Strayed away from the Harlan Coben Netflix adaptations for a while, but I finally got around to reading the source for 'Stay Close' last month. The main plot kicks off with three seemingly disconnected people: Megan, a suburban mom with a secret past as a stripper; Ray, a documentary photographer still obsessed with a man who vanished on his watch years ago; and Broome, a detective whose one unsolved missing persons case won't leave him alone.
The threads start tangling when another man disappears on the same night, the anniversary of the first vanishing. It throws Megan's carefully constructed life into chaos because she's connected to both events from her old life. The book is less a straight whodunit and more a frantic scramble to keep buried secrets buried, while Broome keeps pulling at the loose ends. Coben really piles on the domestic dread—the horror isn't just the crime, but the idea that your whole life could be a lie built on one bad night.
I found the pacing relentless, which is typical for him. You're constantly shifting between these characters as their walls close in. The 'stay close' idea gets pretty literal and grim by the final act.