Review: Six Years by Harlan Coben

A Mysterious Review of …

Six Years by Harlan Coben.

Review summary: This is a nearly flawless thriller … at least for its first half. The premise is riveting, the pacing perfect. But it stalls about mid-point when the reader gets too far ahead of the lead character, knowing — or at least strongly suspecting — what he will ultimately find out. Still, this is a solidly plotted novel, and, despite a few issues, an enjoyable one. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Six Years
Harlan Coben
Dutton (March 2013)

Publisher synopsis: Six years have passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd.

But six years haven't come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd's obituary, he can't keep himself away from the funeral. There he gets the glimpse of Todd's wife he's hoping for…but she is not Natalie. Whoever the mourning widow is, she's been married to Todd for almost two decades, and with that fact everything Jake thought he knew about the best time of his life — a time he has never gotten over — is turned completely inside out.

As Jake searches for the truth, his picture-perfect memories of Natalie begin to unravel. Mutual friends of the couple either can't be found, or don't remember Jake. No one has seen Natalie in years. Jake's search for the woman who broke his heart, who lied to him, soon puts his very life at risk as it dawns on him that the man he has become may be based on a carefully constructed fiction.