Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben stopped by CBS Mornings to discuss their thriller novel, Gone Before Goodbye.
Witherspoon and Coben’s novel, published Tuesday by Grand Central, follows Maggie McCabe, an Army surgeon who loses her medical license and then takes a job working for a plastic surgeon with a shadowy clientele. She’s then forced to go on the run when one of her patients disappears. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Maybe not the most thrilling thriller, but the role of AI in coping with grief gives this novel pathos and interest.”
Witherspoon talked about the origin of the book, saying, “The crazy thing is, I’ve never had an idea for a novel. I’m always the actor that shows up and executes on someone else’s vision.…I’m always promoting other people’s work. I thought, OK, maybe I should take the big leap and try and build the whole world, work on all the characters.”
CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King asked Coben about Witherspoon’s proposal that they collaborate on the novel.
“I was intrigued, but I was wary, because I’m not that guy,” Coben said. “I don’t collaborate on novels. I just don’t. But Reese came to my apartment in New York, and she gives me the idea, and I’m like, Oh, damn, we could do something with that. There’s something good. Immediately, I had a yellow legal pad out. We started going back and forth with ideas for three hours.…And by the end of it, we just look at each other and go, We got to do this.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
