This is my first Coben book & won't be my last! It was a great thriller that I read in a day, couldn't put it down. Lots of twists & turns & I never would have picked the ending!

What an emotional rollercoaster this was!
​I truly experienced Nap's emotions alongside him and became totally swept up in his quest for the truth. He was extremely well-developed, as were every single one of the characters in the book. I felt like I got close to him and found that I really cared about what happened and what he would do next.
I've read books by Harlan Coben before and loved them, but this is a standalone thriller, so there's no need to have read any of his previous work and I think that this is an ideal book to get you into his writing.
The plot is packed with twists and every character has their own secrets which are gradually revealed and kept me completely engaged for the duration of the book.
The ending tied everything up and the explanation was really clever, I never would've guessed it. Everything came together perfectly and it just felt 'right'.
Overall, I'm giving Don't Let Go 5 out of 5 and adding it to my Five Star Favourites Shelf. It was riveting, exhilarating and emotional. I really recommend it.

It's always a treat to read a new Harlan Coben book so I was quite pleased when my request to view Don't Let Go on Netgalley was approved. However, this one didn't quite work for me.

Fifteen years ago, Nap's brother Leo and his girlfriend were found dead on railroad tracks. That same night, Nap's high school girlfriend Maura disappears. All these years, Nap has been trying to find out what really happened that night and it looks like he might finally get to the truth when Maura's fingerprints turn up at the scene of a murder.  Are current events connected to those from fifteen years ago? Can Nap trust the people closest to him?

Don't Let Go is quite a quick read with a rather likeable main character who plays by his own rules and it seemed to have oodles of potential. While I thought the story was entertaining and enjoyable with many witty chuckle-out-loud moments, I also felt it was trying just a little bit too hard at being funny and lacked the suspense it needed to be a truly gripping thriller and keep me hooked.

As always, Harlan Coben excels at naturally flowing conversations and fast dialogues. He also kept me guessing until the end as I tried, and failed, to figure out the connections and what really happened. It's always a good thing when I can't predict the outcome and this one completely took me by surprise. But overall, I feel things just fell flat. I've read and enjoyed quite a lot of this author's previous work and am convinced he's capable of so much better. In the end, I'm sorry to say that I just felt pretty disappointed. However, this will in no way stop me from reading another Harlan Coben book in future.

Napoleon Dumas (aka Nap) is a vigilante policeman. His twin brother Leo and girlfriend were found dead on a railway line. It was thought to be a suicide pact. This doesn't sit well with Nap. He is not convinced. The novel is racy, tense, emotional as Nap takes you through his grieving but there's lots of humour to balance things out. The ending was a shock. I wasn't really sure about it - food for thought. There are lots of fascinating sub-themes and the characterisation and dialogue is top-class. Thank you for letting me read it. I shall post this on Facebook, GoodReads, Amazon and my blog.

Thoroughly enjoyed this latest thriller from Coben. Due to the plot there is a lot more emotion in this book than there is in a lot of thrillers which sets this apart from others in the genre and sets it apart from others by Coben. Despite being a more emotional read this still has plenty of Coben's trademark wit and I laughed along multiple times, helping to lift the plot and my mood. I particularly liked the appearance from a couple of Coben's other characters, always a way to please readers.
I enjoyed this for being different, this does not go along at breakneck speed but I was still fully engrossed in the read. I enjoyed Coben exploring what it is like for people who do not know what has happened to someone they love, again a source of raw emotion for the plot, the desperation comes off strongly.
The ending for this is bittersweet and the as Coben finally reveals the devastating ending, you will be split as to what the right decision is. 'Don't Let Go' is another excellent, powerful read from Coben.
Review at https://mjletstalkbooks.wordpress.com/2017/09/26/dont-let-go-harlan-coben/

It's been years since I read my first Harlan Coben book, and every time I see that he is releasing a new book do I rejoice. He's such a fabulous writer and his books are the kinds that I often can't put down until I finished reading.

Now Don't Let Go, to be honest, isn't among the best I read, but it's still a good book, with the Coben's usual writing style. I just think that I expect too much from Coben and this book just didn't have the usual story with lots of twists and turns. I love how Coben usually pulls the rug out from beneath your feet several times during the story, but I lacked some seriously shocking twist. Now even the last twist towards the end felt really surprising. Also, Napoleon “Nap” Dumas was not a bad character, but having Myron Bolitar showing up for a short cameo just made me miss Myron (and Win) and Nap is just not as interesting to read about. His losses in life, twin brother, and Maura never really got to me and here lies one of the big problems with this book. I just didn't feel that Nap's sad story gripped me.

