On the Loose

I won this book as part of a magazine promotion and discovered I made a huge score. I literally coundn't put it down, read it in one sitting. Mr. Coburn draws his characters very well, and slowly builds suspense. This isn't a thriller or even a mystery, but a well-written character study of the residents of a small town coming to grips with two murders, and how the eventual release from jail of the killer impacts their lives. I'm going to seek out the author's previous books and look forward to his future work.

"On the Loose" isn't quite the pulse-pounding thriller the cover art suggests, and yet, I kinda couldn't put it down. Coburn isn't a mystery writer or a suspense writer, he's a novelist, the old school kind who keeps you turning the pages because the people on the page are compelling, because you want to see if things work out for them. That's the most subtle suspense writing of all, isn't it? Reading this book sent me back to a 1979 Andrew Coburn novel called "The Babysitter", the paperback of which also promised chills. That book, like "On the Loose", turned out to be subtle and cinematic and quite moving. I couldn't stop reading it then, and had much the same experience re-reading it 26 years later. I think that's called standing the test of time. It's a damn shame that Coburn isn't being published in harcover these days, but as the man himself would likely be the first to say, Writing's a brutal business but never mind, there's a story to tell. Thanks Mr. Coburn for giving me two good reads in one week. Keep after it, sir.