Did you read The Match by Harlan Coben? Need a plot summary? Confused about all that DNA stuff? (I was!) Want to know how are Wilde and Peter are related in the Match (one of my super-smart commenters figured it out!) Looking for a character list for The Match? Let’s talk all about in my Spoiler Discussion for The Match on Jen Ryland Reviews!
Spoiler Discussion for The Match
Table of Contents
UPDATED with new Harlan Coben statement on the DNA connection!
Character List for The Match by Harlan Coben
Plot Summary for The Match by Harlan Coben
The Ending of The Match Explained
Spoiler Discussion for The Match
How are Wilde and Peter and Silas Related in the Match – with information from Harlan Coben himself!
The Match by Harlan Coben was published in 2022 by Grand Central Publishing. Disclaimer: I received an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Disclosure: as an Amazon Affiliate I may receive a small percentage of qualifying purchases.
Character List for The Match by Harlan Coben
Wilde – the book’s main character, first introduced in The Boy From the Woods by Harlan Coben. He was found abandoned in the woods as a child and therefore does not know anything about his family.
Hester Crimstein – a criminal defense lawyer and mother figure to Wilde. He was friends with Hester’s son David, who died in a car accident that also involved Wilde.
Rola – Wilde’s former foster sister and investigator.
Laila – widow of David Crimstein.
Matthew Crimstein – college-aged son of Laila and David.
Oren – Hester’s boyfriend.
Daniel Carter – the man who claims he is Wilde’s father.
Sofia Carter – Daniel’s wife and Wilde’s mother.
PB/Peter Bennett – reality TV star who matches with Wilde on a DNA database.
Jenn Cassidy – the woman who chose and married Peter on a reality show, Love is a Battlefield.
Marnie– Jenn’s sister, who accused Peter of drugging and raping her.
Silas Bennett – Peter’s older brother (really his uncle) who also matches with Peter on a DNA database.
Vicky Bennett Chiba – Peter’s older sister, who turns out to be his mother.
Kelly Bennett – Peter and Silas’s sister who is not really in the book
Chris Taylor/The Stranger/Lion – one of the animal vigilantes.
Henry McAdams – former police officer and owner of a bot farm. He is murdered by Vicky in revenge for attacking her brother online.
Katherine Frole– an FBI agent who is also Panther, a member of the vigilante group and is also murdered by Vicky.
George Kissell – US Marshal who is assigned to protect the Baker family in witness protection.
Big Bobbo– the other contestant on the reality TV show who was competing for Jenn. He and Jenn are secretly involved, as the producers of Love is a Battlefield forced Jenn to choose Peter.
Plot Summary for The Match by Harlan Coben
Wilde Finds His Father
As a child, Wilde was found living alone in the woods. At age 40, Wilde finds his father using a DNA/ geneology website. Wilde messages the man through the website but he has deleted his profile. Hester discovers his identity and Wilde flies to Nevada and confronts him. His name is Daniel Baker and he is married with children. Daniel says he didn’t know about Wilde and explains that he must have fathered Wilde during a time he was stationed with the Air Force in Europe.
Meanwhile, a group of anonymous people disguised with animal avatars meet on a zoom call to discuss their vigilante justice group.
Hester Crimstein is a criminal defense lawyer and longtime friend of Wilde’s. She goes looking for Wilde, who has retreated back to the woods. He was in a car accident that killed Hester’s son David eleven years ago.
Wilde Gets Contacted By Another DNA Match
Wilde gets a message on the DNA site from “PB,” who thinks they are related through their mother. He messages the guy back but also asks Hester to try to find out who PB is.
Hester does and Wilde goes to New York to track PB down at an expensive hotel. PB isn’t there but Wilde leaves him a note.
Wilde and PB Both Have A Secret
Wilde is secretly involved with Hester’s daughter Laila, whose college aged son, Matthew, says PB is famous. He’s Peter Bennett, winner of a huge reality show. Wilde asks his associate (and foster sister) Rola to investigate.
Peter’s reputation was ruined online when he was accused of drugging and raping his wife’s sister. Tola thinks Peter committed suicide afterwards. Wilde wonders if he faked his death.
