Imagine the horror of waking up in a hospital bed, badly injured, and being told that you've been there for 12 days after having been shot in your home.  Worse, your wife was also shot that day, and she didn't survive.  And, your six-month old daughter is missing.  This horrible scenario is faced by Dr. Marc Seidman in Harlan Coben's No Second Chance.
 
Thus Marc sets out on a quest.  To find his daughter, and to discover exactly what happened that day.  But the clues are few and the FBI seems more intent to pin this on Marc, than to sincerely help him.  The first big break comes, when a ransom note is received.  Baby Tara will be returned in exchange for 2 million dollars.  But things go awry, and the kidnappers run off with the money.

18 months later Marc is barely living, with the empty voids in his life.  Just as it seems there will never be another clue to Tara's whereabouts a second ransom demand is made.  And this time, Marc is determined to get it right.

Naturally, things don't go as planned, again.  And the rest of the book is spent in a cat and mouse chase with Marc chasing one clue after another as he tries to put the puzzle pieces together.  He's helped by his friend and lawyer, as well as his old girlfriend who happens to reappear into his life.  And how convenient that she happens to be an ex-FBI agent.

I enjoyed this book.  There was plenty of suspense, and I admit to being completely engaged in the story.  I absolutely wanted to know what happened that day, and where Tara's been this whole time. 

The book turns in unexpected directions and delivers a convoluted plot that takes the reader along as if on a roller coaster ride.  With many red herrings and a few subplots along the way, we're thrown off course a time or two, but the ride was definitely exciting.

The book contains a mixture of points of view.  Mostly it's told in first person from Marc's point of view.  He breaks the fourth wall as he speaks directly to the reader saying things like "Remember I told you that..." and "You might think that....".  In certain stories, this is an interesting technique and adds some enjoyment to the story.  It usually serves to add a light-hearted, casual manner to the narrator.  But in this case, with such a serious dilemma facing the main character, it simply didn't work, acting as more of a distraction than an enhancement. 

Without specifics, I want to talk about the ending.  It was interesting, on several levels.  My first impressions were of incredulity.  I felt that the events would never really happen as described - that no one would do the things that the various characters did.  However, the author does a reasonable job of justification.   I appreciated that the author gave us reasons why these decisions were made.  Even if, in the end, I really didn't buy any of it.   

Overall, I enjoyed this book.  It held my interest and entertained throughout.  I didn't love the ending, but I enjoyed the ride that got me there.

Also by Harlan Coben:
Deal Breaker

Play Dead

The Final Detail

Recommended: Yes