Six Years [NOOK Book]

( 226 )

Overview

In Six Years, a masterpiece of modern suspense, Harlan Coben explores the depth and passion of lost love…and the secrets and lies at its heart.
 
Six years have passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to ...
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Six Years

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More About This Book

Overview

In Six Years, a masterpiece of modern suspense, Harlan Coben explores the depth and passion of lost love…and the secrets and lies at its heart.
 
Six years have passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd.
 
But six years haven’t come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd’s obituary, he can’t keep himself away from the funeral. There he gets the glimpse of Todd’s wife he’s hoping for…but she is not Natalie. Whoever the mourning widow is, she’s been married to Todd for almost two decades, and with that fact everything Jake thought he knew about the best time of his life—a time he has never gotten over—is turned completely inside out. 
 
As Jake searches for the truth, his picture-perfect memories of Natalie begin to unravel. Mutual friends of the couple either can’t be found, or don’t remember Jake. No one has seen Natalie in years. Jake’s search for the woman who broke his heart, who lied to him, soon puts his very life at risk as it dawns on him that the man he has become may be based on a carefully constructed fiction.
 
Harlan Coben once again delivers a shocking page-turner that deftly explores the power of past love, and the secrets and lies that such love can hide.
 
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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Counselors often tell clients to bury old relationships and move on. After Natalie, the love of his life, ditched him to marry another man, Jake Sanders did exactly that; yet now, six years later, he can't resist her call. When he sees an obituary for her husband, he impulsively decides to go to the funeral; but once there, he discovers that her marriage story was a total concoction. As he investigates further, everything that he thought he knew about his beloved dissolves before his eyes; with his fascination redoubled, he continues to search for the real woman behind all these deceptions. A suspenseful thriller with a thoroughly arresting concept.

The Washington Post - Art Taylor
Harlan Coben's readers know him as the master of this type of story: a life suddenly unraveling, the past summoned back into a swiftly shifting present, secrets peeling back to reveal more secrets…With Six Years, the author shows once more how it's done. What's impressive here is how narrowly constructed the story actually is, with the plot repeatedly circling back on itself, moving ever homeward rather than further into unknown territory, and leaving nearly nothing—minor characters, seemingly incidental details, stray remarks—wasted. Sherlock Holmes famously chided Watson, "You see but you do not observe," and the beauty of Coben's craftsmanship here is how often he can lure us into not perceiving what's clearly right in front of our eyes.
Publishers Weekly
In the prologue to this Kafkaesque stand-alone from bestseller Coben (Stay Close), Jake Fisher, a political science professor at Lanford College in Massachusetts, promises the love of his life, Natalie Avery, to leave her and the man she’s about to wed, Todd Sanderson, alone. For six years Jake keeps his promise, until he sees Todd’s obituary, flies to the deceased’s Palmetto Bluff, S.C., funeral, and finds that the widow is not Natalie. This is merely the first of many shocks. He later gets the brush-off from Natalie’s sister, and when he tries to revisit the retreat in Kraftboro, Vt., that Natalie was attending when they fell in love, he’s told there is (and was) no such place. Surprising secrets among Jake’s friends and colleagues propel him on a trail of violence and labyrinthine deception. Coben has achieved greater suspense in other thrillers, but this ranks among his strangest and most ingenious plots. 5-city author tour. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest Literary Agency. (Mar.)
Library Journal
Jake Fisher finds the love of his life, Natalie, and imagines their future together as husband and wife. Instead, she dumps him and a few days later then invites him to her wedding to a man she just met. Jake watches Natalie take her vows, and she tells him to leave her alone forever. For six years, he keeps that promise. But when he sees Natalie’s husband’s obituary, Jake decides to attend the funeral and comfort Natalie. He is stunned to discover that the man’s widow is not Natalie and that the church where he watched her marry has no record of the ceremony.

