Great Harlan Coben Novels

Two bodies are unearthed near the spot where David Beck's wife Elizabeth Parker was supposedly kidnapped and murdered eight years earlier. It was discovered that these bodies were buried there near the ocean, eight years previously around the same time Elizabeth disappeared. David himself had been injured when he went to help Elizabeth who started screaming for help. When Elizabeth's body was later found, she had to be identified by her father since David was still in the hospital.

David Beck has rebuilt his life in the eight years since his wife's disappearance and death, at the hands of a known serial killer, who left his trademark on Elizabeth's body. He has finished medical school and is now a successful pediatrician. Still in love with his wife, David is thrown for a loop when he receives an email containing information that he feels only his wife could have known. Now the old wounds have been reopened and David has to see for himself if is wife is alive.

It is soon after this original email that Beck gets more mysterious emails he believes are from Elizabeth, telling him to "tell no one." David immediately starts to try and find out what really happened to his wife and comes across a billionaire who doesn't want him to succeed, and cops who now want to pin the murder on him.

Coben s characters in this book have a fair amount of depth and you find yourself feeling David Beck's pain and anxiety as he hopes beyond hope that his wife is alive. The father of a patient of David's turns out to be the only person Beck feels he can trust, as he is hunted by thugs and police alike. More bodies turn up and more clues emerge. Many people have something to hide, even David, Elizabeth and their families.

This book was a great thriller that kept me interested from the beginning and I was never sure of whether or not to believe if Elizabeth was alive. It was a fast paced mystery which kept you on the "edge of your seat," with its non-stop action. The villains are larger than life and the book is well written. However, it was a little confusing when the author tried to explain the justification for the actions of many of the people in the book, including Elizabeth's father. The main problem was with the last fifty to sixty pages where things got a little twisted and convoluted. It was almost like the author wasn't sure how to end the book.

The third book in the Myron Bolitar series, Fade Away is a top notch mystery that has it all. It's got sports, murder, blackmail, gambling and goons! This book delves into Myron's injury ten years ago which cost him his basketball career. Now a sports agent, with the penchant for sniffing out clues, Myron must call on his skills from when he was an FBI agent to not only find a missing basketball player, but a murderer. He finds an ugly web of deceit, a custody battle and some serious gambling, all while looking for Greg Downing, the super star basketball player who has gone missing right before the playoffs.

This makes for an interesting story as Myron and Greg had been basketball competitors since their college days. They also had an interest in the same woman, a woman Greg had since married, but who now is divorced from. So while it was intriguing for Myron to help look for Greg, it stirred up a lot of old memories.

Myron's job is made easier with the help of Esperanza, a former female wrestler who helps out in his office and his old crony and partner Win. While dealing with things in the present, Myron has to try and come to terms with his basketball injury all those years ago. He even gets to be on the New Jersey Dragons, as he substitutes for Greg, who is supposedly injured. Myron hopes he never gets called on to play, for he is afraid of being embarrassed, because of the knee injury he suffered when he last played. He just wants to get to know his teammates and coach in order to find Greg. But things are much more complicated as time goes on and nobody is as they seem.

In addition to dealing with the players, the coach and owner, Chip Arnstein, Myron also has to deal with a nosy reporter pumping him for information, and two goons who are also looking for Greg, because he owes them lots of money from gambling debts. Myron's live in girlfriend Jessica plays a minor role in this book, but they do seem to work out some of the issues they had previously, which were related to Myron's basketball injury.

The plot in this book is complex, but it is never confusing. Harlan Coben writes it in such a way that it is easy to follow. There are many red herring, and a few small side stories, but Fade Away is the type of book which is difficult to put down. It is well written and the character of Myron Bolitar is funny and sarcastic, the story fast paced. The plot was intriguing and ending is quite the surprise. At the end of the book, you get the impression that Myron finally has accepted his injury and the end of his basketball career, and that he is focusing on the future.
Text module Give your module a title. Titles can only be one line, so keep it short. Give your module a subtitle. Enter your text below. The limit is 10,000 characters. Fade Away by Harlan Coben

The third book in the Myron Bolitar series, Fade Away is a top notch mystery that has it all. It's got sports, murder, blackmail, gambling and goons! This book delves into Myron's injury ten years ago which cost him his basketball career. Now a sports agent, with the penchant for sniffing out clues, Myron must call on his skills from when he was an FBI agent to not only find a missing basketball player, but a murderer. He finds an ugly web of deceit, a custody battle and some serious gambling, all while looking for Greg Downing, the super star basketball player who has gone missing right before the playoffs.

