The Match
The Match (Wilde #2)
By: Harlan Coben
“Sometimes, the secrets did indeed wither and die— but other times, they grew stronger, too strong, taking nourishment from the sunlight and wreaking destruction.”
I read a lot of Coben’s (Run Away) books several years back before I started writing reviews, so it was fun to read another one of his books.
Turns out this one is the second in a series which I didn’t find out until I had already started it. I would recommend reading book one first. I was still able to follow the story and enjoy it but there is quite a bit of background context that would have made some of the character interactions make more sense.
I’m going to have to go back and read it now!
As a boy, Wilde (I looked this up and I think you pronounce it with long ‘i’ sound) was found abandoned in the woods, somehow surviving on his own. It’s now decades later and he still doesn’t know his origin.
Until he gets a hit on a DNA website.
Once Wilde meets with his biological father, he gets entangled in a series of murders that may or may not be associated with a vigilante group who has taken it upon themselves to enact justice against internet trolls that are out of reach of the normal justice system.
Wilde takes it upon himself, with the help of his foster sister, Rola (who is some sort of hacker, I think that would have been described in book 1), and his ‘stand-in’ mother figure and celebrity lawyer, Hester Crimstein, to track down the vigilante group and figure out how he and his blood relatives are involved.
Long- kept secrets have caused a lot of damage and when they finally come to the surface, more destruction will ensue.
There is some interesting discussion in this book about DNA websites and reality TV. Fans of the Bachelor may resist some of the proposed notions or maybe they already suspect some of the lies. Of course this is a fictional story, but I have no doubt that there is a good bit of truth to it.
One thing that I didn’t like about it was that Hester kept asking Wilde about what really happened when Wilde and Hester’s son got in a car accident that resulted in her son’s death. Wilde kept putting her off and she would acquiesce that they could talk about it later but by the end of the book we still don’t know what happened. If this was discussed in book one, then I retract my complaint, but if it wasn’t in the first one, then I’m annoyed that they didn’t offer any answers to that effect.
Here’s a couple random quotes that I liked:
“If you are deluded and narcissistic enough to believe you should obey your gut rather than looking coldly at the facts, that’s your bias, not your gut.”
I wish more people looked at cold hard facts before they let their feelings dictate truth to themselves.
“I’m a big fan of punching Nazi’s in the face.”
This one resonated with me because of the first couple lines of my review for Kristin Hannah’s book The Nightingale.
I thought this was a really suspenseful story with some surprises that I didn’t have figured out. If you’ve liked Coben’s other books, I think you’ll enjoy this one, and if you haven’t read him before, I think this would be a good one to read (after you’ve read book one of course…)
Parental advisory: There are a few f-words and references to some inappropriate photographs but I would say it’s generally moderate.
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
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