Run Away

Run Away by Harlan Coben is a fast-paced thriller that follows the desperate father Simon Greene. When Simon spots his estranged, drug-addicted daughter Paige performing music in New York’s Central Park, he approaches her with the hope of bringing her home. However, Paige flees, dragging Simon into a perilous underworld filled with drugs, criminal gangs, and murder. As Simon embarks on a quest to find her, he becomes entangled in a killing, making him a prime suspect. Amidst this chaos, he uncovers shocking family secrets and brutal truths that are far darker than he could have ever imagined.

I really enjoyed this one. Harlan Coben is a master at crafting suspenseful thrillers, and he doesn’t hold back here. From the very beginning, show more he hooked me with Simon’s desperate search for his daughter. What follows is a gripping, fast-paced story filled with shocking twists that start early and keep coming.

I loved the way Coben unfolds the narrative, layering family drama with dark secrets, crime, and moral complexity. The pacing is excellent—I was constantly anticipating the next revelation, and each chapter pulled me deeper into the mystery. The characters feel authentic and flawed in ways that made me invested in their fates, especially Simon’s relentless determination as a father. The ending was particularly clever and deeply satisfying, tying everything together in true Coben fashion with a final twist I didn’t see coming. Highly recommended for anyone who loves twisty domestic thrillers with heart and edge.

I purchased the audiobook through my Audible membership. Steven Weber’s narration was exceptional.

I have photos and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog show less

I have been eagerly awaiting the release of Harlan Coben's latest thriller, Run Away. It releases today - and it is sooooooo good! Honestly, every time I finish one of Coben's books, I think 'oh, that's the best one yet.' This latest? Settle in for the day when you start to read - it's impossible to put down!

Oh, and did I mention that I have a copy to giveaway, courtesy of Grand Central Publishing?!! Nobody writes 'everyday guy in a bad situation' books better than Coben. In this latest, Simon's drug addicted daughter Paige has run away with her abusive boyfriend. Simon has been looking for her for months. Then one day, sitting on a bench in Central Park, he spies her playing the guitar for spare change. He approaches her, but she runs show more again. And Simon follows.....

Cut to a new set of characters - Ash and DeeDee - a pair of stone cold killers. ("Murder was simple if you kept it simple.") And one more player, Elena, a private investigator looking for a missing man. How are these stories all going to tie together? And that dear reader, is the beauty of Harlan Coben's books. There's no predicting where the story is going to go. The plot of Run Away is an intricate jigsaw of a plot - until that last piece is slotted in, you can't be sure there's not another turn in the story. (And there are many - that last one is a doozy.)

The reader is privy to all three narratives and is aware of what each set of characters are up to. Which only serves to ratchet up the tension even more. The cliffhangers at the end of each chapter are dangerous - I couldn't stop reading 'just one more chapter'. I had to know what would happen next.

Each character has their own story and they are really well drawn and fleshed out. Simon's anguish over his daughter is palpable. Elena's own personal story will resonate with you. And oddly enough, Ash has real feelings, despite his choice of profession.

Whew! What a ride! Absolutely recommended! show less

Run Away by Harlan Coben is a compelling, very highly recommended domestic thriller and intricate mystery. This one is a fast-moving page-turner!

Financial adviser Simon Greene and his pediatrician wife Ingrid have three children, Paige, Sam, and Anya, and from outward appearances they live a comfortable life. The problem is that they haven't seen their drug addicted daughter, Paige, ever since she dropped out of college and disappeared with her loser junkie/dealer boyfriend Aaron Corval. When Simon is told a friend saw an emaciated Paige playing her guitar and pan handling in Central Park, he keeps an eye out for her, finds out when she plays there, and approaches her after her "set." She ran away from him and Simon follows. When he show more tries to stop Paige, she starts yelling. Aaron appears, and steps in to stop him, but Simon punches him out, trying to follow Paige. By-standers intervened and Simon is arrested. The whole event was recorded on phones and spun as the evil rich guy beating up a poor homeless guy.

Simon deals with all the attention and legal questions, coming out with no charges, when another cop shows up at his office months later with a few questions. Aaron has been murdered and Paige is nowhere to be found. This sets Aaron and Ingrid on a quest to find Paige and keep her safe from whoever killed Aaron. Simon's search leads him to some surprising, dark and threatening places and contacting people he normally wouldn't. Soon his search for Paige is even more complicated, precarious, and dangerous than even Simon realizes.

Run Away has it all. The writing is pitch-perfect; the plot is complicated, intricate, and fast-moving; the characters are interesting and well-developed. The pages will fly by in this lightening-paced-stay-up-until-you-finish-it thriller. (And I drank an extra-large cup of coffee after work to do just that.) As the twisty mystery unfolds in Simon's search and becomes increasingly complex, it leads to unexpected answers and more investigation. I was surprised at the satisfying final ending. Coben's writing is excellent as is his plot and pacing. I really enjoyed this whole novel right up to the final denouement.

