The Match
A shocking genetic match exposes a family's darkest secret in this gripping #1 New York Times bestselling thriller from the creator of the #1 hit Netflix series Stay Close
After months away, Wilde has returned to the Ramapo Mountains in the wake of a failed bid at domesticity that confirms what he's known all along: He belongs on his own, free from the comforts and constraints of modern life.
Suddenly, a DNA match on an online ancestry database brings Wilde closer to his past than he's ever dreamed, and finally gives Wilde the opening he needs to track down his father. But meeting the man brings up more questions than answers. So Wilde reaches out to his last, most desperate lead, a second cousin who disappears as quickly as he resurfaces, having experienced an epic fall from grace that can only be described as a waking nightmare.
Was his cousin's downfall a long time coming? Or was he the victim of a conspiracy as cunning as it is complex? And how does it all connect to the man once known as The Stranger, a treacherous fugitive with a growing following whose mission and methods have only turned more dangerous with time?
Named a Best Book by USA Today - Wall Street Journal - Publishers Weekly
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Community Reviews
Best-selling author Harlan Coben consistently delights readers with fast-paced, action-packed stories replete with shocking plot twists. Happily for his legions of international readers, he has now penned a sequel to The Boy from the Woods, in which he introduced the character of Wilde.
In The Match, Coben melds the dark aspects of reality television and the fame it engenders, social media influencers, online trolling, and the sometimes far-reaching consequences of submitting a DNA sample to an online ancestry database into a cohesive, riveting tale. It is a thoroughly contemporary story that opens with the enigmatic Wilde, now somewhere between forty and forty-two years old, "no more than twenty yards from a blood relative and the elusive answers to his mysterious origin." A few months earlier, Wilde let his curiosity compel him to submit a DNA sample to an online genealogy database. He matched with a second cousin who identifies himself only by the initial "PB." Wilde did not respond to the message he received from PB via the ancestry website because he moved to Costa Rica in an attempt to settle down there with a woman -- who was not Laila, the widow of Wilde's best friend, David, with whom he has long had a complicated, on-and-off relationship. But when he returns to New Jersey, his attempt at domesticity having failed, he tracks down his biological father. Thus, The Match launches with Wilde meeting the man in Las Vegas. Things do not go as expected. His father, Daniel Carter, claims not to know which of the eight women he slept with during one reckless summer was Wilde's mother. Carter was cheating on Sofia, the woman he would eventually marry and have three daughters with. He makes clear that he does not want Wilde to appear in their lives, revealing Carter's long-ago infidelity. With no desire to disrupt the family's life, Wilde flies back to New Jersey, believing the matter closed. It isn't.
Wilde learns that "PB" stands for Peter Bennett, who gained fame as a contestant on a "Bachelor"-type television show titled "Love Is a Battlefield." He married Jenn, the woman he met on the show. They had a very public wedding and marriage, and lived a lavish life as social media influencers until it was revealed that Peter was unfaithful to Jenn . . . with Jenn's younger sister, Marnie. For Peter, fame became a nightmare when his formerly adoring fans turned on him. In an email, Peter asks for his help, telling Wilde, "Everything I knew about myself and my upbringing turned out to be a lie. You're my cousin." But before Wilde can answer the email (which disappears from his inbox), Peter disappears after posting a photo on Instagram captioned, "I just want peace. I want it all to go away." His family, including his sister, Vicky Chiba, who served as Peter's manager, fear he committed suicide. Because Peter reached out to Wilde, he uses his security expertise to investigate. But first, he has to have "Love Is a Battlefield" explained to him. He tries to watch it with an open mind, but finds it completely irredeemable.
