The Match, by Harlan Coben, is the second in what will probably be an ongoing series of books about the character Wilde. The first was The Boy from the Woods, which introduces readers to Wilde, a man in his mid-thirties who was discovered as a feral child surviving on his own in the mountains of rural New Jersey. As is the case with all adults who were once feral children, Wilde likes to be on his own, living in a tiny home in the woods and having trouble forming lasting relationships with other people.
Which is not to say that Wilde lacks friends and close connections. They’re just on his terms. Wilde, a military veteran who makes his living in a shadowy, unspecified line of security work, has a surrogate mother in Hester Crimstein, a powerhouse criminal defense attorney—and an on again off again romance with Crimstein’s former daughter in law and her son. It’s complicated, and if you read The Match, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
The “match” referred to in the book’s title is a DNA match on a family ancestry website that brings Wilde into contact with a man he believes is his biological father. Seeking a connection, but still ambivalent, Wilde meets this man in Las Vegas. It doesn’t go well, and he returns to his home in the woods of the Ramapo mountains in New Jersey.
Wilde also decides to respond, belatedly, to a message on the ancestry site from a man claiming to be his cousin. This unidentified man also appears to be in terrible trouble. Using his resources as a security expert, including the help of his sister, from foster care, who is a hacking expert, he identifies his cousin as a notorious reality TV star who has been “cancelled” for egregiously bad behavior.
The cousin needs help, but he’s also impossible to find. Is he dead? Wilde wants to know, and once he starts looking, he gets drawn into a nightmarish world of reality TV stars and their celebrity fame hall of mirrors, toxic online trolls, vigilante hackers, and murder… He’s tempted to walk away, and if he were smart, he would. (But what would a good thriller be without a character looking for trouble as you, the reader, says, “Don’t do it!”?)
That’s all I’m going to say about the plot. As for the writing, there’s a reason The Match was named a Best Book by USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly. Coben is good. He doesn’t need me to say that, but it’s worth saying, nonetheless. Coben takes you deep inside the sick world of reality TV and the fragile, dangerous egos of its fleeting stars. He understands the online world well, including some fun sequences about hacking.
It’s richly detailed, but never boring. The book maintains suspense throughout many (and I mean many) plot twists and unexpected developments. That said, as is the case with many effective thrillers, a lot of the story and its characters are somewhat preposterous. Feral child turned leading man? Check. A criminal defense attorney with a heart of gold? Check. Homicidal reality stars? Check. But, you go with it. Why not?