Run Away

Author: Harlan Coben
Genre: Suspense
Type: Hardcover
Pages: 371
Source: Local Public Library
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
First Published: March 19, 2019
Opening Lines: "Simon sat on a bench in Central Park - in Strawberry Fields, to be more precise - and felt his heart shatter. No one could tell, of course, at least not at first, not until the punches started flying and two tourists from Finland of all places started screaming while nine other park visitors from a wide variety of countries caught the whole horrible incident on smartphone video."

Book Description from GoodReads: You've lost your daughter.

She's addicted to drugs and to an abusive boyfriend. And she's made it clear that she doesn't want to be found.

Then, by chance, you see her playing guitar in Central Park. But she's not the girl you remember. This woman is living on the edge, frightened, and clearly in trouble.

You don't stop to think. You approach her, beg her to come home.

She runs.

And you do the only thing a parent can do: you follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed. Before you know it, both your family and your life are on the line. And in order to protect your daughter from the evils of that world, you must face them head on.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

My Review: This standalone suspense novel is the latest literary offering from Harlan Coben. I love Coben's Myron Bolitar series and trust him to give me a good, twisty read with some humour thrown in for good measure.

This time out, Coben gives readers an interesting premise of a missing daughter and her parents' hunt to bring her home, but I can't say this was one of my favourite books by this author. I sympathized with the Greene's as a parent but otherwise I felt disengaged from the characters' lives. I did quite enjoy the addition of Hester Crimstein, Greene's lawyer who added humour and sass making me wish she had more page time.

Run Away has a good story line and decent twists (if readers are willing to wait it out) but things feel pretty muddled through the middle. There's a lot going on with various subplots and secondary characters and I had a hard time jumping on the proverbial bandwagon when the reason for the problems is explained. Thankfully, things pick up at the end when the subplots come together for an exciting finish. 

Overall, Run Away was a good read, just not one of my favourites from this popular suspense author.