Coben describes the workings of Boomerang, a vigilante group that exacts vengeance on bullies. Their "mission is about punishing cruelty and abuse . . . " Their motto: "Karma is like a boomerang -- what ever you give out will come back to you." The members meet to decide which cases should be accepted, rating them as Category 1 - 5, with punishments ranging from ruining credit ratings, emptying back accounts, and blackmail to "total annihilation" for Category 5 offenses. The Stranger, a well-known Coben character, is the founder and leader of the group, the members of which conceal their identities from each other and have instituted numerous measures to ensure that if one of them is caught, the rest will remain anonymous and protected. Wilde discovers that Peter was the victim of cyberbullying -- he received compromising photos and threats. Did those messages come from someone operating on the authority of that highly secretive group?
And, of course, dead bodies are piling up and Peter becomes the prime murder suspect. Coben introduces a series of seemingly disjointed stories and characters, but do they somehow intersect? And if Wilde figures out how the lives of the various characters intertwine, will he find his mother and finally learn how he ended up in the woods alone all those years ago?
High-powered celebrity lawyer Hester Crimstein has appeared in a number of Coben's prior novels, but never as a major character until now. Her son, David, was Wilde's best friend and died tragically. David and Laila's son, Matthew, is Wilde's godson and, as noted, Wilde and Laila have long had a complicated relationship. Coben's inclusion of a romance between two older characters is touching. A widow, Hester has begun dating Oren Carmichael, the retired local police chief. The sometimes caustic, no-nonsense Hester provides a distinct contrast to the quiet, reclusive Wilde who lives in his movable, technologically advanced Ecocapsule in the woods. Their investigative collaboration is one of the story's highlights, showcasing their deeply respectful, admiring, and affectionate relationship.
In typical Coben fashion, the plot is intricately and quite ingeniously constructed, and the story moves at a steady, unrelenting pace. Coben's characters are always fully developed, multi-layered, and intriguingly complex. He also injects sardonic commentary about social issues, including the potentially far-reaching and destructive consequences of quick fame achieved through appearances on reality television.
Readers may accurately surmise bits and pieces of the puzzle, but will be kept guessing about the details until the very end of the book. And the conclusion of this absorbing tale is both extremely satisfying and very surprising. Fortunately, Coben, one of America's premiere storytellers, never rules out the possibility of publishing another novel featuring his beloved characters. Hopefully, The Match is not the end of Wilde's story.
Thanks to NetGalley for an electronic and Grand Central publishing for a paperback Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
In The Match, Coben melds the dark aspects of reality television and the fame it engenders, social media influencers, online trolling, and the sometimes far-reaching consequences of submitting a DNA sample to an online ancestry database into a cohesive, riveting tale. It is a thoroughly contemporary story that opens with the enigmatic Wilde, now somewhere between forty and forty-two years old, "no more than twenty yards from a blood relative and the elusive answers to his mysterious origin." A few months earlier, Wilde let his curiosity compel him to submit a DNA sample to an online genealogy database. He matched with a second cousin who identifies himself only by the initial "PB." Wilde did not respond to the message he received from PB via the ancestry website because he moved to Costa Rica in an attempt to settle down there with a woman -- who was not Laila, the widow of Wilde's best friend, David, with whom he has long had a complicated, on-and-off relationship. But when he returns to New Jersey, his attempt at domesticity having failed, he tracks down his biological father. Thus, The Match launches with Wilde meeting the man in Las Vegas. Things do not go as expected. His father, Daniel Carter, claims not to know which of the eight women he slept with during one reckless summer was Wilde's mother. Carter was cheating on Sofia, the woman he would eventually marry and have three daughters with. He makes clear that he does not want Wilde to appear in their lives, revealing Carter's long-ago infidelity. With no desire to disrupt the family's life, Wilde flies back to New Jersey, believing the matter closed. It isn't.
Wilde learns that "PB" stands for Peter Bennett, who gained fame as a contestant on a "Bachelor"-type television show titled "Love Is a Battlefield." He married Jenn, the woman he met on the show. They had a very public wedding and marriage, and lived a lavish life as social media influencers until it was revealed that Peter was unfaithful to Jenn . . . with Jenn's younger sister, Marnie. For Peter, fame became a nightmare when his formerly adoring fans turned on him. In an email, Peter asks for his help, telling Wilde, "Everything I knew about myself and my upbringing turned out to be a lie. You're my cousin." But before Wilde can answer the email (which disappears from his inbox), Peter disappears after posting a photo on Instagram captioned, "I just want peace. I want it all to go away." His family, including his sister, Vicky Chiba, who served as Peter's manager, fear he committed suicide. Because Peter reached out to Wilde, he uses his security expertise to investigate. But first, he has to have "Love Is a Battlefield" explained to him. He tries to watch it with an open mind, but finds it completely irredeemable.
