Tell No One

Tell No One by Harlan Coben is a mystery novel I had recommended to me by a friend when I was in search of an audiobook. Steven Weber did a great job reading and getting different voices in. There was a large bunch of segments that gangers from the harder parts of New York and I believe he did them justice. They seemed the most visual and realistic of the characters, from listening to them.

This mystery starts out with a husband and wife off on their anniversary down by the lake where no one is around. But as Beck goes to a raft in the middle of the lake, Elizabeth, still on the beach, screams. Beck is knocked unconscious and when he comes to Elizabeth is gone. Her body is found a few days later dumped on the side of a road and the serial killer that has been rampant torturing and killing young girls is caught. Eight heartbreaking years pass and Dr. Beck, Pediatrician, is going through life though "life" is a big word for what he is living. Suddenly, he receives a strange email with odd clues that only Elizabeth would know. A hyperlink sends him to a website and there she is. Elizabeth. Could she really be alive!

Poor Dr. Beck. He goes through hell once he opens that email. More bodies are found near the lake where Elizabeth was kidnapped, he does in for questioning, people are tapping his computer and phone, suddenly he is on the run and the only people that can help him crack dealers from the wrong part of town. He is beaten up, dressed up, and wanted for murder. All on the same day. Yay! *sarcasm*

It was a very interesting novel, though probably not one of my favorites. If I, personally, was reading it I would have had a hard time, but listening to it I was able to get through it. Not that it is a bad book. Probably just not my cup of tea. It had a good premise and solid enough characters. But I found the ending to be rather predictable. The foreshadowing was good and let me make my predictions.

I do wish the other characters had been more developed. We had a very telling description of one character and but very little to describe the personality of the others. I get that Dr. Beck loved Elizabeth, but I felt no reason to love her, no longing for her to be alive. her father had more of a personality as being a gruff cop who was in the service for a long time. I even feel like Beck was just a cookie cutter person. He had no interests. He went to work and that was it. We get nothing really before Elizabeth's abduction of what he was like, nothing of what he stopped doing. Stopped going to games or playing poker or anything. I think it mentioned he drank when he was feeling really down. And I guess he had a dog for about two seconds in the book. But there was very little about him that actually made me like him or any of the other characters. Tyrese was the most likable but in the end he seemed like and means to an end.  :/ I want some good bad guys that I like and full, deep main characters. I don't feel like I got that here. Instead we got some cookie cutters.

Setting lacked a lot and we seemed to jump from one place to another rather quickly. There were parts where the scenery was very well described, but they weren't ever in the action. There would be long blocks of passive description. A few of my friends would probably skip them while reading because they were so blocky.

The big that it has going for it was the story. I really liked the plot and how things flowed. There were some parts though that didn't make sense. The ending was too easily wrapped up except for some loose threads that didn't make it into the bow. Like Coben had an idea and how he wanted it to end, but when the tell all at the end happened it didn't quite match the ending he had in mind. The rest of it though, the weaves and curves were pretty cool.

Would I suggest this book, not so much. Might I give Coben another chance? Maybe. Though not in the near future.

The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen

The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen is a ghost story without ever using the word "ghost."

Wes is a media major assisting his friend who is producing a small film for their college summer school class. They go to a seance to hopefully see a ghost or something spooky. What they don't realize is that they actually spotted one. Annie bops in and out of 1840 New York to the present in hopes that she can find out what happened to her and her family and, more specifically, what happened to her cameo that her beau gave her that has gone missing. Wes and very few others can actually see her and search to find out what happened.

The story is cut into three parts: Wes, Annie, and West/Annie. As Wes figures out that Annie is a ghost we jump to her story and what happened throughout the week before her demise. But as she flashes back to the past, she's able to change things, or is she? She acts differently around others and they, in turn, respond differently. She is able to find new clues to her past and what happened.

I think the book is well written, but for those who don't care for heavy description, be ready to skim/skip parts. It if full of heavy description. Though interesting to see what it is like to walk the streets of present-day New York through the eyes of someone who hasn't seen buildings higher than three stores. That was fun. I liked the difference of views that were subtle throughout the story. When we are reading through Wes' point of view, it is different with different things emphasised than it is through Annie's. She focuses on the "cushioned chair" or small delicate things, whereas Wes sets his focus like you would a camera. I thought that was well done. It also definitely showed what it is like to be in a nineteen year old boys mind.

The transition between the two times was easy to see, though sometimes a bit long in description.  I understand that sometimes that transition can be sticky, but she Katherine Howe did it well.

Um... aside from that, it took me awhile to get it finished. I found it easy to put down and I knew what was going to happen well before it did. I finished it because I wanted to see how it was going to end and if I was right--which I was. It's not one that I'd be eager to pick up again, but it was alright.

I'd suggest this for a light read if someone wanted it.