From the publisher:
An unforgettable suspense novel that combines the storytelling talents of Academy Award-winning actor Reese Witherspoon and internationally bestselling author Harlan Coben. Gone Before Goodbye is the story of a woman trapped in a deadly conspiracy—where uncovering the truth could cost her everything.
Maggie McCabe is teetering on the brink. A highly skilled and renowned Army combat surgeon, she has always lived life at the edge, where she could make the most impact. And it was all going to plan … until it wasn’t.
Upside down after a devastating series of tragedies leads to her medical license being revoked, Maggie has lost her purpose, but not her nerve or her passion. At her lowest point, she is thrown a lifeline by a former colleague, an elite plastic surgeon whose anonymous clientele demand the best care money can buy, as well as absolute discretion.
Halfway across the globe, sequestered in the lap of luxury and cutting-edge technology, one of the world’s most mysterious men requires unconventional medical assistance. Desperate, and one of the few surgeons in the world skilled enough to take this job, Maggie enters his realm of unspeakable opulence and fulfills her end of the agreement. But when the patient suddenly disappears while still under her care, Maggie must become a fugitive herself—or she will be the next one who is … Gone Before Goodbye.
“The book’s plot mechanics hum along with great pace and verve… With “Gone Before Goodbye,” the two authors deliver a fun ride into a shadow land where the rich are convinced that money can insulate them from everything, including their own mortality—even if they have to murder a few people to get there.”―Los Angeles Times
“A glitzy, global romp through private surgery rooms and high-security mansions…. Witherspoon and Coben were a match made in literary heaven.”―USA Today
“Gone Before Goodbye began with Witherspoon, but has the kind of layered plot lines and haunting back stories known to Coben’s many readers.”―Washington Post
The novel opens strongly, following surgeon Maggie McCabe and two fellow doctors as they provide aid in war-torn regions. Then everything unravels: her mother, a famous doctor herself, receives a terminal diagnosis and passes away, her sister Sharon’s marriage implodes, leaving her with mountains of debt, her closest colleague and friend disappears, and worst of all, the devastating news that her husband Mark was killed in a militant attack. Numb with grief and medicated to the point of impairment, Maggie makes a surgical error that costs her both her career and her reputation.
Maggie’s humiliation reaches a new low at her family foundation’s annual ceremony, where she’s assumed she will present the award in her mother’s honor, but instead, is quietly informed that she is no longer welcome. Devastated and looking for a way out, she runs into a former mentor—now a pharmaceutical tycoon and a regular on the Forbes-wealthiest-doctors-list (and yes, that is a thing, I googled it!)—who offers her a lucrative job for a Russian oligarch. The fee would erase Sharon’s debts, save their home, and give Maggie a comfortable cushion. The client doesn’t care about Maggie’s revoked license—only her skill.
The catch is absolute secrecy. Maggie must operate in Rublyovka, the enclave of Russia’s elite. She’s flown to Moscow on a private jet, then whisked by helicopter to a lavish, snow-covered palace—complete with what the oligarch claims is the real Mona Lisa and a state-of-the-art operating theater. The job is also a two-fer: Maggie will do some serious facial reconstruction surgery on the oligarch, changing his appearance dramatically, but must also perform breast augmentation on the oligarch’s much younger girlfriend, Nadia, despite a medical history that makes the procedure risky. Then true shock comes when Maggie recognizes Nadia’s tattoo—identical to the most unusual one worn by her dead husband.
As the conspiracy expands across Russia and Dubai, Maggie’s tech-genius sister Sharon and her biker father-in-law, Porkchop (a nickname repeated so often it becomes what I think is unintentionally comic), are pulled into the fray. The novel is dense with medical and tech details. For me, the jargon occasionally bogged down the pacing, but readers who enjoy the “science-y” side of thrillers may not mind. The book leans heavily into action-thriller territory: gunfights, helicopters, high-speed chases, and death‑defying stunts. It’s packed with macho male characters, while the few women who appear often feel underdeveloped. In many ways, the story seems tailored more to Harlan Coben’s fanbase than to Reese Witherspoon’s.
Maggie herself is a compelling, layered protagonist, and the story moves briskly. Still, the tone often feels engineered for a blockbuster movie/TV adaptation rather than a character-driven thriller. While the twists are competent, they’re mostly predictable. The ending feels anticlimactic after such an action-heavy build-up. The fixation on breast implants, the parade of sleazy male characters, and the Russian oligarchs partying in Dubai feels somewhat dated and tone-deaf.
While I was never a fan Coben’s mystery series, I’ve enjoyed most of the thrillers he’s written since Tell No One, which made my best books of 2001 list. It’s hard not to suspect that Witherspoon approached this project with a future screen adaptation in mind—one she might co-produce or even star in. In doing so, however, she missed an opportunity to collaborate more closely with a female thriller writer better aligned with her brand’s mission. Judging from other reviews, many of her female readers were expecting something different.
In the end, this is an entertaining thriller with an interesting premise that doesn’t quite deliver on its potential. It reads more like a setup for a future Netflix adaptation than a fully realized collaboration between these two creators.
1/2026 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
GONE BEFORE GOODBYE by Harlan Coben & Reese Witherspoon. Grand Central Publishing. (October 14, 2025). ISBN: 978-1538774700. 352p.
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