50 pages • 1 hour read
Harlan CobenHome
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 19-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
Chick and Myron sit at a hotel waiting to watch the CNN livestream of the Moores’ talk with Anderson Cooper. Myron debates how he should discuss the possibility of Hunter’s affair with Nancy.
Anderson Cooper joins the Moores in their living room. Nancy and Hunter are present; Patrick is not. Nancy does most of the talking and asks for space and privacy. She explains that Patrick was moved around during his capture and describes how he was stabbed during the rescue in London. Myron tries to analyze their body language but can’t draw any conclusions.
Anderson asks about Rhys, and Nancy says that finding him is their number one priority. Chick is skeptical and furious to hear her claim that they are cooperating. Francesca appears onscreen holding Patrick’s hand.
Myron asks Chick if he had an affair with Nancy. Chick says he’s done nothing wrong and explains that his financial crimes were justified. Brooke calls them to discuss the CNN interview. Like Chick, she is furious by the Moores’ insistence that they care about finding Rhys when they are not actively helping.
Chapter 20 Summary
Terese calls Myron and tells him that her new job may ask her to relocate to Atlanta or Washington, DC. Win calls him to say that Brooke does not think that the boy they brought home is Patrick. Myron has asked a source at Quantico to provide an age progression picture. They run through the possibilities, considering whether Nancy and Hunter killed both boys. They debate how much information they should share with Brooke, including the possibility of Chick and Nancy’s affair.
Chapter 21 Summary
Win is in the back room with Carlo, Renato, and Giuseppe. He looks at the video game’s leaderboard, determined to draw out Fat Gandhi. Renato and Carlo are instructed to hack Fat Gandhi once he joins the game. They are curious about the fact that for the past year, Win has been a recluse, and they want to know his motivation, but he refuses to divulge it. Renato and Carlo quickly hack Fat Gandhi and determine that he’s in the Netherlands. They print out the address and give it to Win, who sets out on a private plane.
Myron arrives at his parents’ house. He reflects on how he used to be embarrassed by his mother’s effusive greetings; now he is sad that his parents move so much slower. Myron considers how much he loves his parents and how grateful he is to have them. His father Al asks Myron to tell him more about why Terese was in Africa. Mickey and his girlfriend Ema arrive, and Myron asks them to help him.
Chapter 22 Summary
Myron arrives at Nancy’s house to find the media gone. Francesca is on the verge of tears, and Myron wonders why. Myron asks Nancy if she’s sure that the boy is Patrick. He asks her to justify the texts with Chick, and she asks him to leave. Nancy insists that she and Chick were not having an affair.
Patrick comes downstairs and asks Myron why Fat Gandhi tried to kill him. Mickey and Ema arrive with a pizza, and Patrick looks pleased to hang out with people his age.
Myron leaves and receives a call from the forensic anthropologist who specializes in facial reconstruction. She tells him that it will take about an hour to generate results. Once he arrives at her lab, she tells him that the results are inconclusive. However, the boy who Nancy believes is Patrick has a larger nose than expected. Myron wonders if this could be the result of his nose breaking. She tells him that they need to conduct a DNA test.
Chapter 23 Summary
Win arrives at the Dutch farmhouse where Fat Gandhi should be. He is joined by Zorra, an ex-Mossad agent who almost killed Myron years ago. Win supposes that Zorra is now on his side because he spared Zorra’s life.
Fat Gandhi knows who Win is and explains that they’ve been watched since they arrived. He is displeased that Win killed his men and blew a hole in the wall. Win demands that Fat Gandhi give them Rhys, and the man says he cannot. Zorra tackles him.
Chapter 24 Summary
Myron sits in his parents’ living room. His dad explains that he sat up waiting for Myron every time that Myron went out as a teenager. Myron stays up to wait for Mickey so that he can find out what happened with Patrick. A car pulls up and Mickey does not emerge, so Myron opens the door and stumbles upon Mickey and Ema.
Once inside, Myron asks them about Patrick. Ema explains that Patrick is up to date on video games and social media. They’re skeptical that he was being trafficked the whole time he was missing, because his teeth are in perfect condition. Clark Baldwin came to pick up Francesca while they were there, but Patrick refused to discuss the kidnapping. Patrick said he had a girlfriend, so Mickey put a keylogger on his computer for a hacker friend to monitor Patrick’s correspondence. Ema also grabbed hair from Patrick and Francesca so that they could conduct a DNA test.
Chapter 25 Summary
Inside the Dutch farmhouse, Win talks to Fat Gandhi, who says that he does not have Rhys and never had him. He says that he did have Patrick, but not in the way that Win expects. He says that Patrick was encroaching on his territory. One of the men in camouflage pants brought Patrick to the arcade. Patrick told Fat Gandhi that he had been kidnapped. Fat Gandhi debated between handing Patrick over to the authorities and holding him for ransom. Fat Gandhi says that he can use his resources to find Rhys but also says that Patrick told him Rhys was dead.
