each character, like using a first-person writing style but he does that with all 19 characters and no character is the lead or hero. The reader then develops an empathy for all 19 characters and even for a minor character who is on his way out for sloppy performance! What this book demonstrates is that Harlan clearly understands people, he knows exactly what makes people tick.
This is a very involved story and I really enjoyed reading it. Part way through this book you understand why the subtitle of this book is "Every family has it's secrets". By the end of this book you know the secrets of all 6 families and they have a knock-on effect on each other. This is a thriller and not a comedy book but there is a tiny bit to make you smile on page 114...
The fat guy with the Jerry Garcia beard and tie-dyed tee was still waddling toward the entrance, but he wouldn't notice anything that did not involve a doughnut.
...Is this observation important? Ah, I will not spoil this excellent story for you!
This is a fast paced 432 page crime/thriller which starts when a woman is murdered and continues by describing a teenager who is coming to terms with the suicide of his friend and his parents are worried about him. This is a great book and I cannot find a fault with this novel. I vote this book a HIT and I have given it 5 stars on the Book Army website. Of the 22 books I have rated on Book Army, only 4 other novels have been given the top score of 5 stars by me. With Hold Tight, Harlan Coben ticks all the right boxes for me. I think that Harlan is a very clever man and this book is a thinking-mans' thriller.
The story is very polished, the plot is very tight. This novel covers a lot of ground and is very entertaining. What is different about this novel compared to other thrillers is the number of active characters involved. Hold Tight has 19 major characters but the joy of the story is the sheer diversity of these characters. This is a story of real life across the whole community and not a tiny section of society. Every character is different and has their own special role to play in this story. But it is more than this, Harlan does not tell this tale as A speaks to B and then something happens. Harlan tells the tale from the viewpoint of each character, like using a first-person writing style but he does that with all 19 characters and no character is the lead or hero. The reader then develops an empathy for all 19 characters and even for a minor character who is on his way out for sloppy performance! What this book demonstrates is that Harlan clearly understands people, he knows exactly what makes people tick.
This is a very involved story and I really enjoyed reading it. Part way through this book you understand why the subtitle of this book is "Every family has it's secrets". By the end of this book you know the secrets of all 6 families and they have a knock-on effect on each other. This is a thriller and not a comedy book but there is a tiny bit to make you smile on page 114...
The fat guy with the Jerry Garcia beard and tie-dyed tee was still waddling toward the entrance, but he wouldn't notice anything that did not involve a doughnut.
...Is this observation important? Ah, I will not spoil this excellent story for you!
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