NYPD detective Kat Donovan has learned to live without a romantic partner. She doesn't even miss it, since it's been over 20 years since she really cared about someone. Besides, she loves her job and that's more than a lot of people have, right? But when her well-meaning best friend Stacy buys her a year's subscription to an online dating service, adding, "Who knows, you might meet Mr. Right," Kat decides to give it a shot. At first it seems like just another profile like so many of the other profiles on the dating site, but she can't stop staring at the picture. The man in the bears an uncanny resemblance to her high school sweetheart, Jeff-the only man to whom she ever gave her heart. Then a young man asks Kat to help him find his missing mother, who was also a member of the dating site. Worse, the woman may also have a link to Jeff. Things start to spiral out of control as Kat struggles to connect the dots and solve a mystery that has hit entirely too close to home. Verdict Coben (Hold Tight; Live Wire), the best-selling master of suspense, has written another twisty ripped-from-the-headlines page-turning stand-alone that could be his best yet. This one will be flying off your shelves; order multiple copies. [See Prepub Alert, 9/16/13.]-Cynthia Price, Francis Marion Univ. Lib., Florence, SC (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

An unlikely bond develops between NYPD detective Kat Donovan and 19-year-old Brandon Phelps in this page-turning, stomach-churning standalone from bestseller Coben (Six Years). While exploring a dating site called YouAreJustMyType.com, Kat discovers the photo of Jeff Raynes, her ex-fiance, who dumped her 18 years earlier. Brandon's widowed mother, Dana Phelps, has also met someone from that site and is now missing. Several puzzles emerge. What happened to Jeff? What is happening to Dana? What is the real story behind the murder of Kat's cop father, Henry Donovan, years before? Who is Titus Monroe, the man pulling the strings on the dating site? Coben orchestrates his story perfectly as Kat begins to sense the magnitude of horror at work and Titus becomes aware of her investigation. Once again, Coben has brilliantly used a current trend, in this case Internet dating, to create a can't-put-it-down thriller. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest Literary Agency. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Coben never met a technological device he couldn't turn into a riveting plot element. His latest thriller is no exception. The story examines what can happen to people who use online dating sites, and his hypothesis builds to a truly frightening conclusion. Coben's meticulous plotting and his incorporation of the technology are first-rate. His characterization and dialogue? Not so much. All of Coben's characters, regardless of age, sound like entrants in a Damon Runyon dialogue contest. (The reader keeps waiting for some guy to pull a gat on some doll.) The relentless onslaught of one-liners doesn't help, and the characters themselves, while caught up in the beautifully crafted plot, tend toward cardboard. What sets the plot in motion is when a friend of NYPD detective Kat Donovan enters Kat on an online dating site. She discovers her old boyfriend, now a widower, and tries to contact him; the complications multiply from there. Once again, Coben has expertly constructed and then dismantled a time bomb of a plot. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Perennial best-seller Coben isn't quite hitting on all cylinders this time, but fans of his plot-driven, technologically-fueled thrillers won't have time to notice.--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2014 Booklist