Review: Missing You

by Harlan Coben (Orion Books)

NYPD detective Kat Donovan’s heart was broken 18 years ago when the man she was going to marry, Jeff, walked out on her without any explanation.

Now her friend has signed her up for an online dating service. Reluctantly, after a couple or more glasses of wine and her cynical hat on, she has a look.

Discard, discard, discard, and then her world stops again. There is Jeff, now a widower with a blurry online picture and clearly just as tentative as she is.

Another night and some more wine, and she drops him a line; it’s a link to something only he would recognise. But she’s amazed when he contacts her, but obviously doesn’t remember her.

She’s stunned and then suspicious – how could someone who was such a major part of her life have forgotten her?

Then a teenager, Brandon, walks in to her precinct and asks for her by name. He tells her his mother, Dana, is missing. But Kat has many questions: why her? And how does he know his mother is missing? All signs point to a woman whose husband died years ago and she is dipping her toes in the dating world again.

But Dana met her new man on the same dating website – and he is “her” Jeff.

More curious than convinced, Kat takes a look at the case. What she finds is a diabolically cruel plan at the hands of a very wicked man.

Once again, Coben delivers a thriller that keeps you guessing and has you rooting for the good guys way past your bedtime. He can’t churn them out quick enough.