Gone Before Goodbye by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben

 Fast paced international conspiracy thriller.

Grief, betrayal, and a high stakes conspiracy entangle a disgraced former Army surgeon, Maggie McCabe, in a complicated plot involving the wealthy elite. Maggie is barely holding herself together after losing her medical license and her husband. Drowning in debt and facing an uncertain future, her former mentor gets her a super secret job as a concierge surgeon to a Russian oligarch. When she arrives at the highly secure location, she’s told that she is to perform two surgeries, take her money, and leave. Absolute non disclosure. 

I could go on with the synopsis since what I’ve read on product pages is wildly inaccurate or misleading, so I’ll let the reader find out the rest. No spoilers but there’s definitely a large cast of characters and a lot going on.

I liked the collaboration between these two authors as I have lately gotten bored with Harlan Coben who seems to write mostly the same formulaic standalones. I would love to know the extent of Witherspoon’s contribution, but, regardless, it seems to work with the two of them. I found it interesting that the main character in this was female as that is not typically the case for Coben. 

I would say this novel reads like an action film. The Maggie character is nothing short of amazing along with being beautiful and resourceful with her daring escapades. Maybe a bit too much so? The Porkchop character was almost a cliche and made for a very convenient wingman. There wasn’t much dimension to any of them, but since the main focus was twists and revelations, one can ignore that and of course logic goes out the window. So most of it was implausible, but that often happens with conspiracy stories. Emotional depth was attempted with the exploration of Maggie’s grief and her interaction with the grief bot was interesting as an aside. 

So we have a wounded heroine who, against all odds, gets the answers she needs and the closure she craved.

I was able to listen to the audio book while also following along in the e-book. The narrators are a full cast recording and they all did a fantastic job of bringing this book to life and creating a really immersive experience. Reese Witherspoon voices the protagonist, Maggie McCabe and her performance was nothing short of amazing. Chris Pine, Saskia Maarleveld, Peter Ganim, Suehyla El-Attar Young, Kiff VandenHeuvel, and James Fouhey voice the remaining characters (some doing multiple roles) with appropriate tone, accents, and dramatic flair. Don’t miss out! 

This is a standalone and is not part of any series. Yet. Bet they adapt it to a film or limited series.

Genre and tags: surgery, international intrigue, rich people. Conspiracy, friends, death