A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. After a while, though, the high-energy revelations begin to sprawl, and this synthetic, highly enjoyable tale ends up stuck between grim realism and the sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy in which nobody, not even the dead, is ever gone for good.Īre we not men? We are-well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).Ī zombie apocalypse is one thing. But will it save Ken, or Katy, or Will himself?Ĭoben dispenses crucial plot twists with an eyedropper, expertly wringing the maximum suspense out of each jaw-dropping surprise. Will’s newfound courage comes too late to help Sheila, who’s already been killed and dumped at the side of a Nebraska road. With the help of Julie’s kid sister Katy and his omnicompetent sidekick Squares, an ex-Nazi turned franchise fitness guru, Will goes in search of the truth about Ken and Sheila, ignoring Pistillo’s threats of legal action and the even more dire threats of Ken’s murderously well-connected school buddies John Asselta, the Ghost (ex-wrestler), and Philip McGuane (ex–student council president) in an attempt to stand on his own two feet after years of hiding behind his big brother’s strength. And there’s even worse news: Joseph Pistillo, the FBI’s top man in New York, is not only still looking for Ken, whom he turns out to have a damningly personal reason for wanting to find he suspects Sheila, who never told Will anything about her turbulent past except that she’d run away from home, was up to no good as well. Then, several hours after her funeral, Will suffers an even more devastating loss when his lover Sheila Rogers, a volunteer at Covenant House, the New York shelter for street kids Will runs, disappears as well. A betwixt-and-between thriller from the talented chronicler of sports agent Myron Bolitar ( Darkest Fear, 2000, etc.).Įleven years after his brother Ken vanished after being accused of raping and strangling neighborhood girl Julie Miller, Will Klein’s dying mother tells him that Ken’s still alive.

Gone for good harlan coben synopsis