Harlan Coben writes potboilers, and he’s quite successful at it. Nothing against that. I read them from time to time, just as I read The Stranger for a quick and shallow amusement. It’s got a plot premise that doesn’t take too much of a stretch to buy if you’re not being picky. A guy whose father turned out to be his stepfather after years of deception decides that he’ll root out peoples family secrets via the internet, to around telling the secret to family members who don’t know, then free everyone from the prison of lies. What could go wrong?

Nowhere does Thoreau’s admonition about being wary of folks out to do you a good turn apply more than in the lives of this book’s characters. Give it a go if you’ve got nothing better to do and are tired of Tolstoy and or other highbrow lit. Here are a few other titles of the same ilk.