Thrill of chase compelling reading

Harlan Coben rolls out compelling tales set in suburbia where secrets buried underneath the facade of a happy life threaten to destroy families and neighbourhoods. Rarely can an author grab a reader from the first sentence, but Coben does so in his new novel, The Stranger, with the line: “The stranger didn’t shatter Adam’s world all at once.”

Adam has a wonderful wife named Corinne and two lovely boys. One evening he’s waiting to meet with some colleagues when a stranger approaches and tells him his wife has been lying to him. This man somehow knows things only Adam’s immediate family would know.

Some of the elements of the overall conspiracy aren’t fully explained, but that doesn’t matter since that makes the scenario all the more believable. This pageturner is one stranger readers will want to meet.

Detective Ty Hauck returns from a hiatus to tackle a personal case in Andrew Gross’s latest mystery, One Mile Under.

Dani Whalen knows the Roaring Fork River like the back of her hand, and she enjoys taking tourists on whitewater rafting excursions on the more exciting sections. One morning, her group comes across another boat and the body of someone she knows. From all appearances, Trey Watkins had an accident, hit his head and drowned. She knows Watkins knew the river better than she does, so she’s skeptical of the official report, since he wasn’t wearing his usual helmet.

Gross tells a simple mystery surrounded by a provocative topic that screams to be investigated further.