Don't Let Go is a book that was OK to read, not among the best Coben books I have read, but pleasant enough. A decent thriller that could have been better if it had had a more surprising storyline.

When I found out that one of my favorite thriller authors, i.e. Harlan Coben, is having a new book I went nuts - in a good way. And just as I knew it would be, "Don't Let Go" is brilliant. A fantastic read for thriller fans, it's a book that's hard to put down once you started. With this warning in place..... grab a copy and start reading, 'cause this is a book you don't wanna miss. I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK!

Napoleon Dumas (Nap to his friends) is a great, yet troubled, character. Still affected by the loss of his twin brother fifteen years previously, followed soon after by the disappearance of his girlfriend, Maura, Nap lives an almost solitary existence in his family home. He is a police officer who occasionally works outside the law to bring people to justice.
In Don't Let Go, the murder of an old school friend opens up old wounds for Nap when his ex-girlfriends fingerprints show up at the crime scene. Knowing that she is still alive , Nap becomes intent on discovering what caused her to disappear all those years ago and he soon begins to question if it had anything to do with his brother's death.
Harlan Coben possesses that rare 'I can create a brilliant character' gene that we authors all envy. He also possesses the 'I can create a damn good story gene too' and that is exactly what he does in Don't Let Go ; he creates a compelling fast paced read, tempered by appealing characters with real personalities that draw us in and have us rooting for them. From Nap, (thoughtful, morally superior, loner and sexy as hell), to Nap's mentor, Augie (old, irascible, straight talking and whisky swilling) to Maura (desperate, intense, vulnerable) Coben casts his line and pulls us in.
Throw in a mysterious old air base, a missing conspiracy theorist and an old recording and all the ingredients are in the mixing bowl. The cameo role by one of my favourite Coben characters, Myron Bolitar was a sweet bonus. Coben is a master writer. He really empathises with his characters and is great at taking a community and exposing its flaws, goodness, secrets, vulnerabilities and the pain of the people within the community.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable read and I hope I get to meet Nap Dumas again very soon.

Multiple genres: an involved policeman, a disappearance, a conspiracy

I read a Coben years ago and thought I"d try one of his stand-alones. I'm not much of a thriller reader but like them occasionally. This moved along nicely, with intrigue and mystery, just begging you to make guesses as to what was going on and who was at the heart of the conspiracy.

Nap(olean) Dumas, yes, his real name, is the policeman who finds himself investigation a case that seems to have a connection to the death of his brother and girlfriend, and the disappearance of his own girlfriend, from a decade ago. The past needs dredging up, and his own never-forgotten love may be closer than he could have hoped.

It seemed to be a fairly straightforward mystery story, but then a military base came into the story, and as you could see a 'villain' rearing his/her head, a new tangent showed that there might be more layers than expected to the solution.

While I liked Nap, his world-weariness at times, his humour, I didn't get caught up in the story and the multi-stranded ending/solution was a little frustrating.

I remember my last Coben had some rather over-the-top torture elements, and I thought this one was heading that way but stopped short of becoming graphic. The book finished and I felt a little let down, though it all wrapped up well and everything was explained.

Maybe its just not quite my cup of tea, but it was an easy read, with a good mystery element and some strong characters (mainly Nap), but enjoyable enough. If you're a fan, I'm sure this will be a great new book by Coben.

With thanks to Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

"After all these years, they found me."

If I was a teacher marking this book it would be a B- with the note; good effort but must try harder.

Harlan Coben is an established author but to me Don't Let Go read like a newbie author's offering, there's a good story in there, but it needs work. To be fair, I've never actually read any of his books before, and he's a bestselling author so he's obviously doing something right, but Don't Let Go just felt a bit...sloppy to me.

Don't Let Go reads like a good first draft. There's lots of potential, and the story did draw me in, but there's also a lot that needs working on. Large parts of this novel could be cut down; what should take one sentence to describe often takes three, there are some unnecessary character traits and some characters who aren't expanded upon enough. The main thing though that almost made me stop reading after the first chapter, was that there are so many spelling errors. Maybe it's the ARC I was sent and it's going to be tidied up before it's published, but I've read several ARCs and this one had the most mistakes I've ever seen. This halts the flow of reading as spelling errors keep jumping out like jarring notes.