Verdict Coben is one of the best thriller writers in the business, and he delivers another amazing novel that will resonate with readers long after the final page is turned.The narrative is immersive, and the well-drawn characters and twisting plotting are stellar. With such a cool hook and a surprising and satisfying payoff, don’t wait six years to read what might be Coben’s best since Tell No One. [See Prepub Alert, 10/17/12.]—Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Reviews
Six years after the summer girlfriend he's convinced is the love of his life throws him over to marry someone else, a shocking series of revelations draws a Massachusetts professor back to her. "Promise me you'll leave us alone," Natalie Avery demanded of Jake Fisher after her wedding to surgeon Todd Sanderson. And for six years Jake's done exactly that. But the news of Todd's death rekindles his desire to see Natalie again. What could be the harm, now that she's been widowed by the robbers who shot Todd to death? When he travels to their home in South Carolina, however, he walks into mystery and denial. Todd's widow isn't Natalie, but someone named Delia. Natalie's sister Julie Pottham denies knowing anything about Jake. So do Cookie, the Kraftsboro Bookstore Café owner who served Jake and Natalie all those scones, and Rev. Kelly, who officiated at the wedding. In fact, there's no record that Natalie and Todd were ever married at all. An anonymous email telling Jake, "You made a promise," grieves Jake but doesn't deter him from his search. Neither does a close encounter with a pair of killers who want to know where Natalie is and are certain Jake can tell them. Up till now, Jake's nightmare is as infernally all-absorbing as Dr. David Beck's in Tell No One (2001). But the discovery of a clue that begins to unravel the mystery also sends the tale spiraling past the bounds of plausibility, even for a thriller, until Jake's quest for the truth entangles benevolent conspiracies, hired killers, multiple disappearances, the Mafia and all the people besides Natalie that Jake has held nearest and dearest. Like Jeffery Deaver, veteran Coben (Stay Close, 2012, etc.) is a magician who's a lot more fun to watch when you don't know how he's fooling you.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781101611029
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
  • Publication date: 3/19/2013
  • Sold by: Penguin Group
  • Format: eBook
  • Pages: 368
  • Sales rank: 74
  • File size: 827 KB

Meet the Author

Harlan Coben
Harlan Coben is the  internationally bestselling author of more than twenty previous novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Stay Close, Live Wire, Caught, Long Lost, and Hold Tight, as well as the Myron Bolitar series and, more recently, a series aimed at young adults featuring Myron’s nephew, Mickey Bolitar. The winner of the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony awards, Coben lives in New Jersey.
 

Biography

Harlan Coben may be the only mystery writer to have inspired the dubious endorsement, "Raymond Chandler meets Bridget Jones" (as the Chicago Tribune wrote about Darkest Fear). But it's not hard to see what the critic means: Coben knows how to create a good chase, but he is also adept at generating laughs along the way. His books often start with a few pieces of bad news and end with the closet door flung open to reveal a few skeletons.

Debuting in 1995, the series that cemented Coben's reputation revolves around Myron Bolitar, a wisecracking sports agent who always finds himself getting into trouble, via his clients or his own past. What's endearing about these books is Coben's willingness to have fun as he spins a story. He might poke fun the yuppie wardrobe of Bolitar's partner, Win, or his gal Friday (and sometime female wrestler), Big Cyndi's, tendency to wear "more makeup than the cast of Cats." There's a slight boys' club air to the series, but it's more frat house than locker room -- or more appropriately, rec room, since Bolitar finds himself still living at his parents' in his early 30s.

Sports-averse readers should not avoid the Bolitar books; in the end, sports play only a peripheral role in the story, which is primarily about the mystery. Given this, it's not surprising that Coben has called William Goldman's Marathon Man one of his favorite thrillers and has cited Philip Roth and Alfred Hitchcock as influences.

And yes, there's certainly life beyond Bolitar! Coben has crafted a number of superb stand-alone thrillers filled with tortuous twists and turns and peopled with characters you can't help but root for. In a 2001 interview, the author stated, "I love a book that sneaks up behind you at the end and slaps you in the back of the head." Ultimately, that describes everything in Harlan Coben's oeuvre.

Good To Know

Coben has four children with wife Anne, his sweetheart since age 20.

Coben advises aspiring writers thusly: "Write. Don't take classes. Don't join workshops. Don't listen to me," he told the Charlotte Austin Review. "Just write. Oh, and cut. Cut a lot. You're probably not editing yourself enough. Then rewrite. Then rewrite again. Repeat. Like with shampooing."

Coben says his mother was his best literary inspiration in an interview with the Page One literary newsletter. "We'd go to the old Barnes & Noble in Manhattan (back then, if you can believe this, I think there was only one) and spend the entire day. We didn't have much money back then and we almost never bought toys -- but we were always allowed to get whatever books we wanted."

In our interview, Coben shared more fun facts:

"I once worked as a tour guide in the Costa del Sol of Spain."

"I pretty much only wear Lilly Pulitzer ties because my best friend owns the company."

