Just One Look

Written by Harlan Coben

Narrated by Angela Dawe and Luke Daniels

An ordinary snapshot causes a mother’s world to unravel in an instant. After picking up her two young children from school, Grace Lawson looks through a newly developed set of photographs. She finds an odd one in the pack: a mysterious picture from perhaps twenty years ago, showing four strangers she can’t identify. But there is one face she recognizes—that of her husband, from before she knew him.

When her husband sees the photo that night, he leaves their home and drives off without explanation. She doesn’t know where he’s going, or why he’s leaving. Or if he’s ever coming back. Nor does she realize how dangerous the search for him will be. Because there are others interested in both her husband’s past and that photo, including Eric Wu: a fierce, silent killer who will not be stopped from finding his quarry, no matter who or what stands in his way.

Her world turned upside down, filled with doubts about her herself and marriage, Grace must confront the dark corners of her own tragic past as she struggles to learn the truth, find her husband, and save her family.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Mar 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491500576

Harlan Coben

With more than seventy million books in print worldwide, Harlan Coben is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of numerous suspense novels, including Don't Let Go, Home, and Fool Me Once, as well as the multi-award-winning Myron Bolitar series. His books are published in forty-three languages around the globe and have been number one bestsellers in more than a dozen countries. He lives in New Jersey.

Reviews for Just One Look

[Lucy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

female narrator was. terrible!!!!
novel. wasgreat. as. usual. by. coben

[Cassondra Miller · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I couldn't get past the females voice.. very distracting and I tried listening twice.. got about two chapters of her talking and called it quits.. guess I will forever wonder what happens.

[Russell · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An excellent story with terrible narration. The female narrator is really difficult to listen to. It's not her voice, but her style of reading. She has the vocal range of a robot and every sentence she reads sound like the previous sentence read. I almost quit listening several times but eventually stuck it out. This is one book that's better read than listened to. She really makes this a 1-star audio book, but the author's story carries the rating more than the listening experience. The male narrator is excellent, but he plays a more minor role. It was so refreshing when he would take over the narration. Conversely, when the female narrator returned it was like fingernails on a chalk board. I really don't understand why he didn't just narrate the entire book.

[TO · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good story, but I found the female narrator quite distracting.

[B Hickerson · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is my 4th Harlan Coben book and I'm SO glad it wasn't my first. This one was suuuuuuch a struggle for me to finish. In the first few chapters, I struggled with the narration to the point of anger. The way she drags out the last word of every sentence really struck a nerve, lol. But over time, I got over it. After that, the complicated plot felt endless. I found myself checking to see how much time was left and groaning at the result. I really loved the main character, but didn't feel any connection to anyone else. Even the climax was unnecessarily drawn out. I hope I never encounter another Coben novel like this one. If I do, I'm not going to force myself to finish it that time!

[Pete Wormwood · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The book was great, couldn’t wait to listen to more, hated to stop. Keeps you guessing to the very end. The reader, however, Ms Dawe, could use more inflection in her narrative. Each sentence trails off the same way and is distracting, at least to me. But great book! Looking forward to reading (listening) to more from this author. I like to listen to stories while I work in the house or in the garden. Audiobooks are the best invention since microwave popcorn!

[sydney bastin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story line was enjoyable although a bit muddled at the ending chapters....the female reader was dreadful and distracting

[nick · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

WHAT A TWIST.!!! Robotic female narration was challenging but THAT TWIST made it worth sticking it out. Another excellent book Mr. Coben.

[Marva Dix · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed the book but thought the readers, especially the woman, left a lot to be desired

[Jeff Sykes · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I don’t normally write reviews on here. But, I had to, hopefully, spare some people on this one. The story line is ok. Compared to Coben’s others, I don’t like it as much. But, that wasn’t the problem. It’s the woman’s voice that is narrating. I don’t like to bad mouth someone trying to make a career & maybe living their dream. But, the voice was killing me! And worse than the sound & accent of the voice was the way she ended every sentence! You really have to hear it as it’s a little hard to describe. But, it had me praying for the end! And of course it was the unabridged version, which was truly not needed. Besides that, the guy’s voice was fine and the storyline was ok.

[Natalie Johnson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was an interesting book to listen to. A must

[Melissa Crouse · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Book content great…but why is she yelling….every sentence is voiced at level 11! Not a relaxing listen…don’t like getting yelled at much.