Overall, Don't Let Go needs a good editor to sit down and go through it, then it could go from an average book to a really good one.

However, there are definitely elements of Don't Let Go that I enjoyed; the story was, while not ground breaking, fresh enough to keep me, a world weary thriller reader, occupied. There were twists I didn't see coming and, though I did guess the whodunnit by the end, I didn't guess the how.

I liked the main character of Nap; he's a bit more than your average damaged cop with a drinking problem. His habit of talking to his dead twin brother sets him apart and I liked it as storytelling concept.

Other characters appealed as well, Augie and Ellie were more than two-dimentional supporting cast members and had background and traits that added depth. However, some of the lesser characters didn't feel very real, or just not very believable.

Harlan Coben is a bestselling author with several novels under his belt, but Don't Let Go, to me, read like a first novel. I suspect this may be the problem with successful authors which I see a lot; they become so famous that anything with their name on will sell, so for whatever reason, maybe it's the author insisting on leaving things in or maybe it's because the publisher knows it will sell they don't edit it as much, but the novels aren't put through such a strict editing process as a new author would be. And actually, all writers need a strict editor to go through their work and sometimes be cruel; cut chunks or point out when other bits aren't working.

I'd like to read some of Coben's earlier work as I did enjoy parts of Don't Let Go, it just frustrated me that it could have been better.

My Rating: 2.5/5 (rounded up to 3 stars for Goodreads etc)

I received a copy of Don't Let Go via NetGalley in return for an honest review. My thanks to the author and publisher.

Another superlative offering from one of the giants of the genre. Harlan Coben is at the top of his game. The usual mix of dense plotting, brilliant dialogue and a rich cast of characters make this an outstanding and original story.
I won't go into the storyline in detail but it concerns the untimely deaths of the brother and his girlfriend of cop Nap Dumas (!!) years previously. The usual twists and turns and a plethora of red herring make this immediate and addictively readable. Whatever you do - do not miss this book. Oh yes, should have mentioned Mr Coben even manages to shoehorn in a brief cameo from Myron Bolitar!

I enjoyed the whodunnit and suspense elements a lot, and wasn't quite sure throughout how it was going to play out which is always good.

The structure while worth it through the book is so confusing at the start that I was struggling. However, I did like the way it shows you know Nap thinks and how his views of the case change through the book. I also liked that you could see that he is a good investigator but in this case hot headed and often jumping to conclusions because he wants answers so much. I really enjoyed how that came across and made the two cases more alive as a result.

Harlan Coben’s 'Don’t Let Go' is one of those thrillers which totally and completely absorbs you from the first word, speeding up and never slowing down. You need to have your mind in prime condition to keep up with not only the relentless pace but also the twists and turns which change the direction several times.

From the very beginning there is that ‘Wow’ feeling and you can tell that this novel is the work of an assured hand. There are so many questions raised along the way but come the final page – and it takes until then – all questions are answered, all possibilities accounted for, all loose ends neatly tied off – making this my kind of read!

It all adds up to a very thrilling thriller with a good range of characters, many varying relationships – all of which take a pummeling along the way – and a well planned story line resulting in perfection on the page. This is a top-notch read and one which I’m very happy to recommend.

I received an arc via NetGalley in exchange for my honest, original and unbiased review.

Excellent standalone thriller, well written, carefully plotted that draws you in from the first chapter. I loved Nap, the main character and I will be reading this author's backlist very shortly given how much I enjoyed this one.

Don't Let Go is a brilliant thriller by the Master of this genre ! It was fast paced ,intense at times and gripping telling the story of Nap ,a Detective in a small US town ,who has been searching for answers since his twin brother Leo died 15 years ago .This is a book that twists and turns until you are not sure which direction the story is going .Fabulous I loved the ending as well .

I was definitely hooked in by the first chapter and thought I could predict where the story was headed but I was totally wrong. Nap was a very complex character who doesn't play by the rules and has major emotional baggage from the circumstances surrounding the death of his twin Leo 15 years previous. There was a fair bit of tension throughout this book but I felt the ending lacked tension and felt a bit flat. I'm also left with a few questions about events that weren't answered.

Napoleon ‘Nap’ Dumas, a New Jersey Detective, has never quite come to terms with his twin brother’s death, and has carried that baggage with him since Leo and his girlfriend, Diana, were found dead on the railroad tracks back when they were all in high school. Nap’s girlfriend, Maura, disappeared from his life at the same time and for the last fifteen years Nap has been consumed with wanting to know the circumstances behind his brother’s death and the sudden and mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend, Maura.