He visits Peter’s sister Vicky, who thinks he’s dead.
Wilde hacks into Peter’s IG and finds a threatening message.
Another DNA Match!
Wilde calls Silas, Peter’s brother, who says he used a different DNA site and also got matched with someone.
Rola gets the address of the person who sent Peter the threatening message. Wilde drives there, breaks in, and downloads evidence for the computer. He also finds the dead body of Henry McAdams, a former cop who owned the house.
Chris Taylor, one of the vigilantes, reads about Henry’s murder and is alarmed.
Hester sets up a meeting with Jenn, Peter’s ex. The two discuss Peter and Marnie, Jenn’s sister.
Hester asks why Marnie didn’t tell Jenn that Peter had been sending her nude pics. Jenn says that Peter admitted raping Marnie and that his being adopted complicated their infertility struggles.
Someone visits Katherine, an FBI agent. She broke protocol to help Peter find his online harasser. The mystery visitor is here to tell her that he or she killed Henry. He or she asks Katherine for the other names she found. Katherine gives him the names and is also murdered. (We’re now calling this person the Mystery Killer.)
Wilde learns an important new fact about Peter
Wilde confronts Vicky, who didn’t tell him Peter was adopted. She says Peter only found out when he had to do medical testing for the reality show.
The animal vigilantes meet online. Panther is missing and the rest think he or she killed Henry, a potential target they decided not to pursue.
Hester and Wilde review the case. Peter was adopted as a baby. Peter is somehow related to Wilde. They decide to talk to Marnie.
Wilde gets abducted and beaten by vigilante cops from Henry’s force. They let him go and he shows up at the home of Oren, Hester’s boyfriend.
Owen is a police officer who told the Hartford police about Wilde. They discuss how Henry ran a bot farm that could be hired to attack people online. Wilde wants Oren to find out who hired Henry to attack Peter online.
Wilde tracks down Marnie and tells her he knows she lied. Marnie says that another girl came to her with the roofie story about Peter, and she pretended the story happened to her.
Wilde’s new theory
Wilde thinks someone on the reality show set up Peter to boost ratings. He and Rola are followed by FBI.
Hester helps him escape and Oren tells them that the gun that killed Henry was also used to kill Katherine Frole, an FBI agent. The FBI thinks Peter committed suicide. Oren and Hester tell Wilde he either needs to turn himself in or go on the run.
The vigilante animals meet and think Panther has been acting on his/her own. They agree to find out Panther’s identity: Katherine, the murdered FBI agent.
The FBI questions Wilde and asks why he visited Daniel in Las Vegas.
Chris deletes the entire vigilante website.
Hester and Wilde visit Jenn and Marnie, who admits she lied. Jenn says Peter found his birth family and didn’t want anything to do with them.
Wilde logs into all the DNA sites as Peter and finds another match.
The mystery killer strikes again!
The mystery killer shoots Marnie.
Chris contacts Wilde and tells him that Panther (Katherine) might have reached out to Peter and that someone in the group is also killing people, including Katherine.
Wilde meets with Vicky and Silas and they conclude that Silas and Peter and Wilde are actually half brothers. Wilde suggests to them that Peter faked the accusations but his siblings disagree.
Chris contacts Wilde with news that someone hired Henry McAdams to ruin Peter. Matthew calls to say he found a parent match to Peter on a DNA site.
They message the person who calls them back. They trace the call to Memphis, where Peters family lived when he was a baby.
Rola calls and tells Wilde to head to the Mandarin Oriental hotel. Big Bobbo, Peters rival on the reality show is there with Jenn. (Wilde reveals he had dropped a tracking device in Jenna’s purse.)
Wilde accuses Jenn of masterminding the cheating accusations and paying Henry to attack him online. Jenn says the show made her pick Peter.
Wilde heads downtown to meet his “father.” A woman named Danielle shows up saying she’s a retired police officer representing “RJ.”
Wilde tells her he thinks RJ is posing as someone else on DNA sites. Danielle tells him about a religious leader who raped female parishioners. The police put his DNA on databases to try to find his children.
