Julie's Review: Stay Close

Author: Harlan Coben
Series: None
Publication Date: February 12, 2013
Publisher: Signet
Pages: 448
Obtained: purchased
Genre:  Thriller
Rating: 3/5.0
Bottom Line: If only the secret Megan was keeping was interesting
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary: Megan is a suburban soccer mom who once upon a time walked on the wild side. Ray used to be a talented documentary photographer, but now he finds himself in a dead-end job posing as paparazzo. Broome is a detective who can’t let go of a cold case. Three people living lives they never wanted are hiding secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect. And as each confronts the dark side of the American dream—the boredom of a nice suburban life, the excitement of temptation, the desperation and hunger that can lurk behind even the prettiest facades—they will discover the hard truth that the line between one kind of life and another can be as whisper thin as a heartbeat. ~amazon.com  

Review: I love Harlan Coben's books. They are usually a quick and surefire read for me but not with Stay Close. While at first I was pretty engaged in the mystery of who was killing the men or why were they disappearing, after a while I just stopped caring. Frankly all of the men had it coming one way of another, but not that murder is the way to go.

Megan is a classic soccer mom with a hidden secret but in my opinion it's really not that horrible. It's something that could have been forgiven easily if she would have just been honest with Dave from the beginning but then again there would be no backstory. Detective Broome has never given up on the case of Stewart Green. He gets a break in it when Megan comes waltzing back into town because she's restless and has some things to resolve.

From my perspective, there are no great characters in this novel. They are all selfish and just trying to clear their conscience. The characters never really move forward or grow, which is disappointing. While I might not have liked this one very much, it won't deter me from reading more of his books.

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