The Match
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4.1 • 115 Ratings
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A shocking genetic match exposes a family's darkest secret in this gripping thriller from the creator of the #1 hit Netflix series Stay Close.
After months away, Wilde has returned to the Ramapo Mountains in the wake of a failed bid at domesticity that confirms what he's known all along: He belongs on his own, free from the comforts and constraints of modern life.
Suddenly, a DNA match on an online ancestry database brings Wilde closer to his past than he's ever dreamed, and finally gives Wilde the opening he needs to track down his father. But meeting the man brings up more questions than answers. So Wilde reaches out to his last, most desperate lead, a second cousin who disappears as quickly as he resurfaces, having experienced an epic fall from grace that can only be described as a waking nightmare.
Was his cousin's downfall a long time coming? Or was he the victim of a conspiracy as cunning as it is complex? And how does it all connect to the man once known as The Stranger, a treacherous fugitive with a growing following whose mission and methods have only turned more dangerous with time?
Named a Best Book by USA Today • Wall Street Journal • Publishers Weekly
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
From its opening paragraph to its breathtaking climax, this thriller had us shook. Three decades ago, Wilde was “the Boy from the Woods,” a feral child discovered alone in the New Jersey mountains. Now, thanks to DNA testing, Wilde knows who his father was…a man who had no idea he even had a son. And that’s just the start of Harlan Coben’s white-knuckle mystery, which involves reality TV, the dark web, and a shadowy vigilante group that exposes the identities of online trolls. Oh, and a serial killer. We first met Wilde in The Boy from the Woods, and other characters from Coben’s books show up too, but you don’t need to have read any of them to enjoy this. There’s a real urgency to the writing—like the events are taking place right here, right now. Coben’s intricate plotting, shockingly violent twists, and duplicitous characters make The Match read like classic pulp fiction.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Could Wilde, a 40-something man who was discovered living on his own three decades earlier in the New Jersey woods, finally learn how he came to grow up feral? Bestseller Coben provides some answers in this uneven sequel to 2020's The Boy from the Woods. After years of uncertainty, Wilde submits a DNA sample to a genealogy website, but after he receives a message about a possible second cousin, identified only as PB, Wilde gets distracted and never responds to PB's message. Sometime later, just as Wilde is preparing to return to the U.S. from Costa Rica, a new alert identifies his biological father as Nevada's Daniel Carter. But when Wilde tracks him down, Carter's unsure about more than a one-time meeting. Wilde reaches out to PB hoping to learn more, only to find this potential second blood relative unreachable. His search for PB enmeshes him in the messy world of internet trolls, vigilantes, and reality TV, and lands him as the prime suspect in a murder. Plenty of exciting action makes up only in part for a lack of character depth. Coben has done better.
