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09a14e8
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Two people, a man and your ex, Maura, are in the car," Reynolds says. "Officer Canton pulls them over for a DUI. Something spooks them. They panic, shoot Officer Canton twice in the back of the head, take off."
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Harlan Coben |
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ce3ff15
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Obsession does not seek out problems and correct them; it manufactures them out of nothing, feeds them, makes them stronger.
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Harlan Coben |
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c759638
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All around her, children and families played and laughed and reveled in the glory of this seemingly ordinary day. They did so without fear or care because they didn't get it. They all played and they all laughed and they felt so damn safe. They didn't see how fragile it all was.
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Harlan Coben |
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9d7fca3
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Secrets...were cancers. Secrets festered. Secrets ate away at your innards, leaving behind nothing but a flimsy husk.
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Harlan Coben |
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0560185
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Terrific," Simon said. "The psychos are on my side."
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simon
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Harlan Coben |
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daf6f39
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The eyebrows were his most prominent feature--unusually thick and angry and constantly undulating
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Harlan Coben |
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207edd8
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They would claim that she was either delusional or naive to the point of a learning disability.
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Harlan Coben |
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cbf7c4f
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Certain problems cannot be solved if you are constantly entertained and distracted.
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Harlan Coben |
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65c36e3
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Myron likes to say that even the ugliest truth is better than the prettiest of lies.
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Harlan Coben |
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dec0b7a
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Billy Joel was on the radio, singing, "I love you just the way you are." Big talk, Myron mused, when you've been married to Christie Brinkley."
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Harlan Coben |
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21e1c1a
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I look at the helpless bundle in the crib and she looks up at me and I wonder what I would not do to protect her. I would lay down my life in a second. And truth be told, if push came to shove, I would lay down yours too.
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kids
love
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Harlan Coben |
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b1240c1
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Love your parents - while we are busy growing up, they are growing old.
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Harlan Coben |
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beaf657
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But grief likes to hide behind bushes. It enjoys leaping out of nowhere, startling you, mocking you, stripping away your pretense of normalcy. Grief lulls you to sleep, thus making that blindside hit all the more jarring.
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Harlan Coben |
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3b48061
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Some things we pack away, stick in the back of the closet, never expect to see again--but we can't quite make ourselves discard them. Like
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Harlan Coben |
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139252b
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They think my male helplessness is cute. When a single mother does any of those things, she is neglectful and on the receiving end of the superior moms' scorn.
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Harlan Coben |
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4a4d514
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maybe it was because the lonely can sometimes sense the lonely.
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Harlan Coben |
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89bb5bb
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Hell, I want to Hugh Jackman a sponge bath. So what? You can;t help what you want. You're human. Let it go.
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Harlan Coben |
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c674b63
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Her muscles clearly were not just for show. She pulled him into an empty chemistry classroom and closed the door. There were workstations and beakers and sinks with high faucets. A giant chart of the periodic table of elements, both a staple of every science classroom and a cliche, dominated the far wall. "Where is she?" Kristin asked. Adam wasn't sure how to play it, so he went with honesty. "I don't know." "How can you not know?" "We were..
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Harlan Coben |
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44e5cd3
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The boys wore helmets that looked too big on their heads, like the Great Gazoo on The Flintstones, and it was nearly impossible to tell which kid was which.
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Harlan Coben |
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197c23b
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Butterface." Then Thomas spoke slowly. "But. Her. Face." Adam tried not to smile"
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Harlan Coben |
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679ec30
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He stood on the stoop and watched them walk down the path. Corinne hit the minivan's remote, and the back yawned open like a giant mouth. Thomas tossed his bag into the back and took the front passenger seat. The mouth closed, swallowing the equipment whole. Corinne gave him a wave. He waved back. He
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Harlan Coben |
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201531b
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He opened the door and headed into the kitchen. The kitchen table was a mess, done up in Early American Homework. Thomas's algebra textbook was open to a problem that asked him to complete the square in the quadratic function f given by f(x) = 2x2 - 6x = 4. A number two pencil lay snuggled in the book's crevice. Sheets of white-with-light-blue-squares graph paper were strewn everywhere. Some of the sheets had fallen to the floor. Adam
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Harlan Coben |
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edca8fd
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They asked for my name. I was tempted to go with either I. P. Daily or Wink Martindale, but I stuck with Mark Kadison because he was a friend of mine and if they called, he'd just laugh.
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Harlan Coben |
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eddd783
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Okay," Loren said. "Anything else?" It was like a shadow fell over his face. "Eldon?" "Yeah," he said. "There's something else." "I don't like the way you said that." "I don't like saying it, believe me. But I think whoever did this did more than just smother her." "What do you mean?" "You know anything about stun guns?" "Some." "I think they used one." He swallowed. "In her." "When you say 'in her,' do you mean--" "I mean exactly what you ..
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Harlan Coben |
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1df3ec9
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Mark's shots fell through the metallic hoop, "but how many of them have that kind of accuracy?"
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Harlan Coben |
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3e970e3
|
You may want to know if Tyrese ever goes down to Florida and what happens to TJ and Latisha. You may be wondering if Shauna and Linda stay together and what that means to Mark. But I can't tell any of that because I don't know. This story ends now, four days after the death of Hoyt Parker and Griffin Scope. It is late. Very late. I am lying in bed with Elizabeth, watching her body rise and fall in sleep. I watch her all the time. I don't cl..
