Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

The first poster(s) could please provide a synopsis of these last four chapters to guide the discussion. There will also be a final comments / overall thoughts thread.

41.
Titus calls Brandon and tells him to come out or he kills the mother. The mother calls Brandon just in time to warn him. As Kat digests this, she sees Brandon being dragged in to a black SUV. Kat tells the feds to get a chopper to follow the SUV. Reynaldo gets ready to assault the farmhouse.
42.
Aqua goes to see Jeff and convince him to give love a chance.
Titus tells Reynaldo to burn the house down with Dana in it. Reynaldo kills his partners and tosses them in the blazing house. But he hears no screams from within.
43
Dana is hiding at the boxes that were being used as prisons.
Titus kills his driver as soon as they are back at the farm.
Kat arrives, but the FBI wants to set up a negotiation. Kat thinks otherwise.
SHE runs at Titus, and Brandon interferes with Titus’ shot. Kat shoots.
Reynaldo goes to finish off the prisoners, but Dana has been releasing them and they attack him. He fights back, but when it seems he has a chance. Dana splits his head like an old log.
44.
31 bodies were found at the farm and the FBI took the case. 7 were rescued.
Brandon would always limp.
Jeff arrives at kat’s apt and begs forgiveness. He said he was running from a mob issue and things just happened from there.
Kat and Jeff renew their relationship.
The cop Suggs calls, tells her the missing fingerprint belonged to Jeff. Jeff had roomed with Aqua, and Aqua had seen Kat’s father with Sugar. An altercation ensued, and Jeff shot Kat’s father with his own gun.
Fade to black.

Wow, there was no way I was putting this one down and waiting until tomorrow to read the denouement. I switched to the Kindle copy and galloped to the end of this nail biting conclusion. Little by little the lies and deceptions are revealed, but only a piece at a time, the pace of each reveal was a bit less maddening in these last four chapters, (except perhaps for Kat) - she was getting the story, as one by one some of the parts were explained - though each time still only so much.
Over the course of several chapters we discover that her Father was having an affair. Several chapters later: her Father's lover was a black prostitute. Two different acquaintances of her father confirm Sugar's existence. Others claim ignorance including her Mother. Cozone will help her connect with Sugar. Motive at the time unknown (as if out of kindness) ha.
Sugar is a man, her father was living a hidden life with the agonies that caused eating away at him.
Jeff and Kat reunite and there is no indication that Jeff ever stopped loving her deeply. (yet he stays away for eighteen years!) - something else was going on - boy was it. I didn't see Jeff's and Aqua's involvement in her father's accidental death until the last possible moment, even the revelation of the fingerprint belonging to someone Kat knew didn't clue me in.

I would add to the things I founds as a "stretch" that Jeff was not revealed as the killer way back when.

The whole story line with Jeff was strange to me. First he is the love of Kat's life and she seems like a very love worthy person, yet Jeff walks away and never appears to look back.
Second, Jeff was obviously not really Jeff from the start of the Dating site chat.
Third, even with the above two points, Kat still pines for Jeff so he must be worthy of her love and loyalty, but no, Coben makes us think he is some sort of master-mind sociopathic criminal.
Fourth, what the heck did Jeff tell the Father-in-law and daughter about his past for them to be so hostile to Kat?
Then when Jeff comes out of the house to see Kat you could all but hear the orchestra soundtrack cue up and play for their joyous reunion. (as if none of the above were the case)
To your point, Barry - Jeff's connection to anything else was completely left out, no clues at all except the connection to Titus' operation.

Barry wrote: "I would add to the things I founds as a "stretch" that Jeff was not revealed as the killer way back when."

Coben always says in interviews that he starts with the beginning and the end of a book and makes up everything in between. Maybe he lost track.

Huh, that sounds possible then. It would explain how he made some of the lost threads, though not what I would consider ideal. Makes me feel a bit cheated.
Barry wrote: "Coben always says in interviews that he starts with the beginning and the end of a book and makes up everything in between. Maybe he lost track."

I am wondering if this book would have been better without the whole Jeff angle? I can see putting in parts where she views an old boyfriend online and maybe contacts him to advance the story, but why add the whole murder of her father storyline. It just complicates things.

Liz: I could have seen the book without the Jeff angle, it was almost like Harlan was determined to make it possible for Brandon to connect with Kat from the dating site and then stretched it to have her on the hook to find out what was happening because of Jeff. She was a detective and could have investigated without the personal connection.
LizH wrote: "I am wondering if this book would have been better without the whole Jeff angle? I can see putting in parts where she views an old boyfriend online and maybe contacts him to advance the story, but ..."

I agree with all that's been said here. SUCH a stretch. The last few chapters were definitely CPD-able, but the final Jeff twist turned it into a throw-across-the-room-able. It felt like a twist just for twist's sake. On the one hand, I was rooting for a reunion with Jeff, on the other hand when it happened it just felt rushed and fake. And agreed, the idea that he would hide all this from the love of his life disturbs me.

Can I set it on fire before you throw it?

Barry wrote: "Can I set it on fire before you throw it?"

Snicker.

I finished this thing................FINALLY!!! I think I am done with Coben's standalones. I never care for them and they all seem the same. Someone let me know when he writes another Myron & Win. I'll be in for that!

Melodie wrote: "I finished this thing................FINALLY!!! I think I am done with Coben's standalones. I never care for them and they all seem the same. Someone let me know when he writes another Myron & Win..."

Can't disagree with you there. I won't say never, but few and far between for me and the standalones.

Ditto that, Melodie! It felt too formulatic and a mishmash of "topical" subjects: the perils of online dating; a creepy sociopath; a female cop for a change; lonely people vulnerable and looking for love; electronic financial crime; dark secrets in the past. It just seemed forced.
Melodie wrote: "I finished this thing. ...............FINALLY!!! I think I am done with Coben's standalones. I never care for them and they all seem the same. Someone let me know when he writes another Myron & Win..."

This was my first Coben novel. It was a fair read for me. I agree with all the comments stated above.
Didn't need at all the Jeff connection to the plot.
Well, I did learn what the term catfishing was.

Glad it wasn't throw-across-the-room-able for you!