March 26
If I was running a course for aspirant thriller writers on how to construct a plot for a novel, I'd probably just hand out copies of a couple of Harlan Coben books and tell the students to come back when they'd finished.
Coben starts with a single, simple and utterly compelling premise: how do (relatively) ordinary people react when subjected to extraordinary circumstances or an extreme event? From this point he draws components from a tried and trusted formula which are applied to each plot: the subject is (usually) a decent person trying to live a good and quiet life in the suburbs of New Jersey; the subject invariably harbours a secret or secrets that are gradually revealed as the novel progresses; the subject is often propelled into a search for something precious that is lost; finally, the subject becomes the hunted and is placed in mortal danger by this quest.
Coben's signature is the way in which the novel first grabs the reader by the throat within the opening pages by pitching the subject into chaos and confusion and then, by turns, relaxes or tightens the grip, a keeping the reader on life support throughout before throttling them with the ending.
It works better in some of his novels than others. Tell No One, Coben's first standalone, is a modern masterpiece. The four standalones that followed were merely terrific page-turners. The Woods is probably the best since Tell No One.
It starts with ambitious NJ county prosecutor Paul Copeland being hauled out of his daughter's gym display by a couple of cops who need to speak to him about a homicide victim who dies with Copeland's name and address on his person. As soon as "Cope" sees the victim he is plunged backwards in time to his darkest hour: the night his sister and another boy disappeared in the woods never to be seen again, and another teenage couple were brutaly murdered.
Elsewhere a former girlfriend of Copeland's begins to hear her own echoes of that night as her secrets also begin to come uncomfortably close to the surface.
In parallel to the disturbing reemergence of that night , Copeland must also cope with his ongoing trial of two frat boys, scions of rich and powerful families, for the rape of a poor black teenager.
There are a great many strands drawn together in The Woods, including dangerous territory such as Cold War espionage, the politics of race and money and questions of loyalty to family and ethical standards.
Coben, the great practitioner of the dark arts of mystery writing, is in spell-binding form, handing over morsels of insight and information in the manner of a parsimonious workhouse cook who leaves everyone shouting for more.
He judges his pace to perfection and gradually reveals all as the book races to a thrilling climax.
The Woods is published in the UK on May 16, in the US on April 17. Harlan Coben's website contains some footage of him talking about the book.
Ne Le Dis A Personne
Fans of Harlan Coben will doubtless also be interested to hear that the French made movie adaptation of Tell No One - Ne Le Dis a Personne - will be released in the UK in June, and made its US debut this month.
The film has had a successful release in France, where it won several Cesars (the French equivalent of the Oscars.