This makes for an interesting story as Myron and Greg had been basketball competitors since their college days. They also had an interest in the same woman, a woman Greg had since married, but who now is divorced from. So while it was intriguing for Myron to help look for Greg, it stirred up a lot of old memories.

Myron's job is made easier with the help of Esperanza, a former female wrestler who helps out in his office and his old crony and partner Win. While dealing with things in the present, Myron has to try and come to terms with his basketball injury all those years ago. He even gets to be on the New Jersey Dragons, as he substitutes for Greg, who is supposedly injured. Myron hopes he never gets called on to play, for he is afraid of being embarrassed, because of the knee injury he suffered when he last played. He just wants to get to know his teammates and coach in order to find Greg. But things are much more complicated as time goes on and nobody is as they seem.

In addition to dealing with the players, the coach and owner, Chip Arnstein, Myron also has to deal with a nosy reporter pumping him for information, and two goons who are also looking for Greg, because he owes them lots of money from gambling debts. Myron's live in girlfriend Jessica plays a minor role in this book, but they do seem to work out some of the issues they had previously, which were related to Myron's basketball injury.

The plot in this book is complex, but it is never confusing. Harlan Coben writes it in such a way that it is easy to follow. There are many red herring, and a few small side stories, but Fade Away is the type of book which is difficult to put down. It is well written and the character of Myron Bolitar is funny and sarcastic, the story fast paced. The plot was intriguing and ending is quite the surprise. At the end of the book, you get the impression that Myron finally has accepted his injury and the end of his basketball career, and that he is focusing on the future.

  Drop Shot is the second book in the Myron Bolitar series written by Harlan Coben. Myron is a former basketball player and federal agent, who is now a lawyer and sports agent. Most of the action in Drop Shot revolves around the U.S. Open tennis tournament, where Myron is watching the match of his client, Duane Richwood. The rest revolves around the six year old murder of a prominent senator.

          While Myron's client Duane is playing his match at the Open, a woman who is trying to make a tennis comeback, Valerie Simpson is shot near one of the concession stands. Valerie had been trying to get a hold of Myron who is a sports agent, to talk to him regarding re-starting her career. Although Duane was playing at the time of Valerie's murder, he somehow becomes a suspect. When Myron talks to Duane about Valerie,
Duane claims he barely knows her. However, Myron learns that Duane's
phone number is found in Valerie's address book, and that she had called Duane from a phone booth nearby.
   

    The police let Duane go and finally arrest a man they believe
was stalking Valerie. But things just don't add up because Myron feels
that there has to be more of a connection between Duane and Valerie.
Myron starts to dig into the murder of Alexander Cross, the son of a
United States senator. Both the senator and local mobsters involved with
the senator threaten Myron and ask him to stop looking into the murders.
But Myron doesn't stop, partly because he starts to feel guilty because
he never returned Valerie's phone calls to him. He starts digging into
the murder six years previously of the Senators son, Alexander Cross, a
man that Valerie was engaged to.

    In looking for the truth, Myron speaks with ex-teachers, a
murder suspect's mother, the senator, mobster and a coroner from the six
year old case. He puts himself and Jessica, his girlfriend in harms way
more than once, and has to be bailed out by his sidekick Winn.

    This is another fast paced exciting novel by Coben that keeps
your interest ( even if you figure it out like I did) and the characters
are well developed and the connections are well explained. There are a
lot of twists and turns, but not so many that it is difficult to follow.
Myron is an interesting character who always seeks justice and does his
best to find it. Win is a little crazy, but is also an interesting
character who has his own idea of justice. Esperanza, Myron's office
assistant was also in this book, although her character was not all that
involved in the plot.

