Spoilers ahead!
A great fodder for books is, How well do we know the person we love? (And of course, a twin of that is, How well do we know ourselves?) The twist and suspense master, Harlan Coben, tackles these twin questions in his 2005 book, Just One Look. It was the first time in a couple weeks where I felt that pull when not reading to get back to reading to see how the story unfolded.
Grace, famous is a weird word to use here, but she’s a famous survivor of the “Boston Massacre,” a stampede incident at a concert 15 years prior, which killed 18 people and forever injured her, and her husband, Jack, met in France, moved back to the states when they had their two children, and well, how much does Grace really know Jack? As it turns out, despite being married for more than 10 years, she doesn’t know much of anything about his life prior to meeting her. Which, I find weird! I get we all keep our secrets, but it’s odd not to be curious. It would be one thing if Jack made up a backstory and duped her, but to not be curious? That minor criticism and digression aside, one day, Grace returns from having her film developed — along with payphones and the nascent use of the internet and cell phones, I love how quaint 2005 already feels — she discovers a photograph presumably slipped into the pack showing her husband with three other people, with one of them x’ed out. As one can surmise from the prologue, we learn that x’ed out individual is a district attorney’s sister, who he thought was killed in a fire. Instead, a notorious assassin said he killed her.
Jack sees the photograph and absconds from the house, and then is quickly apprehended and kidnapped by a North Korean native named Wu. Wu then easily disposes of a former NFL player who was watching Jack and tries to intervene. At that point, I’m like, what the heck is going on here?! Why would a photo make him take off like that? Who is this person who kidnapped him? Who is this other person separately watching him? Sadly, the latter person was in the wrong place at the wrong time and died trying to do the right thing — he was there only to observe Jack, and tried to intervene when Jack looked to be in trouble.
One of Coben’s best characters in the book was perhaps the most unexpected one: Charlaine. We’re introduced to her as a bored, desperate for something to happen in her life married woman with a family. So, she starts interacting with a peeping tom across the street by allowing him to see her scantily clad. Ahead of one of these sessions, she notices her neighbor isn’t watching, which is weird. Eventually this leads to uncovering that Wu is using that house as a staging place. Now, I thought for sure Charlaine was about to be killed by Wu in quick order. Instead, she outsmarts him! Then, she bravely follows him in his vehicle to alert police to his presence. Because of all that and more, the police are turned on to his real identity. Later, again because of her bravery, she helps save Grace from Wu’s kidnapping and likely impending murder of her. Charlaine ruled! I love when a minor character is introduced who not only acts in a way contrary to what you’d expect, but they end up not being so minor after all. Well-done, Mr. Coben.
In the end, everything is tied together nicely and with a few twists in vintage Coben fashion: Jack was part of a band and that band’s song was stolen (or influenced by, depending on your perspective) by Jimmy X, who was set to perform before the Boston Massacre occurred. Jack confronted Jimmy X backstage, leading to a scuffle and a security guard shooting Jack. A stoned 20-something guy in the crowd then fires off his own shot in paranoia. This leads to the deadly stampede. Jack dies from his wound. Indeed, Grace’s Jack is not Jack, but another one of the band mates who pretended to be Jack so that Jack’s sister would still get the payout from their family’s trust. Who paid the assassin and was still going after people, though? The 20-something guy who was railroaded, depending on your perspective, for the 18 deaths. He sought revenge while in prison and was egged on by Jack’s sister. Oh, and the final twist of the knife is that Grace was in the photo herself and went to the concert with the person she would eventually know of as Jack. She lost her memory in the melee. Hence the refrain about, How well do we know ourselves?
Then the not-Jack was killed by Wu, so in a sense, two Jacks died in this book.
As always, Coben was entertaining, with compelling characters (Charlaine, Grace was an admirably persistent character, too, and fought until the end, being the one who kills Wu, and even her best friend, Cora, another minor character, bucked expectations with her prowess at sleuthing and helping Grace) and an intricate plot with much to unfurl along the way.
All Coben fans have to add this one to their list.
Milam's Musings 