Jenn calls Wilde to say Marnie is missing.
The Ending of The Match Explained
Wilde goes to see George, the guy who posed as FBI to question him. He is actually a US Marshal. Wilde infers out that his father Daniel must be in Witness Protection and asks if he can pass messages to him.
The mystery killer wants to kill Jenn, but gets caught by Wilde.
The mystery killer is unmasked!
It’s Vicky, Silas and Peter’s sister. Yes, she’s the killer, but is she Peter’s sister?
Wilde has figured out that Vicky is actually Peter’s mother. Vicky was raped by Pastor Paul and her family then pretended the baby was Vicky’s brother, not her son.
Peter and Vicky sent Peter’s cyber bullying case to the vigilante group. Katherine wanted to help and gave them Henry’s name, then Vicky killed him.
Wilde finally finds out why he was lost in the woods
Wilde gets contacted by Kissel who summons him to a meeting with his mother – Daniel Carter’s wife Sofia.
She tells a looooong story to explain how Wilde got abandoned in the woods: she got involved with a crime boss, also got pregnant by Daniel, then tried to leave the crime boss. (That did not go well.)
Finally, after Wilde was born, she decided to run away with Daniel and become an informant. But the crime boss found out and came after her.
She hid Wilde in the woods to keep him safe, but when she came back for him, he was gone. She looked for him, but eventually had to stop and go into witness protection. (This part of the story was a bit out-there for me.)
Silas and Peter are uncle and nephew. I don’t understand how Silas and Wilde are related. Or who Wilde is related to. Let’s discuss this in the comments.
Peter is alive. Wilde proposes to Laila. Silas sends Wilde a photo of some woman who is his (their?) mother. Confused!
Spoiler Discussion for The Match
Overall, I quite enjoyed this one. It was fast-paced and kept me guessing. All the secret babies and the animal vigilantes were a little wacky for me, but Harlan Coben can be like that.
Maybe I need to do more reading on DNA, but I was super confused by all the relationships:
Vicky is Peter’s mother. Peter’s father is Pastor Paul. Paul sexually abused Vicky and she became pregnant. Vicky’s parents pretended that the resulting baby (Peter) was theirs.
Silas, Vicky, and Kelly are full siblings (as far as we know) and Silas and Peter are uncle and nephew.
Wilde is the son of Daniel and Sofia Carter (probably not their real names, but okay.)
Wilde and Peter are second cousins (this is where I’m getting confused.)
I was very confused about the DNA/familial connection between Wilde and Silas, and between Wilde and Peter. Daniel comes up as a paternal match for Wilde. Then, when Peter initially contacted Wilde, he said they were connected “through their mothers.”
We learn that Vicky is Peter’s mother. Which of Wilde’s parents, Daniel or Sofia, is the connection to Silas? Silas says his father’s name was Phil. And Michele, in comments, says the Bennett siblings’ mother is Shirley.
Spoiler Discussion Theory on the DNA Connection Between Wilde and Silas (Thanks to Charlie!)
You should read all the comments for the full conversation, but Charlie suggests that Sofia is probably the younger sister of Silas and Vicky’s mother, Shirley.
YES, a possible solution. Charlie, you are the best!
So Silas, Vicky, and Wilde are cousins. But are they first cousins, second cousins, or cousins removed? Does the fact that Peter is both Silas’s half-brother and nephew mess up the generational stuff, Chinatown style?
Read further and you will get not one but TWO possible theories on the DNA matches between Silas and Wilde, and Peter and Wilde!
Here are my notes from the book on Vicky and Silas’ family:
Vicky and Silas lived outside of Memphis with their parents and then moved to Pennsylvania after Vicky gave birth to Peter at age 14 to 15. Their father, Phil, worked at Penn State.
We don’t know Sofia Carter’s real name because she had to change it for witness protection. Sofia tells Wilde her father was dead when she took up with “the vile man” (as she calls him over and and over).
As for the mystery photo that Silas finds in the basement, the book says it’s from a) the early 70s, b) of three girls at a wedding c) that Silas didn’t know who the girl in the green dress (Sofia) was.
