Customer Reviews

Just One Look

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(52)
3 star:		(41)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

Grace Lawson has a good life, a devoted husband, two lovely children, a nice home and a successful career as an artist. One day she discovers a twenty-year old photograph in with a set of newly developed family photographs. In the old photo is a group of young people, one of which looks like her husband. Her husband, Jack, denies that it is he, but he shortly disappears. The police are no help so she delves into Jack's past herself and finds that she really did not know her husband at all. Grace also has a past. She is a survivor of a stampede at a rock concert known as The Boston Massacre. After being nearly crushed to death, Grace became the poster child for the news media. In Grace's search for her husband she discovers that her past and his past are intertwined.

Harlan Coben tells an intriguing story that is as complex as a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, but never confusing. There are many twists and turns along the way with a nice surprise ending. It is an engrossing book and was very hard to put down.

After a sleepless night gobbling up my first Coben novel, "The Innocent," I rushed out and bought this one. And once again I was compelled to finish it in one day. Yes, the criticisms of other reviewers are valid. The plot is confusing and contrived, and the ending leaves you somewhat flat. Many characters aren't fully fleshed out. However, Coben does an excellent job with Grace and Charlaine, two strong, resourceful women. I was moved by his dead-on depictions of the special love parents have for their children. And his numerous pop culture references ring true. Most important, "Just One Look" is an exciting read that's impossible to put down ... which, in the end, is job one when writing an escapist mystery.

Having seen Harlan Coben's name on the covers of novels for years, I finally broke down and decided to read one. Unfortunately, I didn't pick the right one to start with.

JOL starts out well enough. There is a good mystery, and it definitely keeps you interesting. Then things start to unravel. The truth starts coming out, and bit by bit the story starts becoming more far-fetched. By the time this one is over, you'll be sitting there scratching your head and wondering why your name was left out of this book...after all, everyone else in the world was apparently in on this deception. The closest I can come to explaining this is a soap opera. As the end was revealed, it was like "Your brother-in-law's second cousin's third wife's stepmother was married to my twice-removed uncle's niece's third child's grandson". It was just too far out to be real.

I love a complex story as much as the next guy, but even the most complex plot needs to have SOME grounding in reality--unless it's a Dean Koontz or Stephen King kind of thing. This one just stretchs the believability too far.

This was the first Harlan Coben book I have read and after reading some of the reviews on this site, I have decided that if they thought this was not one of his best than I can hardly wait to read his other stuff. I thought this was one of the best books I have read in a while, and I am normally a very disciplined reader and can put down a book at any time and I found myself reading this at stop lights (I was almost done and driving to work)which is something I have never done before.
I found this book to be compelling, interesting and different. When you always have at least three books going, (book on tape in car, one in my handbag, and one on my nightstand) to find a new author that writes this well is exciting.

OK, I've read some of the other reviews and their criticisms are valid; nonetheless, I couldn't put this book down. And I love the fact that the plot is complex, and the way Coben has so many dire consequences evolve from a few seemingly minor events. That said, I agree that many of the characters are underdeveloped, although I did think Grace was well done. My personal biggest complaint was that the REALLY BAD bad guy was so much a cardboard stereotype. I know tha psychopaths exist, but this guy was pretty far out there, and also, too much of a "perfect killing machine" for my taste. It just doesn't SEEM real.

A lousy book. Having read the three books by Harlen Coben before this, I was relishing digging into this one. Those books kept me on edge--I literally couldn't stop turning the pages.

This one, however, was a chore to get through. The continuity was horrible. The characters weren't very likeable. And the plot twists were, well, too twisty, like when you twist a piece of taffy too much and it gets so thin it falls apart. That's exactly what happens to this plot. It just falls apart.

Somebody (it couldn't have possibly been the talented author of the previous novels, could it?) overworked this one to death!

Harlan Coben was born in New Jersey in 1962 and is best known for his Myron Bolitar novels. "Just One Look", however, is one of his was stand-alone novels, and was first published in 2004.

