Harlan Coben is one of my go to authors as he always draws me in and gets me page turning from the very first chapter.

This book can be read as a standalone even though it follows on from The Boy From the Woods.

Wilde has grown up never knowing his biological family but decides to try to track them down via a DNA database. He gets a match! Will he finally discover the truth of where he came from, who his parents were and why he was left in the woods?

A group called Boomerang are a vigilante group getting revenge on people who get kicks out of internet trolling. One of them goes missing and dead bodies start appearing, could this be linked? Is there a vigilante serial killer on the loose and is this somehow linked to Wilde?

The beauty of the way Harlan Coben writes is that there is always so much going on individually but then it all somehow links up and you never see it coming!

Written mainly from Wilde's point of view, but also a couple of other main characters, makes it easy to follow and it's all in the current timeline. A few short chapters are written from the point of view of the mystery killer!

I found the subject of the DNA technology all really informative, well written about and clearly well researched.

Another winning thriller in true Harlan Coben style.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and author for an ARC.

Can DNA tests give you the answers you’re looking for?

Wilde has recently returned after a trip to Costa Rica to his Ecocapsule in the Ramapo Mountains. Feeling unsettled, he decides to take a DNA test. Wilde thinks that this might help him find some relatives. He had been found in the mountains when he was between six and eight years old. No one had ever come forward to claim him. Now, in his early forties, he feels that the time is right to reach out. Two results come back, one shows a match for his father and the other result for a cousin.

Wilde takes several weeks to find the courage to approach his father. It’s a strange meeting and shortly after they’ve met, he discovers that the man, his wife and two daughters have vanished. Why?

His cousin is a reality star. He leaves Wilde with a very strange message and Wilde reaches out to the other members of the family to discover what the message meant and why, if his assumption is correct, this person has committed suicide.

Harlan Coben’s latest novel has taught me so much about DNA tests. The number of sites that offer these tests is quite staggering. Some people take multiple tests, as is the case with his cousin. His father’s test, on, the other hand, was a gift from his daughters. Both (tests) result in gigantic upheavals and tragedies for two families. Wilde gets involved, especially when he realises that his cousin’s suicide has set off a chain reaction of murders.

As always, Harlan Coben has produced an interesting storyline, filled with outstanding characters and an exceptionally smooth read. What do I mean by smooth read? Some authors never manage to get the rhythm of the book right, however, others, like Coben, make the words just flow.

Rony

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the book to review.

Totally awesome!!

I've been a fan of Harlan Coben for a long time and I can honestly say he has never disappointed. I love this series and I think Hester is 1 of my favourite side characters ever. I can so see a spinoff series with her in the lead!

It is all about how you play the game.....

In "The Boy From the Woods" we met Wilde who, as a child, was found living in the woods and who had no knowledge about his parents. It is now years later and Wilde is a loner who likes his own company and who likes to go off the grid.
This second instalment in the series is a very personal story. Wilde finds his father at the beginning of the book through a match on a genealogy site. Will he finally learn how he ended up in the woods or will this just lead to more questions? He also finds a match that can only be a sibling and gets drawn into the disappearance of a reality star and a secret society who call themselves Boomerang. A group of vigilantes who take revenge on trolls. Their motto: "Karma is like a boomerang - whatever you give out will come back to you"

The pace is fast and you don't want to put the book down! This will make an awesome TV series!

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House, Cornerstone for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

What is not to love about a Harlen Coben book? This author had kept me gripped with his books for years and this is just as good as the first I read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫⁣
I LOVED THIS BOOK. Let’s face it, I love all Harlan Coben’s books, but I realllyyy loved this one. Oh boy, Wilde has stolen my heart ♥️ ⁣
For those of you who have read THE BOY FROM THE WOODS, you’ll remember Wilde, the feral child who was found alone living in the woods with no memory of how he got there or how long he’d been there. With THE MATCH we go on a fascinating journey with adult Wilde as he uncovers where he came from- obviously things won’t be plain sailing and Wilde is drawn into a string of murders 😬 THE MATCH was a fast paced, fun and captivating thriller I just couldn’t put down!

Oh this was really good. I feel like I probably should have read the previous book as it was obvious this was a sequel.

However it was brilliant. Full of tense chapters and thrills as I’d expect to read in a thriller.

What a great storyteller Harlen Coben is. Weaving a complex plot with great characters and a huge dose of tense drama, The Match is another excellent book. Wilde was found wandering in the woods as a young boy. No-one knew who he was or how he came to be there. Fast forward to the present time, and Wilde now an adult decides to enter his DNA onto a genealogy website to see if he has any blood relatives. Believing he has found his father, he sets off to Las Vegas to meet him. Kick starting a chain of events that has far reaching consequences and delving into situations beyond his comprehension that put lives in danger, this book delivers on all levels. With a fast pace and many twists this gripping thriller is destined to be another best seller.

