Our book club has a soft spot for Harlan Coben. It began with Tell No One and has continued throughout the years. Because Coben is so prolific in his writing we read one of his books every 12-14 months for book club. Coben, and books of the same genre, give us a chance to enjoy a fast-paced whodunnit without worrying about all of life’s woos.

In Missing You we touch on the web-dating world of single people – not in much detail, but we get the idea. We get a few pages into the life of Kat Donovan, the protagonist of the story, before we are jettisoned into Coben’s fast-paced, fuel-injected twists and turns. Love it, love it, love it. Although, I miss Myron Boliter series (hint, hint).

Kat, a NY detective, is still grieving the loss of her finance, Jeff, 18 years earlier. Jeff all of a sudden resurfaces when Kat strolls through the dating website her friend signed her up for. Jeff’s extreme low profile over the last 18 years, would be difficult for most people, but Jeff is a journalist. This begins the first mystery needing solving in the novel.

Brandon Phelps enters next and goes straight to Kat to have her investigate the disappearance of his mother. Kat doesn’t understand how a college-age student that lives in Connecticut would know who she is. And, the little side stories keep coming up throughout the entire novel. Don’t think you know it all – even the last few pages have a little twist, that you may or may not have seen coming.

This book is good for book clubs when you want to enjoy and relax a little, but still relish the ride. We tend to do thrillers after an intense book the month before. Discussions are not filled with life altering decisions usually (unless, of course, the book was Defending Jacob, a thriller with a definite life altering decision).

Rating: 7.5

*If you like thrillers surrounding websites/computers try Mortal Fear by Greg Iles – pretty scary stuff.