Harlan Coben’s Tell No One is a taut thriller that engages the reader from the first page to the last. With a likable protagonist thrown out of his depths, the fast-paced story is filled with tension, suspense, and sly humor.

A cryptic email sets events in motion, launching widower Dr. David Beck from his quietly grieving existence into a chilling race to find his beloved wife, who was thought to be murdered eight years ago. An ordinary man thrown into extraordinary, dangerous circumstances, Beck is a sympathetic character whose confusion, shock, fear, determination, and undying devotion to his first and only love is tangible through the pages. The plot grips the reader with the same intensity Beck feels in his relentless search, and the story is filled with clever, if sometimes predictable, twists.

Coben’s writing style is straight-forward and unadorned, lending itself to the swift pace of the mystery. Every character he introduces serves a purpose in the story, and while he exhibited an inelegance in having the protagonist speak to the reader and frequently shifting from first person perspective to third, Coben’s Tell No One is an engaging, engrossing story that grabs the reader and doesn’t let go until the final page.