This is the first Harlan Coben thriller I have read, reccommended to me by my close friend Miss Muppet, and unlike many of his other books is a stand-alone novel that doesn't form any part of a series. Which is always good. Because then you don't need to rush out to get the books that come before it just so that you can understand any of the backstory.

With TELL NO ONE, the backstory is simple.....Dr.David Beck is witness to the abduction of his wife and he himself is assaulted. Months later, her body is discovered by police and laid at the hands of a serial killer who brands his victims with the letter K. Eight years pass and then police discover two bodies close to the site where David's wife was abducted. Simultaneously David begins getting E-mails purporting to be from his wife and it quickly becomes apparent that everyone around him has been keeping secrets about what actually happened. Determined to discover the truth, David sets out on a path of discovery that leads to all manner of skeletons falling from their closets and exposes a conspiracy of silence. But when David becomes a prime suspect for the murders of both his wife and the two other bodies that have been found, he is forced to go on the run untill the truth will out.

Although the whole "is she dead or isn't she?" storyline has been used before (most notably by Dean Koontz in his supernatural thriller,The Door To December) and Beck's flight from justice to prove his innocence is also reminiscent of "The Fugitive" (both the sixties t.v show and the modern day Harrison Ford remake), Coben still manages to give the whole thing a modern twist and provide a thriller that comes across as both unique and original whilst really being neither. The fact that it is told mostly from the perspective of Dr.David Beck helps keep the whole thing moving nicely as well and the revelations when they come are often as much a surprise to the reader as they are to Beck himself.

The book is very well written, easy enough to read and short enough that you could take it away on holiday with you and quite happily read it on the beach. I, for one, am very glad I have discovered this author and will certainly be looking for one of his titles again though I don't think I like this quite enough to spend money on him so will probably try for a swap on the book-swapping site I use instead.

Overall this is a refreshing change from the slew of female medical forensic novels that seem to have swamped the genre of late and a gripping thriller that keeps you hooked untill the end.

Intrestingly enough, this novel has recently been filmed as a french language film moving the location and plot to France- why this should be, I do not know but it has intrigued me enough to want to check it out!!

It will be curious to see how this translates to the big screen and, as a big fan of foreign language films, will definetly be one film I will be looking to add to my collection.