Product Description

For Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive.

Everyone tells him it’s time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible–that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive.

Beck has been warned to tell no one. And he doesn’t. Instead, he runs from the people he trusts the most, plunging headlong into a search for the shadowy figure whose messages hold out a desperate hope.

But already Beck is being hunted down. He’s headed straight into the heart of a dark and deadly secret–and someone intends to stop him before he gets there.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8669 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-26
• Released on: 2002-02-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.com Review
David Beck has rebuilt his life since his wife's murder eight years ago, finishing medical school and establishing himself as a pediatrician, but he's never forgotten the woman he fell in love with in second grade. And when a mysterious e-mail arrives on the anniversary of their first kiss, with a message and an image that leads him to wonder whether Elizabeth might still be alive, Beck will stop at nothing to find the truth that's eluded him for so many years. A powerful billionaire is equally determined to make sure his role in her disappearance never comes to light, even if it means destroying an innocent man.

In David Beck, Harlan Coben, the author of the popular series starring sports agent Myron Bolitar (Darkest Fear et al.) has created a protagonist who shares many of Bolitar's best qualities--he's a decent, generous, gentle guy whose loyalty to those he loves is unquestionable. So when he discovers that people he was close to may be responsible not only for Elizabeth's murder but also the "accidental" death of his father, Beck's sense of betrayal is as understandable to the reader as his uncharacteristically violent reaction. Coben is a skillful storyteller with a gift for creating likable characters caught up in circumstances that illuminate their complex emotional lives and deep humanity. This should be the thriller that breaks this talented writer out of the mystery genre and earns him the recognition he deserves. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly
Every writer likes to stretch his legs, and here Coben, author of seven acclaimed Myron Bolitar mysteries (Darkest Fear, etc.), stretches his. He doesn't quite kick his reputation aside in the process. This thriller, Coben's first non-Bolitar novel, is a breezy enough read, but it's not up to snuff. It's got a nifty setup, though. David Beck and Elizabeth Parker, just-married childhood sweethearts, are vacationing at the Beck family retreat when Beck is knocked unconscious and Elizabeth is kidnapped. Cut to eight years later: Beck is a young physician working with ghetto kids in Manhattan, and Elizabeth, we learn, is dead, victim of a serial killer known as KillRoy. Or is she? For immediately after two bodies eight years old are uncovered on the Beck land, Beck receives a series of e-mails apparently from Elizabeth. His frantic search to find out if she lives dovetails with the equally frenzied efforts of cops to pin Elizabeth's murder on Beck, as well as the antic moves of a mysterious billionaire an old friend of the Beck family and his two hired thugs to frame Beck for that murder. Beck finds himself a man on the run from the cops his only ally a black drug dealer whose child he's treating for hemophilia caught in an overcomplicated tangle of lies and vengeance. Coben knows how to move pages, and he generates considerable suspense, but there's little new here. The narrative style is cloned from James Patterson, alternating first-person with third. The villains, particularly the billionaire and a Chinese martial artist, are as old as mid-Elmore Leonard or even Chandler. The black drug dealer isn't a character, he's a plot device, and the climax packs the emotional wallop of a strong episode of The Rockford Files. (June 19)Forecast: Heavy-hitting blurbs from Jeffery Deaver and Phillip Margolin, among others, indicate more about the solidarity of the mystery community than about this book's excellence, but should attract browsers. The publisher will pitch this as a summer beach read, and it's not a bad one. In fact, it may outsell Coben's mysteries, despite its flaws.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Dr. David Beck's wife was murdered by a serial killer, or so the police told him. After eight years of struggles with his grief, on the anniversary of their first kiss, a message appears on David's home computer, a phrase he shared only with her. A current, digital image of Elizabeth follows and David's hopes soar that she is alive. His search for her is hampered by the FBI, who consider him a suspect in her death, and by a billionaire whose son plays a role in the plot. Coben has written a gripping thriller with page-turning suspense and enough humor to break the tension on occasion. His use of state-of-the-art technological devices to move the story along will keep YAs reading. Those familiar with Coben's "Myron Bolitar" series (Dell) will welcome his new protagonist.

Katherine Fitch, Rachel Carson Middle School, Fairfax, VA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Good, but maybe one twist too many
I found this book to be a real page turner. And, after all, isn't that what you want in a mystery? So, maybe I should give it the fifth star. But, there were so many improbable twists and turns that I kind of felt betrayed by the final one. Almost like the author was showing off so I'd know how clever he could be.

Still, the writing is good enough that I plan to read another Coben book. And, if you like crime mysteries at all, you might be pleased if you read this book or another of his works. He clearly has big league writing talent.

I told everyone
I ordered this book 2 months ago and let it sit. I was in a reading slump. When I decided to pick it up finally!! I could not put it down the book is a fast paced page turner. I could almost visualize each of the characters with his brief description. What can I say looking for more books from this author.

Tell No One - When it comes to this book, I intend to follow that advice
Eight years after the murder of his wife, paediatrician David Beck starts receiving anonymous emails, supposedly from his dead wife, which lead him to believe that she is alive but in grave danger.

"Tell No One" is the sort of book that, now that I have finished reading it, I will probably forget about in the space of a couple of days. It's not a terrible book, but I also didn't think it was all that great, either. Harlan Coben's writing style is easy to read, making this a speedy read that kept me reasonably entertained on my daily bus journey to and from work. However, I didn't have any trouble in putting it down and leaving it, when necessary. Its main flaw is that all of the good characters are sickeningly good (most are charity workers with politically correct attitudes and no flaws at all), and all of the bad characters are so bad that they totally deserve whatever they get. There are no real shades of grey in these characters, which makes them kind of boring. As a mystery, it is an interesting enough story, but there was nothing in it that made it stand out in my mind as being a "great" mystery and the "plot twists", although not glaringly obvious, didn't really come as much of a surprise to me when they did appear. Overall, this book does not inspire me to read anything else by Harlan Coben, and I intend to follow the advice given in the book's title, when it comes to recommending this book. That is, I intend to tell no one about it.