Fool Me Once

• Author: Harlan Coben
• Genre: Mystery/Thriller
• Publication Date: March 22, 2016
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Series: Detective Sami Kierce #1

Former special ops pilot Maya, home from the war, sees an unthinkable image captured by her nanny cam while she is at work: her two-year-old daughter playing with Maya’s husband, Joe—who had been brutally murdered two weeks earlier. The provocative question at the heart of the mystery: can you believe everything you see with your own eyes, even when you desperately want to? To find the answer, Maya must finally come to terms with deep secrets and deceit in her own past before she can face the unbelievable truth about her husband—and herself.

Hi, my name is Leah and I apparently crawled out from under a rock to write this review. So let’s jump right in, and then I can go back under my rock. I was completely unaware that this was a Netflix show until I discovered that my latest audiobook ARC from NetGalley was actually the second book in a series. I wasn’t paying attention, but at least I caught it in time to read this before I started the next book.

For the majority of the book, I was enjoying where the storyline was heading. I typically don’t start a review with what I didn’t like, but in this case, I feel like it’s necessary. My biggest issue with this book was the surprise, plot twist ending that felt completely out of touch with the rest of the book. This is one of those endings that made me angry I wasted all that time reading this book. It’s kind of funny because I just made a post including this meme, and now it applies.

Let me backtrack. To start with, I read this as an audiobook. January LaVoy narrates the story and her performance was five star, even if I didn’t think the story was quite as good as it could have been. It’s really easy to connect to Maya early on. She went from a pilot for special ops to recent widow and mother to a two-year-old daughter. Just based on that information, even if we don’t know why she was pushed to retire from the military earlier than she expected to. But she is low-key manipulative and makes ever-increasingly poor decisions. I quickly chalked Maya up as an unreliable narrator and didn’t put too much stock in what she said. 

The book is filled with red herrings. It’s fast-paced and full of characters who might be guilty of the murder of Maya’s husband a fortnight earlier. She decides to run her own investigation parallel with the police investigation, while trying to fight off the feeling that she is becoming increasingly viable as a suspect. The only thing saving her from arrest is the fact that ballistics connect Joe’s murder to an unsolved cold case that has a lot of personal relevance to Maya, except she was serving overseas at the time of the first murder.

I found myself guessing about who could have done the murders, and every single time, my theory was wrong. It made for a fun read, and I like the way there were so many surprising twists and turns throughout the book. Aside from that final twist, which I will keep my lips sealed about. IYKYK.

Another thing that I liked about the story was the way it uncovered closely held secrets about Maya’s in-laws, who are a family that is very wealthy and seem to be used to diverting attention through the use of money. But as Maya’s investigation increasingly overlaps with the police, she reveals a side of her deceased husband that she was unaware of before now.

Sami Kierce plays a role in this story, but he never really felt like a major character. Instead, it seemed like he was just filler to make this book into a series. He was hard to get to know because he is not featured prominently in the story. Additionally, I was completely unable to remember anything significant about Kierce, and found myself unable to.

Overall, the book was pretty good up until the very end. To be honest, it was heading towards a 4 – 4.5 rating until I read that last twist. That’s really what lowered the rating for me, and the fact that this book is part of a series and the eponymous character barely features in the story. Maya was the main character in the story, and is not only dealing with grief, she’s also now raising a toddler on her own. This was not the impressive series starter that I was expecting, especially after watching his adaptation of Shelter and really getting caught up in it. If this was my first exposure to Coben’s books, I would have probably given him another shot at some point, but only taking some time to get over my anger at a fictional character and situation. However, I’ve agreed to read and review an ARC of the next audiobook in the series, so I’ll hopefully get the chance to see more about Sami. 

This might be a good fit for you if: 

• Enjoy reads with unreliable narrators. 
• Like twisty, turny reads.
• Don’t mind a final hail mary at the end of a book.
• Seek out fast-paced thrillers, complicated MCs, and lots of action.
• If you’re a fan of Harlan Coben’s books or shows. (I know, this seems obvious)

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