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    1. Hometown:
      Ridgewood, New Jersey
    1. Date of Birth:
      Thu Jan 04 00:00:00 EST 1962
    2. Place of Birth:
      Newark, New Jersey
    1. Education:
      B.A. in political science, Amherst College, 1984
    2. Website:
      http://www.harlancoben.com

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5
( 226 )
Rating Distribution

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(87)

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(53)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 226 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted Sat Mar 23 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    REVIEW THE BOOK, NOT B&N

    I understand that some people don't like the amount B&N is charging for eBooks, but c'mon people... don't rate the book lower. Use the review feature for the purpose it was intended and review the book. So annoying!

    29 out of 32 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Tue Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    more from this reviewer

    Six years have passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the lov

    Six years have passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd.




    But six years haven’t come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd’s obituary, he can’t keep himself away from the funeral. There he gets the glimpse of Todd’s wife he’s hoping for…but she is not Natalie. Whoever the mourning widow is, she’s been married to Todd for almost two decades, and with that fact everything Jake thought he knew about the best time of his life—a time he has never gotten over—is turned completely inside out.





    Classic Coben! I absolutely loved this story! Wow!




    The entire story is told from Jake’s point of view and we get to know everything he is feeling from confusion to joy and every other emotion you can conceive. A character with layers and we get to peel them away and really understand his life. To love someone so quickly and so deeply, then to have them just slip away, later realizing all the lies and deception, and knowing that if he delves any further to get to the truth he is putting himself and people he cares about in danger.




    This complex story is very unique and perfectly paced. I loved the romantic twist in this suspense filled novel, spiced with just a bit of humor – Coben style. Readers are taken on a wild ride from the first page to the last.  You will not be able to put this book down so plan accordingly. Harlan Coben keeps getting better and better! I don’t know how he is going to top this one! 

    23 out of 26 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Tue Dec 25 00:00:00 EST 2012

    Kyree

    This book is awsome

    18 out of 29 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Fri Mar 22 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    A review is meant to give an opinion, not , I repeat, not give a

    A review is meant to give an opinion, not , I repeat, not give a synopsis of the book, which in some cases go on and on. To the review, Harlan Coben should not try to write a love story, something is so off about this book, the main character runs around like a fool, I have read other Coben books, and , boy, this is nothing like the others. I'm only finishing it so see how much more ridiculous it gets. Don't waste your money, get it out of the library like I did.

    17 out of 21 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Tue Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    No ink no paper $15.00 wonder what my comment costs??

    No ink no paper $15.00 wonder what my comment costs??

    17 out of 102 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Tue Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    $15 for a Nook Book?? yeah right

    $15 for a Nook Book?? yeah right

    15 out of 97 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Wed Mar 20 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    I was introduced to Harlen Coben's terrific writing style throu


    I was introduced to Harlen Coben's terrific writing style through his Myron Bolitar Series. I fell in love with the humor Coben injects into
    his writing. In my opinion it takes real intelligence to write witty repartee. Coben does it expertly in the Bolitar series and continues that
    same expertise in his new book Six Years. 

    The book is a mystery-thriller with a love story backbone. Six Years is the kind of book I treasure, where the main character shows true
    feeling but also there's a kick ass mystery to be had as well. I love good character development, you get to know the why's and the how's
    of the character all while a rollicking, fast paced mystery happens. In Six Years the book opens with a heartbreaking romantic interlude.
    The main character, Jake Fisher falls madly in love with Natalie. They spend three glorious months in a remote retreat but then Natalie
    abruptly ends the relationship and only days later marries another man. She tells Jake to leave her and her new husband alone, never
    contact them again. Jake, now a broken hearted man, agrees to leave her alone, forever.

    Six years later everything changes and Jake decides to break his long held promise and seek out the only woman he ever loved. What
    Jake doesn't know is by looking Natalie up he's opening a can of worms that he will not be able to close again. A fast paced and
    suspenseful  story unfolds with twists and turns that keep you wanting to know more. 

    This is one of those books that you just can't put down because each page offers a new and interesting twist that furthers the story along.
    Six Years was an excellent read, a five star mystery-thriller with a romantic lean that keeps you guessing, cheering for the good guy,
    hoping for the fairytale outcome and reading well into the night. I highly reccomend this book or any other Halen Coben book for that
    matter!

    14 out of 16 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Fri Mar 22 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    more from this reviewer

    I am an HUGE Harlan Coben fan but I will NOT pay $15 for an e-bo

    I am an HUGE Harlan Coben fan but I will NOT pay $15 for an e-book. I guess I'll wait until I can get it at the library. This is why e-readers are dying. It's a shame because I love my Nook Simple Touch.