[brandi liles · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I’m sure the book would have been good but I could not finish it because of the female narrator. She was the most annoying human being I’ve ever listened to. I’m not sure how the producer survived this assignment

[bedda_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book has a quick start right out of the gate. You don’t have to wait a long time for something to happen. And it never stops for long. The suspense starts right away and Coben manages to keep it going. There are enough twists and turns and false leads and partial answers that lead to new questions that you don’t lose the tension along the way. There is a lot going on here. You jump from scene to scene and have to keep track of a lot of characters (some of whom you never actually meet) in a complex plot. A very complex plot. There are people who are not who they appear to be, pasts that come back to haunt people, memory loss, creepy killers and just about anything else you can think of. They are all pieces in a puzzle you don’t have the picture for so it is a surprise when you finally see how they all fit together. And the surprises keep coming to the very last page. There are some points that are a bit of a stretch and push you almost to the point of unbelief and it also stops just short of being too convoluted and becoming confusing. But it is written well enough that it never really loses you. It’s a good fast paced thriller.

[bookwormteri · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The ending was such a let down! The whole book built up to blah. You wait the whole time to find out this big secret and when you do discover it, you hope there is something else going on because that secret was the pits!

[Scott Shepard · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good story, maintaining interest throughout. 2 problems keep it from being 5 stars.
1. The cadence of the primary narrator, the repeated reading style sentence after sentence was very bothersome and I will prefer not to listen to her narrate future books.
2. Coben frequently springs important answers at the very end that should have been dealt with or suggested through the story. These elements have no presence or hint up to that point and I feel something significant has been withheld from me.

[sandra brown · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Awful Good story of awful narration reading But if you can get by the terrible inflection in the female voice Harlan Coban writes good stories

[yvonne · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mystery right to the end excellent reading
I Just loved it!!

[dmoliver · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Her husband's disappeared, her kids have been threatened, the police don't believe her, and all her friends seem to have something to hide.

[bellafoxx · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I actually read this book twice, I kind of skimmed through it, then put it aside and when I finished my library books I picked it up again and read it through, no skimming or skipping. Even knowing how it ended I still couldn't stop reading it.It starts with a US Attorney finding out his sister, whose death was ruled accidental, was actually murdered, then you jump to Grace picking up pictures and getting her son from school, the scary blond Asian guy is here too. You go from one story line to another, characters come and you wonder where they fit and how does it all work out? And yet it is easy to follow. Somehow, he makes it work, you think, there is no way all these different story lines and people are going to come together. The ending is "WOW" and somehow, believable.

[cala3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

enjoyed this book, although, the very ending was way more complicated than it needed to be

[donitaremy1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Slow beginning but got better. Good book for reading on the beach. Twists and turns. Husband with a hidden past takes off when a photo of himself and four other young people (20's) shows up randomly stuck in the middle of a pack of photos his wife had developed.

[Freddi Esquerra · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent read. Literally keeps you guessing until the last word

[acorley84 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a little hard to follow on audio, however, once I could remember who each character was, it became a very interesting story.

This was a first read for this author for me and I won't hesitate to pick up another book by him.

The story was very in depth, sometimes too much, however, had a pretty decent ending. It certainly wasn't predictable.

It seemed to me that there were too many characters to follow and keep up with and I don't think the story would have lacked any without a few of them.

I had a rough time in the beginning, however, became very interested throughout the middle of the book. I also believe that if I would have read the story rather than listened to it, that it would have been easier to get into and stay with the story.

[sirroger · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Starts off a bit slow, and only really gets suspenseful near the end. Putting all the pieces together can be a bit confusing and forced, and the story ends about 4 times. Good, but not best.

[karriethelibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great audio book because it keeps the suspense up and spins a good tale.

[clueless_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Not as good as 'No Second Chance.' I found the blend of violence and ordinary suburbia a bit too raw for my taste.Coben certain created engaging characters.Some quotes;'I'm a swarm of useless facts.'Being a mother, Grace thought, was a lot like being an artist -- you are always insecure, you always feel like a phony, you know that everybody else is better at it than you. The mothers who doted obsessively on their offspring, the ones who performed the numbing tasks with that Stepford-ready smile and supernatural patience -- you know, those mothers, always, have the right supplies for the ideal after-school craft ... Grace suspected that these women were profoundly disturbed.

[rfewell_3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Pretty good mystery. I'm not really a mystery reader, but it was entertaining -- lots of twists and turns at the end.

[coffyman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Harlen Coben is a fantastic author but I have to say that this book was not one of his best. It didn't really suck me in like "The Woods" did. At times it was almost boring and I didn't really care for the protagonist. It was also confusing in places. I'll continue reading Coben's books because I still regard him as one of the best, but I hope the next one I read is better.

[adithyajones · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good page turner with enough twists and turns,but the plot seems to be some what implausible at times.