All the characters are well developed and realistic. Simon is a wonderful character - a loving, caring father who would do anything to try to save his daughter. Simon finds himself in the midst of something that is more treacherous than he even knows, but he perseveres, even when circumstances mean he needs some extra encouragement to do so, in order to reach the final answers.

Run Away is an exceptional taut thriller and the perfect choice for escapism!

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Grand Central Publishing.
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Agora eu tô lendo francês com uma fluidez que eu me enche de orgulho, tô muito feliz.
Nunca tinha lido Harlan Coben, e acho que teria sido uma boa adição à biblioteca jovem adulto de uns anos atrás, porque ele pega legal, enredo policial maneiro, e dessa vez sem a barreira do francês que eu tinha mencionado antes. É, amigos, determinação não paga a conta, mas aumenta o cérebro.
O enredo deve ser simplicista, deve ter thriller ou policial melhor, mas é uma leitura que entretém, que agarra, apesar de ter uma hora que meio que fica óbvio qual vai ser de certos desfechos, e esse rolê todo de um culto secreto uiuiui não ser lá a minha pira, o livro cumpre legal sua função.
Tem muito mais que dizer não.

Rounded down from 2.5 because I can’t really round this up to 3 stars.

Marking spoilers because this goes into characters and major plot points.

This started interesting enough, but then quickly veers between the mundane and slowly inching the story along. This book probably could have been 100 less pages. The mystery doesn’t really progress until the last 150 pages, and everything before then is a relative slow burn to get through clues or Simon lamenting the condition of his wife. Which gets old pretty fast.

Usually for books like these I won’t nit pick characters as much if the story/pacing/etc, but I didn’t get much from the story and the characters didn’t help improve things. Everyone is pretty flat or some variation of show more “badass guy/gal” so it didn’t feel like there was a wide cast other than they all had different names. The detective could have been interesting since it kept hinting at a past, but only ever centered on how she missed having sex with her now deceased lover. It felt like the author tried so hard to make Simon seem appealing or a good guy that it became overbearing. Multiple times there would be a monologue that didn’t have much to do what was currently going on, it got to a point I was waiting for the author to go on a rant about why kicking puppies is wrong just to make sure it was clear why Simon is the stand up guy to root for (but I ended up not caring about anyways, because he ended up being pretty one dimensional as well). The two murder for hires aren’t fleshed out beyond having shared trauma, so they feel flat and just a plot device when they could have been more developed and potentially nuanced characters (particularly Ash).

Another missed opportunity, I feel, is the mother. She is MIA the entire book until the end. Considering her role later in the book, it would have been an interesting source of conflict and character development if she had been more present and active through the book, but instead she is taken out relatively early and contributes nothing in the story just to come back in just in time for an over dramatic ‘twist ending’.

The cult angle could have been more interesting and feel less tacked on if it had any sort of presence in the story. It is only mentioned a handful of times, and one short chapter is actually on the compound. As with a lot of things in this book, it needed a lot more background info and development. There seems very little motive other than the obvious (avoiding for spoiler purposes). It would have been interesting to see the leaders and their motives/drives further realized in the book other than the brief two paragraphs (where they have virtually no dialogue) they are in out of the entire book.

Overall, fairly disappointed considering I really enjoyed the last book I read from this author. Maybe this one is just a dud for me and the next one will be better. show less

Yes! Yes! Yes! Lights! Action, Camera. That's a wrap! I was so in the mood for a fast based, but tautly plotted thriller. Especially now, as I reading a slow paced historical that isn't quite doing it for me. Have been a fan of this author for many years, and as much as I adore his Bolitar series, i think it is in his stand-alones that his talent really shines.

Some great characterizations, a multiple threaded story line that is handled brillisntly to keep the reader interested. Trying to figure out what was going on, how they intersected before the reveal. A daughter on drugs, under the influence of an unworthy man, a mother snd father, family in crisis. A cult will a sinister agenda, but what is their part in these happenings? So many show more twists and even after I felt that all the answers were given, there was another surprise turn.

What would you do for love? Could you please keep the knowledge of something secret? Good questions, no? And I was satisfied with the answer!

ARC from Netgalley show less

Rest assured, RUN AWAY is, as all of Harlan Coben‘s books are, a page turner. You can be certain of this even before you begin reading it.

So many mysteries are going on here, beginning with Simon’s drug-addled daughter, Paige. How did such a good girl get that way? And why did she run away from Simon? Then she disappears.

But hers is not the only story. There are at
least four more. And every story involves so many mysteries.

This is typical of Coben‘s books, each containing multiple stories with even more mysteries. But all the stories join in the end.

Over the years I’ve read all of Coben's standalone books and his Myron Bolitar series. Although it’s true that his books always have many mysteries, I also began to notice that show more they are now more mature. It seems that, with age, he understands more about the human condition and he writes more about it. show less