Six Years / Harlan Coben / 351 pgs.

“Six Years”  is an excellent thriller about a man who will do anything for love. Jake Fisher fell in love with Natalie Avery one summer while he was writing his thesis and she was attending an art camp. She left him at the end of that summer to marry another man--Todd Sanderson. He promised to leave them alone and never try to contact her.

Now six years have passed and he sees her groom's obituary on the front page of their college website. For Jake, all bets are off. He needs to see if Natalie was willing to rekindle their relationship. He feels that he was only leading half a life during the past years. But when he attends Todd Sanderson's funeral he is surprised that the widow is not Natalie. This starts him on a quest to find Natalie but he encounters road block after road block.

Jake also attracts the attention of the mafia, various police officers, and the FBI. Despite being beaten, kidnapped, and shot, Jake continues to follow all the clues to find out what happened to the only woman he had ever loved.

The story is told in first person as though Jake is talking to the reader including various asides. We get to follow along as he uncovers clues and conspiracies and as he uncovers secrets and betrayals. The style of the book is engaging and engrossing. It was a real page-turner that kept me up later than I should have been up. Jake was a great hero--an ordinary man who gets in way over his head and perseveres because of his great love for Natalie.