Six Years
"I found the story to be almost a romantic thriller rather than a fully fledged crime tale..."
Synopsis:
Six years ago Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of keeping his promise to leave her alone. Six years of imagining her with her new husband, Todd.
When Jake stumbles across Todd's obituary, he can't stop himself attending the funeral. Hoping for a glimpse of Natalie he is startled to see another woman is Todd's widow. Everything he thought he knew about the best time of his life is turned inside out.
As he searches for the truth, Jake's memories of Natalie begin to unravel. Mutual friends either can't be found or feign a lack of memory. No one has seen Natalie for years. Soon Jake's enquiries put his like at risk as he uncovers a conspiracy based on a carefully constructed fiction.
Purchase the book from Amazon.
Review:
With a Harlan Coben novel you are always treated to interesting characters, tight plotting and wonderful prose. 'Six Years' has all of these in abundance but for once they didn't sparkle as brightly as usual. I found the story to be almost a romantic thriller rather than a fully fledged crime tale and while I appreciated the quality of the writing it didn't quite work for me. Fisher's quest gives a nod to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as there are elements of forbidden love as everyone he turns to warns him away from his Capulet love. While the plotting is tight, there is a degree of predictability about the outcome which saw both my wife and I guess the ending correctly. Benedict was a fine character to support Fisher but I found myself warming most to the absent mentor of Malcolm Hume than any of the other supporting cast. Fisher himself was adroitly assembled as a lead whose buttons the author could push. While the story was not really my cup of tea, I enjoyed the tight prose and trademark humour Coben inserts into his novels. To sum up 'Six Years' I would have to say that while it isn't my favourite Harlan Coben novel, it is a well told tale of undying love.