Missing You by Harlan Coben

Published by Dutton on March 18, 2014

Detective Katarina (Kat) Donovan's friend Stacey signs Kat up for an online dating service and who should come up as the perfect match but Kat's former fiancé Jeff Raynes, who is now a widower and raising a child. Well, after all, it's been 18 years since Jeff left her and disappeared so it's not surprising that his life has changed. It is surprising (and ultimately farfetched) that Jeff's picture surfaces during Kat's search, but I can accept one farfetched coincidence for the sake of a good story. Kat experiences considerable anguish over the course of the novel for having a foolish heart (she just can't get over Jeff's tender kisses), a trait that defines Kat's personality and makes her the least interesting character in the novel. Fortunately, Harlan Coben builds greater interest into the bad guys and some of the collateral characters, including Kat's cross-dressing homeless yoga instructor and a female victim who (unlike Kat) doesn't depend upon old boyfriends or an NYPD badge when she needs to muster strength.

The missing boyfriend storyline soon merges with the story of a missing mother. The young man who asks Kat to find his mother has rather improbably located her through her dating profile after concluding that Jeff Raynes is responsible for his mother's disappearance. That setup leads to the twinned mysteries that drive the plot: what happened to the missing mother and where has Raynes been for the last 18 years?

As if that isn't enough drama for one thriller, hit man Monte Leburne is dying of cancer and still refuses to tell Kat who hired him to murder her father. The truth about her father's death (and life) is a secondary mystery that provides occasional diversions from the primary plot. Both the primary and secondary storylines are clever, twisting familiar themes (the danger of online dating, a child's discovery of a parent's hidden past) to make them seem reasonably fresh. The revelation concerning Kat's father's secret is plausible if a bit contrived (I can imagine Coben thinking "What do I need to do to shock my readers?") but is written with sensitivity and compassion.

To the extent that Missing You tries to work as a romance involving the torch that Kat has carried for Raynes, I didn't buy it, in part because that aspect of the story is notable for its cheesiness. In the end, the cheesy romance is tolerable because the rest of the novel works quite well. The pace is suitably brisk and the villains are suitably villainous without becoming over-the-top caricatures of evil. Coben creates satisfying tension near the novel's end that builds to an exciting climax. The mystery surrounding the person responsible for Kat's father's murder reaches a satisfying resolution. In short, while I wasn't thrilled with every aspect of this thriller, it engaged me, surprised me, and made me care about the characters.

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