Fool Me Once: A Novel Paperback – August 9, 2016

I actually read the second in the series first, not realizing that there was one that came before. This book is an absolute page turner, with an ending that will blow you away!!!

Coben knows how to weave a crooked tail that keeps you guessing with strong narrative and believable characters but he leaves holes in this story that are left unanswered.

A fellow reviewer and cyber friend, Michael A. Newman wrote such a compelling review on Harlan Coben’s thrilling mystery, “Fool Me Once,” that I purchased the book at amazon.com immediately after reading his helpful thoughts.Like my friend, I did not figure out who the killer was until it was revealed by the author.As a war veteran myself, parts of this tale reached into my chest and crushed my heart as the believable suffering endured by the fictional persona, former pilot Army Captain Maya Stern comes to life through captured and replayed realistic memories of terrifying events, moans, voices that scream torture through her psyche via her PTSD infested nightmares.Just after a whirlwind relationship with Joe Burkett, they married a year later. Shortly thereafter, her daughter, Lily was born.While Maya was half way around the world flying special ops combat missions in the Middle East her reputation was portrayed in the news as an inept pilot who rained down bullets that not only killed those targeted, but also innocent civilians. The source of the video report was none other than opportunistic sensationalist reporter, “Corey-The-Whistle” Rudzinski.Still serving overseas she returns home after notification that her sister, Claire Walker, was tortured and murdered by an unknown assailant.Claire and her husband Eddie had two young children, Daniel and his little sister, Alexia. Maya was the children’s Godmother.Not long after Claire’s death, meeting her husband in a park, Joe and Maya were confronted by two masked muggers who shot and killed Joe as Maya tried to flee.A flawed mother and widow, Maya Burkett is plagued not only by PTSD, but the need to find out who killed her sister and husband and why.As she digs into her investigation, she is absent more and more from her new civilian job as a flight instructor and is jeopardy of being fired.. She also has had separate altercations with Eddie and her niece’s soccer coach. Maya is also being hounded as a potential suspect in her husband’s murder by NYPD homicide detective Robert Kierce. Additionally, she believes she is being stalked by someone who drives a red Buick and begins to questions her own sanity.Her longest friend, Eileen Flynn and former platoon mate, Shane are worried about her and keep a watchful eye on Maya, helping anyway they can.Finding Claire’s secret cell phone and call history increases Maya’s information and puts her on track to solve her sister’s murder.The pace, suspense and danger build while Maya finds connections and unveils secrets from the past that shape the direction of her search, but people go into hiding or disappear and bodies surface from the recent and distant past and Maya becomes a target of many sources.This is one of the most entertaining and spellbinding murder mysteries that I have read in a long time.I recommend it for fans of this genre and am not surprised that it is a best seller.I am glad I read it and bet you will be too! Enjoy!

Every other book I’ve read by Harlan Coben I was totally in love with, so this one felt like a letdown. It wasn’t my favorite.Former special ops pilot Maya loses her husband Joe to a random shooting, leaving her a single mother to their daughter. A friend gives her a nanny cam to use in the house to help ensure her daughter’s safety, and Maya sets it up in her house, but to her surprise, sees her husband Joe on the camera playing with their daughter – after he was murdered.This prompts Maya to start digging into her husband’s past, but she soon realizes there may be more secrets than she was prepared to learn.I’m having a hard time writing this review, because a lot of the problems I had with the book lay in the things that would be spoilers for those who haven’t read the book. I will say a few things. First, I found the story really interesting in the beginning and end, but the middle lost me. It felt convoluted and confusing at times. There were constantly new characters being introduced that were somehow connected to her husband, and it got a little messy trying to keep up.Second, my biggest issue was that I found a lot of the plot unbelievable, especially once the ending was revealed. I won’t give anything away, but once I read the end, it felt like a lot of the things that happened in the book wouldn’t have happened in a real life situation. Last, I hard a hard time connecting with Maya as the lead. I found her unlikeable a lot of times, and I wasn’t her biggest fan.That all said, I did like the end of the book and didn’t see it coming, which is always a plus in my book. While this was a dud for me, I’ve loved Harlan Coben’s other books, so it definitely wont turn me off of reading his books in the future. If you’re looking for your first Harlan Coben book, I’d recommend starting with Tell No One instead of Fool Me Once.

Coben is an incredible storyteller. Keeps his readers wanting to never put down the book, read just one more chapter. This book was so hard to put down and if you had to put it down for one reason or another whatever you hand read was in your head trying to discover what was going to happen next.Thoroughly enjoyed the book.