This book really has it all; it is packed with characters and plot. There’s a serial killer, a vigilante group, the fallout from appearing on a reality TV show and a man who wants to discover the truth about his own past.

Reading it, I was unaware that there was a previous book in this series, so it completely works as a standalone novel.

While it’s a complex plot, it’s superbly handled with the narrative both easy to keep up with and gripping at the same time. This is a book that grabs you at the start and keeps your attention to the very end.

Discovered living alone in the Rampo Mountains in New Jersey as child, a now grown up Wild decides it’s time to find out who his parents are, and why he was left alone in the mountains. He puts his DNA on to an ancestry website, and when a partial match comes up months later he decides to peruse this but the person has mysteriously disappeared. Wilde decides to investigate further, but little does he know that he will be thrown in to a world of online trolling which sees people connected to it start to die, seemingly the work of a serial killer, deliberately targeting these people. Could Wild be next? And what is the connection to his own mysterious history?

This was the first book I’ve read by this author, and it didn’t let me down, there were a lot of different characters and sometimes I did find it hard to keep up with who was who and what was going on, but it all comes together nicely in the end with a dark twist!

I really enjoyed this one, I will definitely be reading other books by Harlan Coben!

Thank you for the pre-read!

Wow what an amazing read. Fast paced and so engaging, this book will keep you hostage until you are finished.

Brilliant characters and story lines, the ending will keep you guessing.

Highly recommended

Wilde, the boy from the woods, has always wondered why he was abandoned and who and where his parents are. So when he receives a message to say his DNA has been matched to someone who could be his biological father, he arranges to meet the man. However he comes away with more questions than answers. He decides to draw a line through the situation until he is contacted by another relative, this time a second cousin. Wilde hopes he will get some of the answers he’s looking for but even he couldn’t predict the turn of events that happened next. From a vigilante internet group to social media stars and a fugitive called The Stranger, it’s not long before bodies start to pile up and time starts to run out for Wilde. Can he find the answers he seeks before anyone else dies?
Quite simply put, Harlan Coben is a master of his craft. In the second book about Wilde he brings the reader an intense, funny and hard hitting story that’s impossible to put down. With brilliant characters like Hester Crimstein and the main character Wilde, this is another brilliant story by one of the best crime writers around. I absolutely loved it.

A great fast paced story. The premise is that Wilde was found as a child living in the woods. He was rehabilitated and later on in life decided to try and find his family through a DNA genealogy website. His DNA gets a match and he then arranges to meet his match. Before he can meet his match he disappears. Wilde then embarks on a journey to find him and any other members of the family. The story is a little complicated and there are many characters who also seen to play a very important role in Wilde’s life and there also then started a spate of murders involving some of those characters. I had worked out some of the twists but still some of them shocked me. The ending is also fairly convoluted and complicated and in some small way, left unfinished. However this is a book I would recommend to anyone who wants a read that is just above the run of the mill thriller.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

One of the most rewarding things about following an author over the span of their career is the fascination of seeing their writing evolve and mature. And with Harlan Coben, it’s been one helluva ride. From the hugely entertaining escapades of Myron Bolitar to a collection of deviously plotted stand-alones, his books never disappoint. And with The Match, he delivers yet another high-octane, razor-sharp, twister of a read.

We’re back with Wilde, who we first met as the abandoned, feral, 5 year-old in the The Boy From The Woods. Now in his forties, still a loner and still living in the woods, Wilde has finally decided to track down his roots through a genealogy website. The discovery of a match raises more questions than it answers.

Parallel to this, we have a serial killer knocking off members of a secret vigilante group that metes out “justice” to Internet trolls.

When the two narratives collide, they do so in spectacular fashion. What follows is frantic, tortuous, and if I’m honest, a tad confusing. I had to force myself to slow right down and focus on what I was reading, rather than whipping through the pages like a dervish.

But this is what Coben’s writing does to you. It’s an irresistible combination: short punchy chapters, witty dialogue, exhilarating plot lines, and a cast of hugely engaging characters, including some old favorites, whose cameo appearances here bring extra pop to an already fizzing narrative.

I love how Coben has developed the character of Wilde into a worthy successor to Myron Bolitar, and I’m crossing everything that this isn’t the last we see of him.

A follow up to “The boy from the woods” which I would recommend you read first, it is possible to read The Match in isolation but there are important links.
Wilde was abandoned in the woods as a young child and has no knowledge of why or who his parents were. Using a DNA database he thinks he may have found his father, but at the same time another “match” calls out to him but then vanishes. Wilde decides to try and find out why.
It’s a book we would expect from Mr Coben. Multi layered, twisty, red herrings and gradual reveals. Pretty topical with the unseen consequences of digging into your DNA but also with the fascination in reality TV, influencers and trolling. Some clever and thoughtful ideas underpinning a fast paced story.
A very satisfying continuation of Wilde’s story and demonstrates why Harlan Coben continues to be the master of this kind of writing.

