Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I wait and wait for a new book from the mystery writer Harlan Coben.  Finally his latest came out this month and I devoured it.  "Run Away" is another domestic mystery which features ordinary people, put in extraordinary situations.  I always love the protagonist, in this case a father of three in Manhattan, and his tugs and pulls mirror mine.  My favorite Coben books are with the protagonist Myron Bolitar, a NBA basketball star whose knee is injured enough he cannot play any longer and he becomes a sports agent.  His goofy staff and weird best friend and adorable parents only prove his likeableness, and the mystery part is first rate.  This new novel involves a teenage daughter who suddenly drops out of college and becomes a drug addict.  The why and how of that transformation drives the plot, as her parents struggle to make life normal for the younger two kids while searching for her and attempting to get her out of the life in which she's drowning.  The book is filled with heart and at the center is her dad, who cannot give up on her.  He enters upon a strange set of circumstances, and the twists just keep on coming.  I needed this distraction this week, as we wait to hear about our daughter's MRI.  Come to think of it, now, this minute, I get why this was the perfect book:  parents worried about their daughter.