(Edited: In comments, Nancy points out that their mom, Shirley, has dementia and is living in a care home, which is tragic for Shirley but convenient for the story, since they can’t ask her about the photo.) Thus, Shirley must either be a great deal older than Sofia, who is in her early 60s, or have some kind of early onset dementia.
Let’s talk about the ages of the characters:
Wilde is 40, so he would have been born in the early 1980s. Daniel Carter is 61 when he meets Wilde, so around 21 when Wilde was born.
I am assuming Sofia got pregnant with him around age 20 as well, so both she and Daniel would have been born in the early 1960s. So this means Sofia is young in the picture, like ten or twelve.
Maybe this photo depicts the wedding of Silas and Vicky’s parents, Phil and Shirley? If Shirley is getting married, she must be 10-15 years older than Sofia. Hmmm….
Harlan Coben Addresses the DNA issue on Twitter!!!
Edited on May 23:
Okay, he doesn’t reference us directly but I’d like to think he read this post. Here’s what he said:
Okay, so…
Does THEY means Peter and Wilde? Please, Harlan Coben. I know tweets are short, but some specificity would help us!!
I have just researched cousins removed all morning and I think I see what he’s getting at. I think a visual is going to work best so here goes:
Charlie’s Theory of the DNA Connection:
This was Charlie’s theory of the Wilde/Silas/Peter relationship based on the minimal information we had in the book:
Wilde is the “you” in our chart. We know his parents are Daniel and Sofia. We’re putting Sofia’s sister Shirley in the aunt category.
Silas, Vicky and Kelly are Shirley’s children. This we also know.
Peter is Vicky’s son and Shirley’s grandson. Also, not disputed.
In this theory, Shirley and Sofia are sisters.
But provided this chart is correct (because the first-second cousins vs cousins removed might be the most confusing thing I ever tried to understand) the diagram above does NOT reflect what Harlan Coben just tweeted about the characters being second cousins sharing a great-grandparent connection.
So let’s try something else:
Theory #2 Reflecting Harlan Coben’s Tweet:
This suggests an alternate scenario:
I think that this chart might better reflect Harlan Coben’s explanation. That would mean that Shirley and Sofia are not sisters, but perhaps that Shirley is Sofia’s aunt?
That would explain the age difference between Shirley and Sofia.
The facts of the book (Sofia’s age of early 60s and Shirley having dementia and being in a care home) do suggest a greater age difference between Sofia and Shirley than typical siblings.
Wilde would be first cousins once removed with Vicky and Silas, and second cousins with Peter, just as the tweet suggests.
Could this be the solution? Please feel free to disagree with me in comments but do NOT make me research cousin relationships anymore.
Am I monitoring Harlan Coben’s Twitter for further clarification? You bet I am!
Spoiler Discussion for The Match: my remaining questions:
Why doesn’t Silas recognize Sofia in the picture? Yes, the photo was from before he was born, but wouldn’t he still recognize her?
Will there be a Wilde book #3? Will the “vile man” show up in it? And will all this DNA finally be explained once and for all?
Thanks for reading this Spoiler Discussion for The Match
Want to see all my spoiler discussions? You can find them here. Also be sure to subscribe to my monthly mystery and thriller newsletter, which will announce new spoiler discussions each month AND updates on my new blog feature where we will discuss ALL an author’s books and rank our favorites!
If you’re a Harlan Coben fan, please come check out my new post that looks at the April 2022 Netflix adaptation of Hold Tight. You can find my Page to Screen: Hold Tight post here! Why is Coben called “Harlana Cobena” in the credits? That is a lot easier to explain than DNA, though Hold Tight does have a bit of a scientific moment there too…
Finally, PLEASE leave a comment. Without my amazing commenters, I’d still be puzzling over that DNA stuff!
I am SO sorry that comments were turned off. I am going to post some theories that people emailed to me just to kick things off:
Theory #1 (thanks to Elizabeth)
“Maybe somehow Pastor Paul is Sofia’s dad? He fathered like a bazillion kids apparently…”
I think this could be possible. Pastor Paul and his dirty deeds could figure into this somehow.
