Acclaimed thriller writer Harlan Coben opens this book by stating that this is an earlier work of his and as such is raw. He himself looked at it well after the fact and decided it was considerably substandard when compared to his other works, but that we should bear this in mind when reading it. Just as well he said this, as it was a haphazard thriller that is predictable and full of holes, and in sore need of editing. Coben's thrillers usually involve events that have happened in the past, and this one is no exception. Set at the end of the 80s/beginning of the 90s, it starts off with a mystery murder as the prologue before delving into the main plot of the ...  Read the complete review

I've read and reviewed a few Coben novels now and consider him to be one of my favourite authors. Unfortunately, because this was one of his far earlier pieces, it doesn't have the same flair as the rest of what I've read and so it's not really one I'd recommend. Upon opening the book I noticed an introduction to the book itself that was written by Coben. He tells us not to read this if it's the first book of his we've ever picked up; It was written over 20 years ago when he was in his early twenties, just starting out as a 'naïve' writer. None the less, I picked this up before knowing this partly because I'm familiar with the author, and partly because the ...  Read the complete review

While recently shopping online at Tesco I had a quick look through the paperbacks to see what was new and found this Harlan Coben novel. As a big fan of his I promptly bought it for £3.99 having no idea that Play Dead may only just have been published but was actually written over 20 years ago. Not only that but it had been left as Harlan Coben originally wrote it 20 odd years ago so in the front he warns the reader if this is the first book of his they are going to read "return it and grab another" so I think he readily acknowledges this isn't his best work. Not very reassuring to be honest when you've just spent money on the book! Laura Ayars is ...  Read the complete review