March Book Club: Tell No One

I love the murder mysteries, y'all. That is weird, because I am generally afraid of everything, so you would think that a scaredy like me would not like books where killers show up unexpectedly and off people.

But you would be wrong. So, so wrong.

After three memoirs, Addie picked a book that does not require one to think very much, to consider gender politics, to ponder the fleetingness (I think I made that one up) of life; in short, she picked a fiction book that actually identifies itself as fiction (I'm looking at you, James Frey!).

The book is Tell No One, by Harlan Coben, and I liked it.

Of the books I've read for the book club, this is probably the only one I would actually read again. That is not to say that the others were poorly written--not by any means. But we had one book about rehab, one about stripping, and one about grief. I mean, it's about time we had a book that does not push me two steps closer to therapy.

So here is my secret to solving mysteries: I just pick the one character in the book that seems the most unlikely to be the killer, and that guy is usually the one. Probably this method works 90 to 95 percent of the time.

I applied the same logic to Tell No One, and I was right. Also, I was wrong.

The plot revolves around this guy, David Beck, whose wife Elizabeth died eight years ago, shortly after they were married.

Or so he thinks.

Around the eighth anniversary of the death, Beck gets an email that leads him to a website, a live webstream in which HE SEES HIS WIFE.

He of course has a big old conspiracy theory, and the rest of the book is about what happens as he tries to find out if the woman on the website is Elizabeth, and if so, why she "died."

It's pretty fast-paced and easy to read (I read it Saturday morning). I'd definitely recommend it for a lazy, snowy weekend. You don't have to confront any issues or contemplate your legacy or anything heavy like that. You can just read it, finish it, put it down, and move on.

Sometimes, a book like that is a good thing.