No Second Chance is a 2003 thriller novel written by Harlan Coben. The novel follows Marc Seidman, a man who wakes in the hospital with a gunshot wound to find that his wife is dead, his daughter is missing, and he is the main suspect.

Plot Summary

Dr. Marc Seidman wakes up in the hospital 12 days after being shot in his Kasselton, New Jersey, home. His wife, Monica, is dead, and their infant daughter, Tara, is missing. Detective Bob Regan discloses that investigators found Marc’s drug-addicted sister Stacy’s fingerprints in his house, despite Stacy never having visited. Marc’s best friend and lawyer, Lenny Marcus warns Marc not to speak to the police without him.

Marc meets with Edgar and Carson Porter, Monica’s father and uncle. Edgar has received a ransom demand for $2 million for Tara and stipulates “(t)here will be no second chance” if the police are called or instructions are disobeyed (25). Edgar gives Marc the ransom money and the phone the kidnappers included for communication.

Detective Regan and FBI Special Agent Lloyd Tickner suspect Marc based on his missing firearm. On Lenny’s advice, Marc tells the police about the ransom demand. The kidnappers call, and a disguised voice directs Marc to Paramus, New Jersey. There, Marc delivers the money to a man named Pavel, and he waits for a call with Tara’s location. Tickner arrives in an unmarked FBI vehicle, and Marc receives a call castigating him for involving the police; the line goes dead.

Nine nights later, Marc sees a woman in his driveway who runs from him. Later, we’ll learn she is Dina Levinsky. Before dawn, Tickner and Regan arrive to show Marc bank camera footage of Stacy with bills from the ransom. The bank is near Marc’s grandfather’s hunting cabin in upstate New York. At the cabin, it is clear that Tara was once present, but she is now gone. Only Stacy’s corpse, dead from an overdose, remains.

Eighteen months elapse. We meet the villainous Lydia Davis, along with her gigantic boyfriend, Heshy. While shopping, Marc runs into his college girlfriend, Rachel Mills. Later that night, Marc sees Dina Levinsky in his driveway again. They discuss her visits to the house to confront her childhood trauma, as she once lived there and was sexually abused by her father. She mentions that her diary is hidden in the basement and asks, “You know who shot you, don’t you, Marc?” before leaving (100). Marc finds Dina’s diary and next to it is Monica’s planner, which contains a password-protected data CD from the MVD private detective agency.

The next day, Edgar reveals he has received a second ransom demand. Marc contacts Rachel, who is a former FBI agent. Marc and Rachel visit the MVD detective agency, but they learn nothing. Their visit to MVD alerts Tickner, and he gains access to the files from Monica’s CD. They are surveillance pictures of Rachel outside Marc’s workplace. Tickner also learns Rachel called Mark months before the attack.

Lydia calls Marc to arrange the second ransom exchange in New York City, and Rachel places a tracker in the ransom money. Reagan arrives and tells Marc that Rachel shot her husband. Marc does not discuss this with Rachel, and they leave for New York City with Rachel riding in Marc’s trunk. Later, Rachel reveals that her husband committed suicide, and she made it look as though she accidentally shot him so that her son could collect insurance money. Following her husband’s death, Rachel tried and failed to reconnect with Mark, explaining her phone call and the surveillance footage.

The ransom exchange is actually an ambush involving a decoy toddler. Lydia attempts to shoot mark, Heshy nearly strangles Rachel, and the kidnappers flee with the money. In the course of chasing Pavel, Marc falls from Pavel’s moving car.

Marc wakes up in a hospital and summons Lenny. Together, they update the police, who reveal the evidence against Rachel. Marc sneaks out of the hospital, and he and Rachel follow the ransom money tracker, which stops at an office park that we later learn is Steven Bacard’s offices. Bacard is an adoption lawyer who imports pregnant Eastern European sex workers, illegally purchases their newborn babies, then sells the babies to desperate parents. He is Lydia and Heshy’s employer, and he learns from an inside source that the ransom is being tracked. Lydia stages an ambush with Pavel at Marc’s house using the tracker. However, Marc and Rachel recognize the ambush. Lydia executes Pavel with Marc’s old gun, then escapes with Heshy after a firefight with Rachel. Rachel finds Pavel’s phone and tracks a call from one Verne Dayton in rural Huntersville, New Jersey.

After Verne catches Rachel and Marc on his property, the pair explains their situation. When Verne’s family returns from the store, Marc recognizes the younger son as the decoy toddler. Verne’s Serbian wife, Katarina, confesses that Pavel was her brother and she was a sex worker who sold her baby to Bacard. Pavel took their toddler forcibly the previous day. Verne says he will help Marc, and Katarina directs them to a motel where a pregnant sex worker is staying.

At the motel, Marc urges the pregnant woman, Tatiana, to tell her employer she’s ill. Denise Vanech, the midwife for Bacard’s baby-selling ring, sees that Tatiana is faking and notifies Bacard. Through Denise’s phone records, Rachel connects Bacard to the baby-selling ring. Marc visits Bacard’s offices while Rachel and the others continue to Denise’s house, and Marc finds that Bacard has already been murdered. Meanwhile, Rachel coerces Denise into explaining Bacard’s baby-selling scheme in full. Heshy interrupts, taking Rachel hostage. He notifies Marc that he has Rachel and executes Denise. Lydia executes Tatiana.

By the time Marc arrives at Denise’s house, Lydia and Heshy are there, and Verne has snuck in. Rachel throws herself through a window when she hears Marc arrive. This distraction allows Verne to surprise Heshy and Lydia. Verne shoots Heshy, and when the police arrive, Lydia pretends to be a victim forced into criminal activity.

Marc begins to realize Monic must have shot him. Dina admits to befriending Monica, who was afraid Marc would leave her for Rachel and that they would take Tara. Monica acquired a gun through Stacy. Dina had called Monica after she shot Marc, but the line went dead. Dina directed Marc to Monica’s CD because she didn’t understand why Tara was missing.

Lenny says he anonymously received the address of Tara’s adoptive family in suburban St. Louis, MO. He and Marc fly to St. Louis and spend a day watching the Tansmores, Tara’s new family, interact lovingly with Tara. When decides that they will all co-parent Tara together.

Marc returns to New Jersey and confronts Lenny, who admits to arriving just after Monica shot Marc. He shot Monica with Marc’s gun in self-defense and staged a break-in to avoid murder charges. Stacy arrived to check on Monica and agreed to help Lenny. Lenny involved Bacard to send Tara to a good family. Bacard devised the ransom plan, and Lenny placed his share of the ransom money in a college fund for Tara. Bacard had Heshy frame and murder Stacy.  Lenny killed Bacard and was then free to reveal Tara’s location without repercussions.

A year goes by, and Marc is now the Tansmores’ neighbor. They co-parent Tara, who is now called Tasha. Rachel rejoined the FBI after helping to bust Bacard’s adoption scam and lives with Marc in Missouri. Marc acknowledges that Lenny had the best of intentions, but he knows their friendship is over. The novel ends with Tasha calling Marc “Daddy” and Marc symbolically closing the door on the past.