    11 out of 49 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Wed Mar 20 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    Can't understand why the cost of e-books keeps going up. Really

    Can't understand why the cost of e-books keeps going up. Really? $15 for an e-book? What does B&N have to do to transmit this book to my Nook, anyway? $15 worth? I don't think so. Ridiculous!!

    11 out of 63 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Tue Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    more from this reviewer

    Six Years.  Harlan Coben. Dutton Adult. March 2013. 368 pp. hbk.

    Six Years.  Harlan Coben. Dutton Adult. March 2013. 368 pp. hbk. ISBN #: 9780525953485.
    Jake Fisher is watching the love of his life, Natalie, marry another man, Todd. Jake’s heart is broken but he had to see this wedding take place.  Before the bride and groom leave for their happy life together, Natalie makes Jake promise she will leave them alone and never try to see or speak to them again.  He agrees. Six years later he sees an obituary for Todd who has left behind a wife and two children. Jake believes the promise is now null and void with the death and decides to attend the funeral.  The terror begins with this journey.
    How shocking to find that Todd’s wife at the funeral isn’t Natalie. The nightmare continues as Jake decides to track her down.  Everywhere he goes, including their old hunting grounds in Vermont, all he hears is denial.  No there wasn’t an art retreat center, no the place where he ate the scones Natalie loved doesn’t remember him or her; the people he remembers don’t remember him; the police try to scare him away from the area; and on and on it goes. Denial and threats galore!
    Then Jake decides to track through the college records where he teaches and was once a student.  Little by little a web of connected teachers, students, family members, horrific crimes, deaths, and more intensify the plot which leads to a criminal web and a “Fresh Start” relocation program.  Only the last item is one in which no one knows where those with new lives have disappeared to.  But they aren’t all gone and the violence begins and continues over and over until a final culminating scene where the story is finally pieced together. In the end, disappearance, death and living are key elements for the safety and security that holds no guarantees.
    Harlan Coben holds the reader in a non-stop, perilous journey through mystery with a constantly haunting quality that never lets up!  Six Years is superb crime fiction sure to satisfy fans both old and new – a bestseller for sure!
     

    11 out of 15 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed Mar 20 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    Another good book

    Couldn't put it down

    10 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Tue Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    If you enjoy Harlan Coben's other boks, you'll enjoy this one.

    If you enjoy Harlan Coben's other boks, you'll enjoy this one.

    10 out of 13 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Fri Mar 22 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    I love Mr. Coben's books. I really do but the effort on this one

    I love Mr. Coben's books. I really do but the effort on this one was mailed in. The reviews cry "Better than Tell No One!! His Best ever!"
    This isn't better than Tell No One, it IS Tell No One. The same plot, the same hero/lost heroine, the same extremely contrived ending. It's the same book in a different locale.
    It becomes too cutesy with nods to the Myron and Mickey Bolitar series and has no real depth. I was really disappointed  and think maybe the one book every March is just too little time
    for new ideas and characters that you really want to know more about. Six Years was not it.    

    9 out of 11 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Thu Mar 21 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    Another book that I can't put down. Don't trust the 3 stars it

    Another book that I can't put down. Don't trust the 3 stars it seems someone is trying to lower the rating perhaps a another jilted author.

    9 out of 12 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Tue Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    the ending was entirely too contrived. Feels like he wrote himse

    the ending was entirely too contrived. Feels like he wrote himself into a corner and then watched an episodic television series and thought, "Aha!".

    9 out of 12 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Mon Mar 25 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    I love Harlan Coben, but this book is terrible.  The plot is com

    I love Harlan Coben, but this book is terrible.  The plot is completely contrived and the main character acts in such an unrealistic way that it was a struggle getting through each page.  I was so excited for this book and that excitement amplified my disappointment.

    8 out of 9 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Fri Mar 22 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    Why?

    Why so much for an e book?

    6 out of 27 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed Mar 27 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    This is the worst Harlan Coben book I have ever read. The main

    This is the worst Harlan Coben book I have ever read. The main character is unlikeable. I am very disappointed. by the way, Barnes and Noble needs to correct their review. They are using the wrong name for the main character. it is Jake Fisher, not Jake Sanders. I wonder if the reviewer has even read this book.

    5 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Fri Mar 22 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    So disappointing!

    I don't think HC wrote this; I really don't. Everything about this book was amateurish. It was so dumb and implausible that I couldn't even laugh at it. I have enjoyed most of HC's books (I have read them all) but this one somehow felt "off". I think that John Hart is the "new" Harlan Coben.

    5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Thu Mar 21 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    Good read

    This author never disappoints me. Good story, good characters, better than good writing.

    5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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