I’m just glad I’m not the only one who didn’t fully understand how Wilde and Silas and Peter were related.
My blog rule is there are NO “stupid” questions about a book. I often get emails from readers (usually women) who say “this might be a stupid question but…”
In this case the DNA relationships are NOT clear, but even if you or I missed something or didn’t understand it, that is okay. We are all here to help each other 🙂
Thank you! I am usually pretty good at figuring out the nuances of a story but this one threw me for a loop.
You were not the only one!
Same here. I was very confused how Peter Bennett was related to Wilde. Thank you for the explanations.
Yes me too
LITERALLY just finished the book and thought – so hang on – how are Silas / Peter and Wilde related ????? I thought it was me and I was going to have to reread the second half if the book again – thank you to all theories and I’m glad I’m not losing the plot so to speak !!! so HC you never leave loose ends unless there is a sequel !!!! I’m guessing the vile man / Sofia’s dad / pastor Paul will all appear – and maybe a baby Wilde ????
I don’t know – a commenter above said that she heard/read that there was no third book. I agree that there should be one!
Theory #2 (thanks to Paul who commented on the review post)
“All I could figure is Coben left it vague on purpose with the wedding picture implying they are just distant relatives. Earlier in the book, when talking to Silas, one of the DNA possibilities was that they share a great grandfather.”
Completely agree. But why make so much of the DNA and then not close the loop on the Silas/Wilde connection. And for that matter, how are Wilde and Peter related???
To me, the vagueness about wedding picture is SO annoying. What does it mean? Match is book two in a series so maybe in the next book we’ll get answers. If any of you are part of the Sanatorium spoiler discussion, a similar tactic is used in that series (leaving this small weird cliffhanger) and it’s driving us all crazy.
Completely agree. But why make so much of the DNA and then not close the loop on the Silas/Wilde connection. And for that matter, how are Wilde and Peter related???
This is exactly my thoughts as I closed the book. This ending was so disappointing coming from a master like Harlan. I understand cliff hangers but this just seems sloppy writing – totally uncommon from Harlan.
On a positive note I found your web site!!!
First off: thank you, David. I hope you’ll come back and you can also subscribe to my newsletter that will highlight new posts and discussions.
I feel like series cliffhangers have become much more of a thing. My issue with that is that I read mysteries and thrillers because I like closure. Especially in such a crazy uncertain world, it’s nice to see bad things come to a definitive end. Also, for prolific readers, it’s hard to remember what was left dangling. I guess my spoiler posts with summaries help with that (one reason I do them).
I think book three may delve more into this. But lol I haven’t read book one. And Coben is so prolific that hard to say when he’ll get around to writing it.
Totally agree. I just finished the book and am disappointed by the ending. Not the quality I expect from Harlan. So grateful I found this site to help me understand.
If Wilde’s mother, Sofia, and Vicky’s and Silas’ mother (unnamed?) are sisters, I think it all works out. Wilde and Peter would be second cousins. Sofia is in the old picture because she is the younger sister of their mother.
Oh thank goodness. Now I have comments turned on so Charlie can offer up a viable theory. Figuring out genealogy just confuses me. Let me see if we can make this work:
Vicky and Silas live outside of Memphis with their parents and then move to Pennsylvania after Vicky has Peter at age 14-15. Their father works at Penn State.
We don’t know Sofia Carter’s real name because she had to change it for witness protection. Sofia tells Wilde her father was dead when she took up with “the vile man” (as she calls him over and and over). So there is nothing that contradicts your theory. Is Penn State anywhere near the “wilds of New Jersey?” (Wilde was found in the Ramapo Mountains so … not really?)
So what is your theory on the photo? The book says it’s from a) the early 70s, b) of three girls at a wedding c) that Silas didn’t know who the girl in the green dress (Sofia) was. So if Sofia is Silas’s aunt, he never met her. And if Silas can’t ask his mom about the photo, maybe she’s dead as well? (Edited: Nancy points out that their mom has dementia and is living in a care home.)
