No longer the girl her family used to know, Paige recently quit college, turned away from her family, became a drug addict, and then dropped off the grid. One afternoon, Simon happens to see his daughter by chance, though he barely recognized her, panhandling in a remote part of Central Park. Taken aback, he approaches her and begs her to come home, desperately wanting to rescue his daughter from the life she’s chosen. Instead, Paige–who is strung out and belligerent–grabs her guitar and runs, causing Simon to follow and crash into her boyfriend, a junkie named Aaron. Fully believing that Aaron is somehow keeping his daughter against her will, Simon confronts him, and things quickly turn physical.
After punching Aaron in the face, an act that was caught on camera by other people in the park, Simon’s all but certain the druggie will press charges against him. Instead, Aaron turns up dead, and Simon becomes the prime suspect after the footage of their confrontation goes viral.
While the police are investigating Simon and his wife, Ingrid, the couple focuses on Paige and her whereabouts. Using Aaron’s murder scene as a starting point, they look for clues that might point to Paige, only to find themselves in a situation far more dangerous than they ever could have expected . . . where nothing is quite what it seems.
Coben, a true master of suspense, is known for producing nonstop twists and turns, and he delivers another nail-biting story here that’ll leave readers recovering from whiplash upon turning the final page. Aside from the storyline in New York, another plot thread follows a Chicago-based private investigator named Elena Ramirez, who is searching for another missing person. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that both cases are connected, along with some mayhem going down in Boston and New Jersey, but Coben takes his time revealing how the pieces all fit together . . . setting up a final twist that’ll catch more than a few readers by surprise.
Coben had been on a scorching hot streak riding into 2016 when he published Fool Me Once and Home (2016), before then slipping a bit with Don’t Let Go (2017), which wasn’t quite up to par. Now, after sitting out a year and switching publishers, he’s re-teamed with his longtime editor, Ben Sevier (Senior Vice President and Publisher, Grand Central Publishing), and the results couldn’t be better, as his latest offering reverts back to the classic brew of unbearable suspense that he’s so known for producing with his thrillers. If this book doesn’t get your heart racing, you might need to try a new genre.
When it comes to misdirection and catching readers off guard, no one’s better than Harlan Coben, who continues to land unexpected twists and shocking reveals. Fast-paced and helplessly entertaining, Run Away is everything his readers have come to expect and then some, and is sure to stand among the year’s best suspense thrillers.
Book Details
Author: Harlan Coben
Pages: 384 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 1538748460
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: March 19, 2019
Book Spy Rating: 8.5/10
Praised as “one of today’s finest book reviewers” by New York Times bestselling author Gayle Lynds, Ryan Steck (“The Godfather of the thriller genre” — Ben Coes) has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). Steck also works full-time as a freelance editor and pens a monthly thriller column for CrimeReads. For more information, be sure to follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He currently lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and their six children.