Play Dead

✍ Scribed by Harlan Coben

• Publisher: Dutton
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 271 KB
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

The worlds of celebrity and sports are brilliantly dissected and turned upside down in #1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Cobens debut thriller.

**Theirs was a marriage made in tabloid heaven, but no sooner had supermodel Laura Ayars and Celtics star David Baskin said I do than tragedy struck. While honeymooning on Australias Great Barrier Reef, David went out for a swimand never returned.

Now widowed and grieving, Laura has a thousand questions and no answers. Her search for the truth will draw her into a web of lies and deception that stretches back thirty yearswhile on the court at Boston Garden, a rookie phenom makes his spectacular debut...

**

From Publishers Weekly

Terrible secrets lead basketball star David Baskin to fake his death while honeymooning in the tropics in this manipulative but otherwise engaging first novel. His bereaved bride, supermodel Laura Ayars, not sure that David's drowning was accidental, starts sleuthing--which proves dangerous when somebody begins killing people who may have the answers she wants. Meanwhile, David, fitted out with a new identity and appearance, tries out for his original team, the Boston Celtics, and "replaces" himself at his former position. Why he has faked his death is explained in the story's penultimate surprise. But why he risks playing in front of fans who know his style is never addressed. Crucial coincidences abound, such as the love affair of David's brother and Laura's sister--adults who, as kids 30 years before, just happen to have witnessed their parents' worst sins. Coben manufactures tension primarily by keeping key details out of his narrative, a method that eventually wears thin. The resolution comes as a relief, with less of a bang than its buildup promises.

Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

When Laura Ayers and David Baskin secretly marry, it is a match made in heaven. She is a former model turned entrepreneur, while he is the Boston Celtics basketball sensation. But tragedy strikes on their Australian honeymoon when David never returns from a swim in treacherous waters. As Laura struggles with her grief, events unfold to make her question David's mysterious disappearance. She begins to uncover a conspiracy of past and present that slowly destroys all those involved. Coben weaves a delicate web of intrigue that throws alternating suspicion on each person Laura trusts. A fast-moving thriller with a rapidly twisting plot that keeps readers in suspense until the final page. --Katherine Fitch, Jefferson Sci-Tech, Alexandria, VA

Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.