One False Move is the 5th book in the Myron Bolitar series. In this book, Myron, who runs MB SportsRep is hired to protect professional basketball player Brenda Slaughter. Brenda is receiving death threats and her father Horace, an old friend of Myron's has disappeared. Eventually, Horace is found murdered and Brenda is the leading suspect. In addition to protecting Brenda from death threats, Myron now wants to help find out who murdered her father. Brenda wants him to look for her mother who went missing twenty years ago.

Myron's live in love Jessica is away on the west coast, and Myron was having a hard time with her being gone. He had the feeling that she was running away from him. But Myron was having conflicting feelings of his own. He was beginning to fall in love with the beautiful Brenda Slaughter. It is difficult for him to be objective in this case because of the way he feels about her.

But he slowly unravels the mystery of Brenda's family and how it ties in to a rich group of men who are also looking for Brenda. It takes quite a while, but Myron finally realizes why Brenda is important to Arthur Bradford, the man Brenda's mother used to work for.

This book is very suspenseful and well written. There is more depth to the characters than in previous books. We see more of the friendship between Myron and Esperanza, who he considers his best friend. We also see the depth of Myron's love for his father, as he learns about something important his father did years ago to protect him.

This book is difficult to put down, as the story and the characters keep you very engrossed. Myron has to figure out where a governor to be (Arthur Bradford) and two goons who run a rival sports agency fit into the picture. The rival sports agency seems to want to represent Brenda themselves, and Arthur's deceased wife was somehow involved with Brenda's mother right before she disappeared.

So, it is important to read this book carefully as there are very few clues to give anything away. The Myron Bolitar books don't need to be read in any order, but you get more insight into the characters if you do. Myron is a funny, low key guy who works his hardest for his clients and is very protective of anyone who is important to him. As in all the books in the series, Myron's college buddy Win is around to save Myron's life yet again. I highly recommend this book and the rest of the books in the series. I am looking forward to reading the next one, The Final Detail.

Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar novels have similar characters to those in other series by other authors. Having read the Spencer series years ago, and more recently the Stephanie Plum series, I find similar characters in both.

Myron Bolitar and his friend Win remind me a great deal of Spencer and Hawk from Spencer series(the basis for Spencer for Hire on Tv) by Robert Parker. Big Cindy, with her attitude, her size and her colorful hair remind me of Lula from the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. If you think the same, or even if you don't , check out the poll regarding this.

Harlan's Myron Bolitar book Deal Breaker ( Bolitar #1) was an Edgar nominee.

His third Myron Bolitar, Fade Away won the Edgar Allan Poe for Best Original Paperback

Darkest Fear by Harlan Coben is the seventh book in the Myron Bolitar series. Myron is a sports agent who was a professional basketball player before a career ending injury. In this novel, Myron is confronted by his former love Emily who comes to see Myron because her son Jeremy is dying and the man who had signed up to be his bone marrow donor has disappeared.

While questioning Emily about why he should help her look for the elusive donor, Myron learns that he is the father of Emily's son, the product of the last night they spent together, the night before Emily was to marry Greg Dowling. Myron is not real thrilled about taking this case, as he has pretty much had it with Emily and her lying. He is not sure that she is telling him the truth about Jeremy's paternity. He thinks maybe she is lying again, because she is desperate to get his help. She has had plenty of time, around thirteen years to let Myron know that Jeremy is his son, if that truly is the case.

Myron and Esperanza, as well as Win find a way to breach the security of the bone marrow registry to find the name of the donor who has disappeared. This brings Myron to a very strange family, whose members insist that Myron is wrong about their sibling volunteering to be a bone marrow donor. They are very rich and appear to be have a big secret that they don't want revealed. In addition to this, the path leading to the bone marrow donor is quite cold, as the donor doesn't seem to exist.

This novel is confusing in parts and involves the FBI, a very rich, reclusive family, a serial killer and the missing bone marrow donor and his relationship to all of this. There is even a disgraced reporter who plagiarized a novel and used it to create a serial killer. I have truly enjoyed all of the Myron Bolitar books that I have read, but this one was difficult to get through. The original idea was interesting, but it got rather convoluted as the story went on. Usually the wittiness of Myron has me laughing, or at least smiling, but this book did neither. It was truly a disappointment, maybe it would have been a little better had there been more of the usual characters, who take a back seat in this one, to Emily and Greg and others, characters I had no interest in. It was probably a good time to take a break in the series after this book, and come back a little later, with something more like the first six books in the Myron Bolitar series.

