Gone for Good 2.5Stars

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Title: Gone for Good
Series: ———-
Author: Harlan Coben
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 319
Words: 120K

My goodness, this was more jam packed than a mexican soap opera. Let me see if I can summarize the utter madness.

• We start out with the Main Character’s mother dying from cancer.
• The main character’s brother, 12 years in the past, sleeps with his girlfriend and then either kills her or is killed and removed from the scene. The main character thinks he is innocent and alive, but has no proof.
• MC’s current girlfriend disappears without a trace.
• Her fingerprints are found at a double murder scene
• Her body is subsequently found by the side of the road and identified by her parents
• When the MC goes to the funeral, the body in the casket is not his girlfriend
• the Girlfriend is alive but somebody else
• The MC investigates things with the younger sister of his murdered previous girlfriend (12 years ago GF)
• they uncover that the brother is alive and that some of his associates are high rollers and one is a big time assassin.
• Witness Protection is involved
• The older brother cut a deal, then ran to protect his current girlfriend and newborn baby
• The assassin is after the older brother
• WitSec is after the older brother
• The Mob Boss is after the older brother
• MC just wants to see and protect his older brother
• MC and younger sister girl are kidnapped but escape, thus crushing the plans of both the Assassin and the Mob Boss
• Everyone is happy
• Everyone meets up for a secret meeting to welcome back the older brother.
• IT’S A TRAP!!!!!!
• The older brother turns out to be a murdering rapist
• Who stole the MC’s baby from the old girlfriend
• it was all witnessed by the younger sister
• Assassin was in love with Older Sister and had vowed to protect her
• Assassin then kills Older Brother
• MC has a girlfriend who he doesn’t know much about and a 12 year old daughter who thinks he’s her uncle

TADA! No hablo burrito taca el grande mucho. Mucho mucho mucho grande taco burrito!!!

See, more drama than you can shake a big taco at. I was ready to quit this about 10 times, every time a new revelation happened. It didn’t help that the main character was a fething pansy. He couldn’t protect himself, much less anybody else. But he still kept bleating platitudes about protecting his girlfriend or the younger sister, while failing spectacularly every time. When it’s revealed at the end that he has a 12 year old daughter, maaaaaan, did I feel bad for her. Her daddy is a big fat wuss and she better learn to protect herself real quick!

And yet I will read more by Coben. Of course, if he keeps using pansy wussies for main characters, I suspect I won’t last many more books. He better write some better characters pronto. Mucho pronto in fact.

★★✬☆☆

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From Wikipedia.org

As a boy, Will Klein had a hero: his older brother, Ken. Then, on a warm suburban night in the Kleins’ affluent New Jersey neighborhood, a young woman—a girl Will had once loved—was found raped and murdered in her family’s basement. The prime suspect: Ken Klein. With the evidence against him overwhelming, Ken simply vanished, spending the next decade as the elusive subject of rumors, speculation, and an international manhunt. When his shattered family never heard from Ken again, they were sure he was gone for good.

Now, eleven years have passed. And Will, who always believed in his brother’s innocence, has found evidence that Ken is alive—even as he is struck by another act of betrayal. His girlfriend suddenly disappears, leaving behind compelling evidence that she was not the person Will thought she was. As the two dark dramas unwind around him, Will is pulled into a violent mystery, haunted by signs that Ken is trying to contact him after all these years. Will can feel himself coming closer and closer to his brother… and to a terrible secret that someone will kill to keep buried. And as the lies begin to unravel, Will is uncovering startling truths about his lover, his brother, and even himself.