Six Years
*Starred Review* Coben, the first mystery writer to win all three of the big crime-fiction awards—the Shamus, the Edgar, and the Anthony—is an absolute master of the time element in his thrillers. Usually, he sets a clock running, or a bomb ticking, in the first few pages. The hero works against the clock and against all probability in extricating himself and his loved ones from peril. This latest throws a new wrinkle into the time element: there is no urgency at all. The hero is actually warned by everyone he respects that action can only do harm, and the main action has happened six years before. And yet Coben manages to make this one every bit as suspenseful as his ticktock thrillers. It’s a story about lost love. Political-science professor Jake Fisher has endured seeing his love, Natalie, marry another man just weeks after Jake and Natalie’s breakup. At the wedding, which Fisher attended in a fit of masochism and disbelief, Natalie warned him never to contact her. Fisher keeps the promise until he sees an obituary for Natalie’s husband, an alum of the same New England college where Fisher teaches. What happens after Fisher attends the funeral, finding another widow in place of Natalie, is mind-boggling. Fisher’s attempts to find Natalie again and Coben’s artful depiction of his protagonist—Is he determined or unhinged?—make for riveting reading.            HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Coben has 50 million books in print worldwide, and his last five novels have all debuted at number one on the New York Times best-seller list. Enough said. --Connie Fletcher--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.