Coben describes the workings of Boomerang, a vigilante group that exacts vengeance on bullies. Their "mission is about punishing cruelty and abuse . . . " Their motto: "Karma is like a boomerang -- what ever you give out will come back to you." The members meet to decide which cases should be accepted, rating them as Category 1 - 5, with punishments ranging from ruining credit ratings, emptying back accounts, and blackmail to "total annihilation" for Category 5 offenses. The Stranger, a well-known Coben character, is the founder and leader of the group, the members of which conceal their identities from each other and have instituted numerous measures to ensure that if one of them is caught, the rest will remain anonymous and protected. Wilde discovers that Peter was the victim of cyberbullying -- he received compromising photos and threats. Did those messages come from someone operating on the authority of that highly secretive group?
And, of course, dead bodies are piling up and Peter becomes the prime murder suspect. Coben introduces a series of seemingly disjointed stories and characters, but do they somehow intersect? And if Wilde figures out how the lives of the various characters intertwine, will he find his mother and finally learn how he ended up in the woods alone all those years ago?
High-powered celebrity lawyer Hester Crimstein has appeared in a number of Coben's prior novels, but never as a major character until now. Her son, David, was Wilde's best friend and died tragically. David and Laila's son, Matthew, is Wilde's godson and, as noted, Wilde and Laila have long had a complicated relationship. Coben's inclusion of a romance between two older characters is touching. A widow, Hester has begun dating Oren Carmichael, the retired local police chief. The sometimes caustic, no-nonsense Hester provides a distinct contrast to the quiet, reclusive Wilde who lives in his movable, technologically advanced Ecocapsule in the woods. Their investigative collaboration is one of the story's highlights, showcasing their deeply respectful, admiring, and affectionate relationship.
In typical Coben fashion, the plot is intricately and quite ingeniously constructed, and the story moves at a steady, unrelenting pace. Coben's characters are always fully developed, multi-layered, and intriguingly complex. He also injects sardonic commentary about social issues, including the potentially far-reaching and destructive consequences of quick fame achieved through appearances on reality television.
Readers may accurately surmise bits and pieces of the puzzle, but will be kept guessing about the details until the very end of the book. And the conclusion of this absorbing tale is both extremely satisfying and very surprising. Fortunately, Coben, one of America's premiere storytellers, never rules out the possibility of publishing another novel featuring his beloved characters. Hopefully, The Match is not the end of Wilde's story.
Thanks to NetGalley for an electronic and Grand Central publishing for a paperback Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
This is not my usual high marks for one of his books. I had a hard time following the various story lines and therefore had a hard time picking up the book to finish reading it.
In October of 2000 the television program "CSI" hit the airwaves and introduced the public to DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) the Sherlock Holmes of modern crime detection. In "Match", Harlen Coben's sequel to "The Boy in the Woods", the main character continues his quasi-search for his identity and the events unintentionally precipitated by the endeavor. A tale of mystery, suspense, murder, and mayhem, the plot twist and turns like the strands of the DNA reports which launch the narrative. Coben gives the reader enough basic information about how the new process works without the scientific mumbo/jumbo that throws the non-scientific thinker into the weeds. He weaves a plausible story that captures the imagination and piques the curiosity. There are some aspects of the story which are a bit implausible, and even though the mystery is solved some loose ends are left untied. I especially liked the twist and turns made by the author without spoiling the suspense of discovery. I thought several times I had figured it all out and was happily surprised when I was proven wrong. This is a unique story and shows what a writer can do with a little imagination.
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