When Nap learns about the murder of a police officer, another of their high school friends, and the fact that Maura’s prints were found in the perpetrator’s rental car, a chain of devastating events is set in motion as Nap starts to dig into the past. Pins worn on his friends lapels and an abandoned military base hidden in the woods are significant and seem to Nap to hold the key.

The author’s note explains how story was inspired because of a legend, which turned out to be true, surrounding his hometown; that behind barbed wire and no trespassing signs there was a Nike missile control center. For me, this gives a strong sense of realism to the narrative and I loved the way the story was built around the legend. I can imagine such a place being used for morally questionable purposes.

Inventive and excellently written, Don’t Let Go engages from the start with the past impacting on the present in a huge way. I found myself totally caught up in the story, right through to the unexpected conclusion.

Why has it taken me so long to read a Harlan Coben book! Don’t Let Go is filled with suspense, emotion and is a fast paced, gripping read. With several compelling, well defined characters, the plot is put together brilliantly. Each time I thought I knew where it was going there was another unexpected twist. Nap’s quest for answers and his desire to get to the bottom of the secrets surrounding the original group of high school friends leads to more questions than answers. Maybe he didn’t know them as well as he thought…

Harlan Coben is rapidly becoming my favourite author. I have 5 or 6 on my 'to be read' shelf and a long list of all the others I want to buy.

Don't Let Go kept me turning the page and I would have finished it much sooner if life and work hadn't kept getting in the way!
I like the main character, Nap, which is surprising seeing as we first meet him using a baseball bat to break the knee and ankle of a man called Trey.

We soon find out that Nap is a detective who volunteers at a place for women and children who have been in abusive relationships.
Nap dishes out his own justice to some of the abusers instead of using the law to do it and somehow, I'm OK with that.

Nap is a twin but his brother, Leo, died when they were still in school. He and his girlfriend, Diana. were found dead on the rail tracks and there was speculation as to whether it was a suicide pact or an accident due to too much drink and too many drugs.

Around the same time his brother died, his girlfriend, Maura, disappeared and 15 years later he still has no clue as to why.

Nap starts investigating the death of his brother and Diana when other people who were in their friendship group at school, and more importantly a part of the 'Conspiracy Club' he knew his brother to be a member of, suddenly end up dead.

As usual, I didn't guess any of what happened and was shocked to find out the truth of what had actually happened to Leo and Diana and why, 15 years later, members of the Conspiracy Club were being killed.

It was a great book and now I have to try and decide which harlan Coben book to read next!

I enjoyed Don’t Let Go very much. It’s a fast-paced mystery that moves between the past and the present with ease, good characterisation and a plot that kept me guessing to the end.

Two stories relating to Coben’s hometown of New Jersey inspired him to write this story. One was about a mafia leader and a make-shift crematorium and the other about a Nike missile control centre behind barbed-wire fencing near the mafia leader’s house and the elementary school. The stories turned out to be true, but Don’t Let Go is Coben’s own version.

Nap has never got over his twin brother, Leo’s death and fifteen years later he is still constantly in his thoughts. Leo and his girlfriend, Diana had been found by a railway line and it looked as though they had committed suicide, but Nap can’t accept that. And he is still obsessed by his girlfriend, Maura, who had disappeared the same night that Leo died. So when another cop, Rex Canton is found dead with Maura’s fingerprints at the scene of the crime, Nap is determined to get to the truth of what exactly had happened and to find Maura.

This is a book that I just had to read quickly, trying to follow the twists and turns as Nap and Ellie, also a friend from their schooldays, uncovered the secrets and lies that had been told over the years.

I enjoyed Don’t Let Go, but it did remind me of the only other book by Coben that I’ve read – The Woods, also about the murder of two teenagers twenty years earlier. Two other teenagers had disappeared and were presumed dead. Paul Copeland, now a County Prosecutor, is asked to identify a dead body, who turns out to be one of the missing teenagers. His sister was the other missing person and she is still missing. Same story in principle but different details and I’m wondering if this is typical of Coben’s books? Are they formulaic?

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone, the publishers for a review copy.

I've been a huge fan of Harlan for years and this did not let me down. Nap is a fantastic character, and the storyline was incredible. Brilliant read!