Chapter 26 Summary
Myron crosses the Columbia University campus in search of Francesca Moore. He finds Clark Baldwin, who explains that he is one of Francesca’s roommates. Clark explains that they have a very meaningful friendship because of their shared trauma. Being the sibling of a missing child was tough on both of them, and they supported each other through the horrible experience. Clark tells Myron that he and Francesca went to a party last night. After drinking too much, Francesca cried and said it wasn’t fair that Patrick was back and Rhys wasn’t.
Myron and Al get breakfast then head to the gym to watch Mickey’s basketball game. Al asks Myron if it’s true that Ema’s mother is Angelica Wyatt, a famous actor. Ema arrives and tells Myron to come with her. She brings him to an office where Mickey’s hacker friend is waiting for them. He explains that Patrick just Skyped with someone and is about to leave his house.
Chapter 27 Summary
Myron asks Big Cyndi to tail Patrick through Times Square. They watch Patrick meet a teenage girl, who hugs him as they enter Ripley’s. Myron waits for them to exit and watches them kiss before parting ways. The girl heads toward a Park Avenue townhouse.
Myron heads toward his car and is confronted by three men, one of whom is Chick Baldwin. One of the men is carrying a bat. Chick tells Myron that he needs to forget about the texts with Nancy. Myron grabs the bat. Myron realizes that Nancy must have told Chick that Myron asked about the texts. Chick says that he and Nancy were considering having an affair but did not start one.
Chapters 19-27 Analysis
In these chapters, Coben continues to hew closely to thriller genre conventions as he employs several red herrings, misdirecting attention and playing on expectations. For example, the identity of “Patrick” is called into question, and Myron enlists the help of a forensic anthropologist and facial reconstructionist to determine if the boy who returned is really Patrick Moore. Coben casts doubt on whether Nancy believes Patrick to be her son or if she is desperately clinging to hope. Brooke acknowledges that Patrick could be an impostor, reminiscent of the 2008 film Changeling: “Some impostor from France said he was the missing kid” (340). Other misdirection includes the “affair” between Nancy and Hunter, the potential falseness of Patrick’s identity, and the mystery of the facial reconstruction. Each of these ambiguities heightens the suspense of the narrative, ratcheting up the tension and the need for Myron to discover the truth.
In addition, the gaps in Nancy’s constructed narrative continue to be exposed. The CNN interview with Anderson Cooper serves as a focal point for exposing contradictions within the Moores’ narrative. Nancy’s insistence on privacy, her selective disclosures about Patrick’s experience during his capture, and her expressed commitment to finding Rhys are met with deep skepticism from Chick and Brooke. Chick’s anger toward Nancy’s claims that she is “cooperating” highlights a fracture between the families, suggesting that their shared trauma may have fostered hidden resentment and distrust, illustrating The Impact of Trauma on Individuals and Families.
Myron, who observes the interview with Chick, finds himself speculating on how to approach the sensitive topic of a possible affair between Nancy and Chick, highlighting The Moral Dilemma Faced by Those Seeking Justice. Their conversation reveals the moral ambiguity in Chick’s justification of his transgressions as “justified cheating.” Chick’s self-righteous justification is maddening as he continues to rationalize his own actions even as this potentially impedes the search for his missing child.
In these chapters, Coben also leans into conventions of young adult literature as teenagers Mickey and Ema take a proactive approach to the investigation, achieving what adults cannot. While planting the keylogger and stealing hair for DNA testing is a creative interpretation of the law, Ema and Mickey are well-intentioned in their quest to determine Patrick’s identity, again raising the issue of the moral dilemma faced by those seeking justice. Ema and Mickey also show creativity in their attempts to evaluate Patrick’s identity, as they use pop culture references to determine that he has been actively engaging in the world during the time he has been missing.
The importance of The Power of Childhood Bonds is illustrated in these chapters in the interactions with Myron and his father Al. Myron’s consideration of his aging parents offers insight into his character, and he attempts to take on some of the father roles that his father demonstrated for him. Myron’s bond with his father provides a model for him in his relationship with Mickey: The parallelism of Myron waiting up for Mickey and Al waiting up for Myron demonstrates Myron’s paternal attitude toward his nephew. Mickey does not have parents who support him as Myron does, and as Myron ages he becomes increasingly aware of this privilege.
These chapters also continue to highlight that although Myron and Win are a team, they each have distinct methods and moral codes. Win’s quest to confront Fat Gandhi in the Netherlands demonstrates his unorthodox and brutal approach to justice: He employs a sniper and is prepared for total destruction. Unlike empathetic Myron, Win is extremely detached, and unbothered by emotional responses or ethical dilemmas. Fat Gandhi’s emphatic assertion that he does not have Rhys and does not know where he is sows doubt about this potential solution to the mystery. In addition, the parallel of this scene with the previous chapter containing doubts about Patrick’s identity calls into question the credibility of every member of the Moore family. Each of the leads that seemed promising in earlier chapters begins to fall apart in this section.
Francesca and Clark also feature in these chapters. Their relationship demonstrates the theme of The Power of Childhood Bonds. They experienced shared trauma unimaginable to anyone else in their fifth-grade class, and as a result, they developed a tight bond based in this trauma. Now college roommates, they continue to support each other through difficult circumstances, illustrating how their relationship has transcended its origins and become powerful and supportive in its own right.
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