Publishers Weekly
04/15/2024
Bestseller Coben’s anemic 12th thriller featuring basketball-star-turned-sports agent Myron Bolitar (after 2016’s Home) suggests the series may be losing its bounce. Bolitar is stunned when the FBI demands the whereabouts of his former client Greg Downing, who supposedly died three years earlier. The two had a fraught history: after Bolitar slept with Downing’s fiancée on the eve of their wedding, Downing paid another player to rough him up, ending Bolitar’s career on the court. Now, the Bureau suspects Downing of two recent murders, having found his DNA under the fingernails of supermodel Cecelia Callister, who’s been killed along with her son. With the help of his best friend Win Lockwood, Bolitar starts investigating the possibility that Downing faked his own death. In the process, he stumbles on more murders Downing may have committed and reunites with his son, Jeremy, who harbors secrets of his own. While Coben’s decision to mine Bolitar and Downing’s rivalry for drama is initially promising, he squanders the setup with too many plot contrivances. This misses the mark. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (May)
From the Publisher
"Harlan Coben is one of our greatest living thriller writers, and instantly engaging hooks like the one in I Will Find You are a big reason why."—BookPage
"I Will Find You bristles with the irresistible storytelling nous that is Coben’s purview."—Financial Times
"Compelling . . . A fantastically breakneck prison break/fugitive adventure story."—The Guardian
"A real winner . . . just begs to be put in line for the same cinematic treatment that so many of Coben’s other novels have received.”—BookReporter.com
"I Will Find You by Harlan Coben is a classic Coben novel (fast-paced and twisty)."—AARP
Praise for The Match: “The topical follow-up to Coben’s best-selling The Boy from the Woods addresses reality shows, DNA searches, cyberbullying, and social media influencers in a suspenseful novel guaranteed to be a hit.”—Library Journal (Starred Review)
“If you like the Netflix series Stay Close, created by the author, this is a good one to add to your reading list.”—CNN
“Harlan Coben's puzzle-box mysteries have inspired numerous Netflix series, and his latest book, The Match, seems poised to follow suit.”—Popsugar
Praise for Win: “Coben, as is his wont, raises moral dilemmas readers will enjoy chewing on and pulse-pounding action scenes will keep the pages at least semi-frantically turning.”—BookPage (Starred Review)
"Crafty plot twists, fast-moving action, and witty dialogue . . . Can the antihero become a hero after all? Win answers that question in surprising and satisfying ways."—BookTrib
Praise for Run Away: "Harlan Coben is a master at taking what seems to be an ordinary family and exposing the facade and secrets that are buried just below the surface. With Run Away, his writing and storytelling are firing on all cylinders."—Associated Press
Praise for Harlan Coben: "Coben never, ever lets you down."—Lee Child
"[Harlan Coben is] the modern master of the hook and twist."—Dan Brown
"The world needs to discover Harlan Coben. He's smart, he's funny and he has something to say."—Michael Connelly
Kirkus Reviews
2024-03-23
Sports agent Myron Bolitar meets the Setup Serial Killer, who’s found a highly effective way to keep anyone from connecting the dots.
There’s no arguing with DNA evidence, the ultimate forensic clincher. So when basketball player Greg Downing’s DNA is found on the scene where retired model Cecelia Callister and her son, Clay, were killed, the FBI comes calling on Myron to ask where they can find Greg. Myron’s a reasonable person to ask because Greg was his schoolmate and former client, the man who wooed and won Myron’s girlfriend away from him and made her Emily Downing. Try as he might, though, Myron can’t help much beyond repeating the obvious: Greg died three years ago, and his body was cremated. Since the Feds aren’t about to give up their search, Myron and his partner, financial advisor Win Lockwood, decide they’d better see if they can get ahead of this story by confirming or contradicting the story of Greg’s death. Meantime, a series of interleaved episodes show the killer eliminating a series of primary targets and framing secondary targets so convincingly for the murders, with special thanks to planted DNA, that it never occurs to the police to connect crimes that were so readily solved on their own. Complications arise when Myron’s thrown together with Jeremy Downing, the son he fathered in a pre-wedding tryst with Emily and then passed off as Greg’s, and when the allies of mob boss Joseph “Joey the Toe” Turant, who was locked up four years ago after his DNA-fueled conviction for the murder of Jordan Kravat, decide to lean on Myron to get him to reveal where Greg is.
A great premise leads through all the twists you’d expect to a thoroughly muddy final movement.