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Harlan Coben |
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60cf774
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Oh. I take it from your tone that the custody battle is not going well." "Tom has an in with the judge. A golfing buddy, believe it or not." "You can't get a venue change?" "My attorney says no. Guess what Tom's claiming." "What?" "I lead a"--Esperanza made quote marks with her fingers--"'prurient' lifestyle." "Because you're a wrestler?" "Because I'm bisexual." Myron frowned. "For real?" "Yep." "But bisexuality is so mainstream now." "I kn..
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Harlan Coben |
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d4fe6d1
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Myron showered and threw on a pair of sweats. His pants had blood on them. His own. He remembered that old Seinfeld routine about laundry detergent commercials that talk about getting out bloodstains, how if you have bloodstains on your clothes, maybe laundry wasn't your biggest worry. The
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Harlan Coben |
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c988cab
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Adam left work early and drove to the new turf field at Cedarfield High School. The boys' lacrosse team was practicing. He parked down the block, out of sight, and watched his son Thomas from behind the bleachers. He had never done this before--watched a practice--and he probably couldn't articulate exactly what he was doing here. He just wanted to watch his son for a while. That's all. Adam remembered what Tripp Evans had said at the Ameri..
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Harlan Coben |
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da90f38
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There were some night paths the mind was better off not traversing;
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Harlan Coben |
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2a60e93
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I might be good at what I do, but despite the fact that King's Cross station is indeed where Harry Potter headed off for Hogwarts, I do not possess an invisibility cloak.
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Harlan Coben |
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b182495
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On the news, the neighbors are always like, 'Gee, I didn't know that nice man was chopping up little kids--he always seemed so polite.' But you go back, you ask their schoolteachers, you ask their childhood friends, they almost always tell a different story. They're never surprised.
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Harlan Coben |
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b9e007d
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Butterface." Then Thomas spoke slowly. "But. Her. Face."
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Harlan Coben |
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7478c8a
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This pain is better than the pain of giving up on him. A mother doesn't give up on her child. So I can live with the pain. I can't live with giving up.
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Harlan Coben |
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a5e9d5e
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wave. "Hey, girls." Myron Bolitar prided himself on big opening lines. The girls were both high school seniors, both pretty in that coltish way. The one sitting on the corner of his old bed--the one he had met for the first time an hour ago--was named Erin. Myron had started dating Erin's mother, a widow and freelance magazine writer named Ali Wilder, two months ago. This party, here at the house Myron had grown up in and now owned, was som..
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Harlan Coben |
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277a979
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you prefer macho he-men," Myron said. "I understand." She snickered. "Why does he keep looking at me like that?" "My guess? He's probably checking out your ass." "Good to know somebody is." Myron cleared his throat, glanced away. "So you want to have dinner together tomorrow?" "That would be nice." "I'll pick you up at seven." Ali put her hand on his chest. Myron felt something electric in the touch. She stood on tiptoes--Myron was six-four..
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Harlan Coben |
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b0425fb
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Friedman, Rick Friedman (the two Friedmans are not related--at least, I don't think they are), Selina Walker, Ben Sevier, Christine Ball, Jamie Knapp, Carrie Swetonic, Stephanie Kelly, Lisa Erbach Vance, Diane Discepolo, Craig Coben, and Anne Armstrong-Coben, MD. The stories of Mickey Bolitar and his friends Ema and Spoon can be found in the trilogy of young adult novels Shelter, Seconds Away, and Found. I think you adults will like them to..
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Harlan Coben |
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3ed56c7
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There are some places the mind should not go; it gets steered there anyway.
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Harlan Coben |
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7fc2988
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Some people claim that money is the root of all evil. Could be. Others say that money can't buy you happiness. That may be true. But if you handle it right, money buys you freedom and time, and those are a lot more tangible than happiness.
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Harlan Coben |
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394eb18
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Some people held grudges; Esperanza clutched them and tied them around her waist and used cement and Krazy glue to hold them steady.
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Harlan Coben |
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113ecb7
|
There are various theories about why the years seem to pass faster as you get older. The most popular is also the most obvious. As you get older, each year is a smaller percentage of your life. If you are ten years old, a year is ten percent. If you are fifty years old, a year is two percent. But she had read a theory that spurned that explanation. The theory states that time passes faster when we are in a set routine, when we aren't learni..
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Harlan Coben |
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6577316
|
It was one lesson he never forgot. You don't sit back when you or a loved one is being assaulted. And you don't act like the goverment with their "proportional responses" and all that nonsense. If someone hurts you, mercy and pity must be put aside. You eliminate the enemy. You scorch the earth."
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Harlan Coben |
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adbbb6b
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Secrets don't like to stay underground.
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Harlan Coben |
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fba9a93
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Still, death is a great teacher. It's just too harsh. I wish i could tell you that through the tragedy I mined some undiscovered, life-altering absolute that I could pass on to you. I didn't. The cliches apply -- people are what count, life is precious, materialism is overrated, and the little things matter, live in the moment -- and I can repeat them to you ad nauseam. You might listen, but you won't internalize. Tragedy hammers it home. T..
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Harlan Coben |