Although Grace Lawson is a well-known artist, she's better remembered for an incident known as the 'Boston Massacre'. Fifteen years before the book opens, Grace was in the front pit for a a Jimmy X concert - a show that had been due to start at 8:30pm. The crowd are, obviously, a little agitated when it hits midnight and there's still no sign of the singer. Unfortunately, at that point, things move a little beyond agitation when three shots are fired. The resulting mayhem eighteen people dead and Grace, briefly, in a coma - with a variety of injuries. A year later, she movea to France to study art and meets Jack Lawson there - the man who was to become her husband. It had been love at first sight for the pair, though each kept their secrets : Grace couldn't really talk about the concert (her memories were still a little fuzzy), while Jack had a falling-out with his family - the details of which he was also reluctant to share.

Grace and Jack returned to America, shortly after Grace fell pregnant with their first child. (Emma is now eight, while their more recent addition, Max, is six). Her troubles start as she picks up some freshly-developed photographs from a family day out - when she discovers a photo she didn't take in her packet. At first she thinks someone else's photo has accidentally been sorted into hers - but then she suspects it's been placed there on purpose...There are five people in the photo and, judging by the quality of the print,and the style of dress, it was taken around fifteen years ago. One of the faces has been covered with a large 'X', while another - she thinks - is of Jack...but, at a point in his life before she had met him. Later that night, when Jack arrives home from work, he sees the photo and - within a matter of minutes - nips out the front door and drives off without a word. When he doesn't return, Grace knows he's in trouble. She's right : what she doesn't know, however, is that Jack's been grabbed by Eric Wu - not a man you'd want to mess with. The police, initially, assume he's just done a runner (possibly to scratch a seven year itch). Grace, on the other hand, knows better - and so starts trying to discover what's happened to him. Luckily, she has a couple of useful allies - including noted Mafia Boss Carl Vespa and an Assistant US Attorney, Scott Duncan.

Although I don't think "Just One Look" will ever be considered a classic, it's certainly much better than a Dan Brown book. Admittedly, there wasn't much in the way of tension or fear and some of the characters - the friendly neighbourhood Mafia Boss, for example - were just a little bit too convenient. There also turned out to be a few too many connections between the key players...however, I did find it to be a very enjoyable, pacey and easily read book and it's certainly worth a rattle.

Then pick up a Harlan Coben book. I tell my friends when they get tired of the same old suspense novels, to try one of Coben's. They are nearly impossible to figure out and the end always throws two twists at you. One, you could probably guess and the other from left field. If you read thrillers to try to guess the author's ending, then don't pick this book up. You will just get frustrated and yell, "No one could have guess THAT!" hehehe A friend of mine actually did that. But, if you read for the thrill of the ever-changing plot, love when you can't put a book down, and thrive off cliff-hangers at the end of every chapter, then this is the book for you.

Each time I read a Harlan Coben book I am skeptical and say he's not going to suck me in using the same story each and every time. But each and every time you read his books it's like the others don't exist. This guy can really create an island where you can't wait for the next page and are afraid if you put the book down you will never make it back. This is a great read, lots of fun and has the usual warped ending. Great beach and summer reading here.

Grace Lawson is a happily married mother of two whose world is suddenly shattered when her husband, Jack, disappears. Harlan Coben's "Just One Look" follows Grace's desperate efforts to find out where her husband went and why. Did he leave of his own volition or was he abducted? The one clue that Grace has is a twenty-year-old photo that shows her husband with four other people. Who are these people and what do they have to do with Jack's disappearance?

"Just One Look" has a strong opening but it falters towards the middle and completely falls apart at the end. Many books deal with a husband or wife who vanishes without a trace. It's one of the oldest and most effective hooks, since a missing spouse is sure to grab the reader's attention and gain sympathy for the protagonist. However, in order to sustain interest, the author must also create well-developed characters and an engrossing plot. Coben does neither. Jack is a cipher, Grace is little more than a frightened and confused woman, and the villains are straight out of central casting. Two of the clichés in "Just One Look" are a mob-connected wiseguy out for revenge and an Asian killing machine who disables his victims with his bare hands.

In almost every thriller written today, the reader expects the obligatory twists and turns towards the end, and Coben dutifully provides plenty of surprises. These unexpected plot developments do not save the book because they are too illogical and melodramatic to be taken seriously. "Just One Look" promises a great deal with a very exciting opening, but the convoluted and overwrought conclusion undermines everything that has gone before.