Gone before goodbye by Harlan Coben & Reese Witherspoon

I have enjoyed many of Harlan Coben’s novels, like Run away and Don’t let go so I couldn’t resist picking up Gone before goodbye to see what the collaboration between Witherspoon and Coben produced. It turned out to be a gripping thriller, and one that kept my interest because of the description of the role of AI in coping with grief and the dilemmas of medical ethics which are strong themes. Opening with a suspenseful chapter where Dr Marc Adams is performing heart surgery in a North African refugee camp under attack by militants, the novel then swings to a chapter where Maggie McCabe, disgraced combat surgeon, and still mourning the death of Adams, is at a ceremony to honour her mother. Maggie may have lost her licence to practise medicine, but not her passion for it, and when she is offered a job by a colleague there, treating a mega-rich Russian, Oleg Ragoravich, and his mistress, Nadia, she jumps at the chance. Not only will she be performing surgery again, but she and her sister will be free of debt. Maggie is then plunged into the world of the mega-rich, travelling on private jets, working in a palace with its own medical centre and confronting danger at every turn. Who can she trust? Is Trace her husband’s partner still alive? Why has Nadia an identical tattoo to the one that Marc had on his thigh? Why has Oleg Ragoravich disappeared?

There is pathos with Maggie’s attempt to manage her grief using a ‘griefbot’ that has been designed by Sharon her sister-in-law, and the role of cosmetic surgery in augmenting the beauty of the young women that the very rich men want is disturbing. Her father-in-law, Porkchop is an intriguing character, an old bikie with many friends, and is there to guard her when she performs an illegal heart transplantation.

As Maggie is plunged into death defying chases and escapes, the reader is swept along into the world of billionaires, with luxury apartments in Dubai, trendy night clubs and lush vineyards in Bordeaux. Then there is that stunning conclusion!

Gone Before Goodbye held my attention – it is recommended as an easy-to-read escapist thriller with thought provoking themes of medical ethics and AI.

Themes: Thriller, Billionaires, Grief, Medical ethics, AI.

Pat Pledger