NO SECOND CHANCE, by Harlan Coben, Dutton, 340 pages, $24.95.
In "No Second Chance," Marc Seidman wakes up to find himself in an ICU attached to an IV, his head covered in bandages. Only 12 days before, his life seemed happy — he was a successful surgeon, living in a nice house with a beautiful wife and a baby he adored. Now he is in a hospital, having been shot by someone who got away. His wife, Monica, was killed and his baby daughter, Tara, possibly kidnapped.
Then he gets a ransom note — which is spelled out entirely on the front cover of this book — a cover that is mostly hidden by a jacket with one-third cut off. The jacket says, "Harlan Coben" — and beneath it, on the cover — "There will be no second chance." When you remove the jacket, you see the rest of the ransom note, warning Seidman the kidnappers want $2 million. (Clever ploy — but to read the book you will have to remove the jacket or go bananas turning pages while the partial jacket flaps annoyingly.)
The theme the author has chosen belies the threat, because Seidman does in fact get a second chance.
The book is written in an oddly spare style that hooks you after the first several pages. The story moves at an astounding pace, so fast that you may feel stressed, burdened by the feeling that you have to hurry through it. Soon you'll be reading at an unrealistically brisk pace.
If you keep it up you will be falling right into the author's trap. He really wants you to stay up all night reading it. Like Elmore Leonard, he has mastered the art of cutting out almost anything that could be called unnecessary. He is wary of readers who quickly recognize sections of flabby writing they can skip over — so he leaves out the flab. He wants you to read every word.
The story speaks for itself, artfully drawn by a specialist in suspense. There is an interesting mixture of characters, including a woman named Rachel Mills, with whom Seidman fell in love many years ago — and never got over. Their romance ended prematurely, and both married others. Now, with his wife dead and, conveniently enough, her husband dead, they can get together again.
It's easy to renew the romance, because they both quickly feel the old sparks returning. Rachel, an especially dynamic character, is a former FBI agent who is peculiarly equipped to help Seidman deal with kidnappers.
An essential part of the storyline concerns a very close male friendship between Seidman and his longtime buddy Lenny. Since males often have more trouble bonding than women do, this successful relationship is interesting for the convincing way in which it is portrayed.
There is one small irritation — there are more typos in a finished copy of a new book than I have ever seen (shame on the publisher).
The story is filled with clever twists and turns, most of them unexpected, and pieces that somehow have to be made to fit by the time the book ends. The author brilliantly succeeds — then supplies a stunning ending.
E-MAIL: dennis@desnews.com