I Will Find You

David Burroughs, the protagonist of this disappointing standalone from bestseller Coben (the Myron Bolitar series), has been incarcerated in a Maine penitentiary for five years, convicted of murdering his three-year-old son, Matthew, by beating his head in with a baseball bat. David, who was prone to sleepwalking, has no clear memory of the fatal night. At trial, a neighbor testified that she saw him burying the murder weapon near David’s Massachusetts home. The inmate’s world is upended when his sister-in-law, Rachel Anderson, a disgraced investigative journalist, visits and shows David a photo taken at a Six Flags amusement park that a coworker of Rachel’s ex-husband shared with her. In the background is an eight-year-old boy resembling Matthew. The possibility that his son is alive sparks a successful escape attempt, enabled by the prison warden, who’s conveniently a friend of David’s father, and a desperate search for the child in the picture. Oddly, David, who wasn’t convicted of a federal crime, was incarcerated in a federal prison, though this circumstance allows two FBI agents to join the manhunt. Early on, scenes from the viewpoint of some conspirators lessen most of the suspense. This is far from Coben’s best work. [em]Agent: Lisa Vance, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (Mar.) [/em]