I loved The Boy from the Woods and loved The Match even more. It's a brilliant page turner, fast paced and gripping.
Wilde is a fascinating character and I was glad to learn more about this character and his background in this novel.
I was glad to catch up with the characters and all of them, old and new, are fleshed out and well developed.
Harlan Coben is a master storyteller and this book kept me hooked and turning pages.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I read the previous Wilde book and then straight into this one. We find more of Wilde's background and he gets dragged into a DNA mystery that may or may not have something to do with his past.
I found this very enjoyable.

I've been a fan of Harlan Coben's for a long time. When I got my hands this book, the second in his Wilde series, I think I may have screamed. Wilde is one of my favourite characters, second only to Win. The series has a lot about using ancestry websites, and I love researching my family tree, so that was an additional element I loved.

In the first book, The Boy from the Woods, we were introduced to Wilde, who was found at the age of 6 (or thereabouts) living feral in the woods of the Ramapo Mountains. Now an adult, he knows nothing of his original family, or even if he had one. He's content to live in the woods, often alone. His only relationships are with the family of the first friend he made as a child.

In The Match, Wilde tries to locate his real family via a family history website - one of those that uses DNA samples to match relatives. When one of his contacts disappears under mysterious circumstances, Wilde feels obliged to investigate. The trail leads to a secret online group who expose online trolls. When people connected with this group begin to die, one by one, it becomes clear a killer is out for revenge - and the next person on their list could be Wilde.

I've read every one of Harlan's books and he just keeps getting better and better. The Match is a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat thriller that doesn't sacrifice character development for plot. You will care about these people! He's also a master of misdirection. While you're looking one way, smugly thinking you've solved the mystery, he hits you with the twist that was there all along if only you'd been smart enough to spot it! There is an Easter egg for fans, with the reappearance of a character from an earlier book (no spoilers!), as well as fan-favourite, Hester Crimstein (Myron Bolitar), who is a main character here and almost steals the show. Reoccurring themes are the morals of revenge and vigilantism, and how your real family is the one you choose. I do hope there are more books to come!

The Match is one of my favourite reads this year. I absolutely loved it. Thoroughly recommended to anyone who loves Harlan's books, clever twisty thrillers, and to fans of authors such as Lee Child (Jack Reacher) and Linwood Barclay.


Thank you to Harlan Coben and Cornerstone/Random House for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Harlan Coben has written yet another masterpiece. Wilde our enigmatic protagonist written about initially in Boy from the Woods is back with a vengeance. A stand alone story with many of the characters linked to the previous book and from the Wilde Series, introduce the reader to yet another five star read . The complexities of modern technology, enhanced by three dimensional characters, complex story line and scientific breakthroughs in DNA all linking ignorant and innocent families unaware of their heritage combining to deliver yet another guaranteed best seller. Every page a gift, nothing irritates, nothing jars, the unfolding of pure magic from star to end. Surprising denouement leading to a worthy conclusion followed by an untangling of a long awaited mystery. Easy to say but difficult to express the gratitude and thanks to author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the undiluted joy of reading and reviewing this ARC.

Originally, the boy from the woods, known as Wilde, appeared in a previous story in what may become a series. I hadn't read the previous book and found it made no difference to my reading of this story.
I quickly understood that his parents dumped this boy and grew up in the woods in a mountain range, somewhere in New Jersey. Obviously clever, and without any contact with humans for a long time, he learned how to fend for himself in such difficult circumstances. This knowledge is necessary when you understand how he continues to live while looking for his parents or any other known relatives, some of whom he has managed to find on a DNA database. Some of the results prove useful while many send him downed blind alleyways, leading him to wonder why he was dumped and what has happened to the people that should have been close to him, during his lifetime.
He has cut himself off from some very good friends and has an on off relationship with the lady who is the mother of what appears to be his best friend. This is both helpful and causes a clash with a very clever lawyer who has helped him in the past and is clearly involved in a number of very difficult cases at the moment, but with an outcome that is difficult to foresee. A serial killer is targeting specific individuals and it is only as the story progresses that you find out how the stories are interlinked and how they may become solved.
As with previous Harlan Coben suspense or mystery stories I've read before, the pages turn very quickly as I need to find out what happens next and why. My only difficulty is in deciding whether I should go back and read the previous story that is linked to this book or whether I pick up the writers next book? This one came to me as a free copy and this has not changed my review which found me trying to understand the various twists and turns, which I thoroughly enjoyed and can already see this book on the big screen, like several of his other novels.

The outcome of this really surprised me - I was like Oh wow, didn't see that coming. The characters in the story were all so intriguing.
I really enjoyed it, having only ever seen Harlan Coben's books as TV programmes, I was pleased to finally read one of his books. It was so hard to put down. Can't wait to read my next Harlan Coben!
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Random House for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.