The Match by Harlan Coben

Published by Grand Central Publishing on March 15, 2022

The Match uses reality TV as its hook. The story imagines a show that is a cross between The Bachelor and Survivor, a show apparently inspired by Pat Benatar’s classic song, “Love Is a Battlefield.”

Peter Bennett was a popular participant in the show. He wooed and conquered Jenn Cassidy. They became a popular reality TV couple. Their fame led to endorsement deals and countless freebies. Accusations that Peter roofied and slept with his Jenn’s sister put an end to his marriage and to his TV popularity. Sexually assaulting your in-laws doesn’t earn “likes.” Peter disappeared after his followers chose not to believe his denials. All of that is an interesting background, particularly for reality TV fans who understand that reality TV is completely divorced from reality.

At some point, Peter contacted Wilde through a DNA-match site. Peter and Wilde both submitted DNA samples to the site, which determined that they are close relatives. Wilde, a character Harlan Coben premiered in The Boy in the Woods, was apparently left in the woods as a small child. He has no memory of how he got there. He’s never explored his ancestry but people who are close to him have repeatedly nagged him to figure out how he came to be abandoned and how he survived. Peter’s message — a message that Wilde didn’t see because for months he was off on a frolic of his own — suggests that Peter is in trouble and needs Wilde’s help.

In addition to reality TV, the story is driven by the theme of cyberbullying. Peter is a natural target of trolls who feel justified targeting anyone they decide to dislike. Coben adds a twist to that theme by imagining a vigilante group of hackers called Boomerang. Boomerang punishes trolls and online bullies, sometimes by doxing them. Boomerang members do not know the identities of the other members. When the members notice that some of the trolls they took action against have been murdered, Boomerang enters crisis mode.

Coben usually constructs decent plots. The Match is one of his better efforts. Its about as credible as the plots of most modern thrillers (not very) but multiple killings and multiple clues about the killer keep Wilde (and the reader) guessing.  The ending is a bit contrived but Wilde at least finds a plausible answer to a key question about his origin.

While Coben isn’t a great prose stylist, his limitations are less noticeable in The Match than in some of his other books. He gives his characters snappy dialog and keeps the plot moving. Wilde is an unsurprising character. He raised himself in the woods, so he prefers to be alone unless he’s having sex. That’s an easy personality to image but it such a limited personality that characterization isn’t a draw for the Wilde novels. That begins to change at the end of novel, so the next book (if another one is coming) might broaden Wilde's horizons. My preference would be for Coben to write another Myron Bolitar novel, but I can’t bend the man to my will, so we’ll just have to see what he does next.

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