Promise Me by Harlan Coben, Myron Bolitar returns after a six year absence, and what a great return! Myron, former basketball player turned entertainment agent and part time detective, has his hands full in this novel with two missing eighteen year old girls.

At the beginning of the novel, Myron overhears two teenage girls, (his girlfriend Ali's daughter Erin and her friend Aimee) talking about driving after drinking. Reminded of his high school friend who died in a drinking related crash, Myron makes the girls promise to call him is they are ever in trouble, and he will pick them up.

Not long afterwards, one of them does just that. Erin's friend Aimee Biel calls him at two in the morning. However, after dropping the girl off at a friend's house in the wee hours of the morning, Myron soon learns that the girl never made it home. He also learns that another girl from the same school has also disappeared. Both girls visited the same ATM, making it appear that they have run away. But Myron thinks that there is more to it, and takes steps to try and help one family find their daughter, while at the same time, questioning the other family who he is sure is hiding something.

Myron's quest for the truth is made difficult by one of the girls estranged boyfriends and his father, a couple of suspicious teachers, one parent having an affair, a doctor with secrets and much more. There are numerous twists and turns in the story, but there are clues along the way, with give us a little hint. The missing girls don't seem to have much in common other than the use of a common ATM, and it takes quite a while for Myron to figure out just where the similarities lie.

As with previous Myron Bolitar novels, Big Cindy, Esperanza and Win make appearances although not to their usual degree. Myron has to out run the usual thugs and sift through the usual lies and deceit. School politics and hidden agendas abound.

In this novel we learn that Myron's long time love is getting married and Myron has finally come to terms with his feelings for her. He has found love with Ali a woman who is a 9/11 widow.

This is a quick paced novel that was difficult to put down. Myron still has his wit and compassion as well as his need to bring justice to those he feels have been wronged. After previously reading the Darkest Fear, the last novel before the six year break in the series, I am happy to say, that this book is a great improvement.

Long Lost by Harlan Coben is the ninth and latest book in the Myron Bolitar series. Harvard graduate and sports agent and part time detective Myron hasn't heard from lady love Terese in over seven years. With his relationship with widow Ali Wilder on the rocks, Myron doesn't think twice about running to Terese's aid when she calls him from Paris desperate for his help.

What Myron finds out when he gets to Paris is quite shocking. It seems that Terese's disappearance was related to a tragic car accident that injured her and killed her only child, her daughter Miriam. Now Terese is trying to help find her ex-husband who called her and told her that he had something very important to tell her. But before she can do this, he is murdered and she becomes a suspect.

This fast paced Myron Bolitar novel is an excellent mystery, which keeps you interested for almost the entire book. As you get near the end of this book, things get a little unrealistic as Myron battles "terrorists" who try to kill him and Terese, all while he tries to figure out how he "lost" several days of his life while oversees.

There are many twists and turns in this novel the least of which is the apparent appearance of Terese's dead daughter's blood at the crime scene. As with all of the Bolitar books (my least favorite being Darkest Fear) this book is well written and action packed.

This book does not feature as much of Win, Esperanza or Big Cindy maybe because the majority of the book takes place in Paris. However, they along with Myron's parents are in the book for a brief time. Myron tends to stand more on his own in this book, but of course Win is there for backup. As usual, Myron is his caring, loving self, a man not afraid to show his feelings when dealing with his parents or Terese.

The violence in this book was more extreme than in the other Myron Bolitar books. It left me wondering whether this was of any particular significance. There is over the top action and some scary scenario's involving terrorists and an organization that is using frozen embryos for their own purposes. These extremists will stop at nothing to get what they want.

The book ended in a such a way that it left you with a feeling of "to be continued," because you are left guessing as to how the actual relationship between Myron and lady love Terese will turn out. I guess we will have to wait until the next book to find out.