If Wilde is 40 he would have been born in the early 1980s. Daniel Carter is 61 when he meets Wilde, so around 21 when Wilde was born. I am assuming Sofia got pregnant with him around age 20 as well, so she would be born in the early 1960s. So she’s got to be young in the picture, like 10-12. Maybe this is the wedding of Silas and Vicky’s parents? Am I’m missing something? Wilde says this wedding happened before Silas was born. I can’t remember how much younger than Vicky he is. I’m back to my wall chart with the string lol
Ok and who else thinks the “vile man” is showing up in Wilde book #3
In the Miron bolitar series there was a man who was rumored to burn bodies on the estate….they said the name but I can’t find it now.
Georgina, that’s a VERY interesting theory – I have not read the Bolivar series but since this book already has crossover characters maybe that is another example. Someone (and not me because I haven’t read the entire Coben catalog) must have written about this!
Definitely read the Bolitar series – love those books!!!
Thanks my husband is a fan and has been telling me that!
The Bolivar series are wonderful.
My husband loves that series!
What was the outcome of the murder case that Hester was working on? I remember her getting called back to court but not the outcome. I have more questions so definitely more to come. Just finished the book and I am confused! Found this site so thank you!
Hi Scott – I am glad you joined us! To my recollection, the outcome of Hester’s case was left up in the air. (If anyone remembers otherwise, please let me know!) I also kept wondering why the case was included in such detail unless it was relevant to the story but it doesn’t seem like it was.
If you have other questions, feel free to come back and post them. Or if you have thoughts on the Silas-Wilde DNA connection!
The trial is from another book – can’t remember which one though! Maybe Win or a Bolitar book?
I have Win so I’ll take a look!
I think the relavence of the trial is the Nazi era of hate that wasn’t stopped as a comparison to the cyber bullies. As in, is it ethical to stop them by any means? Do the ends justify the means as is discussed by Hester and also by the reference to Washington’s statue in the park. There’s no resolution to the trial because the fake and hostile cyber bullying is growing but it doesn’t have a resolution.
Those are such great observations. Now I’m hoping you have DNA theories!
Omggg yes! At least I found this website.
I am also glad you are here with this valuable intel.
Isn’t Silas and Vicky’s mother in a care home suffering from dementia?
Nancy! Yes, I looked it up and yes, you are 100% right about that.
Can you tell me what actually happened to David and why Wilde isn’t saying? And I find the ending of his parents not being able to finding him particularly when it him being found being publicized unbelievable.
I think all the book says is that David and Wilde were best friends. Eleven years ago (so when they were around 29) they were driving on a slippery mountain road. The car went off the edge, David was killed, and Wilde seems to hold himself responsible. Maybe he was driving? But Hester said the car was David’s. Then she asks Wilde if he will ever tell her what really happened, and he says he did. Maybe a later book in the series will explain?
If there is something I missed, I hope someone will speak up!!
As for Wilde’s parents, I sort of agree with you. Yes, they were in witness protection, but once Wilde was found, it would seem like there would be a way to get him back to them. The story of him being found did make headlines, so someone should have been able to put two and two together and secretly reunite them.
I was very much wondering about David and Wilde too. I thought that perhaps I missed the reveal somehow and I was starting to suspect that perhaps Wilde and Laila had a relationship before David’s death. I sure wish the book would have answered this.
Oooh, Shannon, that is a very interesting idea that I hadn’t thought of. That could explain Wilde’s guilt. If we get a book three maybe we will get some answers….
This is explained in book 1, towards the end when Hester and Oren go to the crash site towards the end – if you haven’t read it I won’t spoil it, it’s very good 😂
Ok, thanks so much! I will put book one on my list.
**Spoiler from The Boy From The Woods**
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*spoiler*
David and Wilde went out to a bar. Wilde left about 30 minutes before David did. David was drunk, roads were wet, and ended up over the cliff. Wilde lived in a tent nearby and pulled him from the wreckage. He told police, Oren, that he was driving. He feels guilty for leaving him alone, drunk, and then ultimately David getting behind the wheel.
Thanks, Melissa. Very helpful!