Deal Breaker. - Harlan Coben

Synopsis: When a woman who everyone, including the police, believes is dead makes a phone call to a young sportsman about to hit the big time, it seems that more than just his career is on the line.

Myron Bolitar investigates and is plunged into a baffling mystery of sex and blackmail. Trying to unravel the truth about a family's tragedy, a woman's secret and a man's lies, Myron soon reveals that image and talent might make you rich, but the truth can get you killed.



Review

Earlier in the year I read Caught by Harlan Coben, and was impressed with how fast-paced and well-written the novel was, prompting me to pick up another of his. I settled with Deal Breaker. This time not a stand-alone novel, but the first in the Myron Bolitar series; something I admittedly didn't know when I picked it at random from the author's shelf of novels in the book-store.

I haven't been disappointed. The novel tells the story of a mysterious disappearance of a young woman who has gone missing, believed to be dead. Her family and her boyfriend are left hysterical, and just a year after tragedy strikes the family again: the father dies in an apparently unrelated mugging. For Jessica, coincidences are too good to be true, and she believes there is a connection between her sister's disappearance and her father's death.

Not everything is how it seems, and everyone has something to hide. Jessica enlists the help of Myron, agent of Christian Steele, upcoming NBA star and the boyfriend of Jessica's missing sister Kathy. With his best friend Win in tow, he's got his back covered, as he starts delving into a strange investigation that ground to a halt two years ago. Win is the character that makes this novel so engaging for me; a handsome, golf-playing nerd, Win holds all the contacts, all the finances and all the means at Myron's disposal. Oh, and he's quite handy at taekwondo also; his protection something that Myron will need.

In some senses, the plot is a typical one; girl goes missing presumed dead, multiple suspects, personal agendas, secrets kept; the reader knows not who to trust. That's what makes it so engaging, as the threads weaved between the characters' lives continue to be revealed one by one; each twist and turn presenting new revelations to shock and surprise the reader. In essence, a fact-paced, action-packed read that left me wanting the next in the series.

4/5.

Caught. - Harlan Coben

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Haley McWaid never gave her parents a moment's worry. Until one morning her mother wakes to find that Haley didn't come home the night before. Three months quickly pass without a word, and everyone assumes the worst. Wendy Tynes is a reporter on a mission: to identify and bring down sexual predators via televised sting operations. Her latest target is Dan Mercer, a social worker known as a friend to troubled teens. But his story soon becomes more complicated than Wendy could have imagined. Caught tells the story of a missing girl, the community stunned by her loss, the predator who may have taken her, and the reporter who suddenly realises she can't trust her own instincts about this story - or the motives of the people around her..

Thoughts

This was another first; my first Coben, and I'm certainly impressed by what I've read. The mere fact that I read this one sitting is tribute to the pace of the novel, and the hold it has over a reader; captivating and exhilarating.

A young girl gone missing without a trace; a man accused of paedophilia, forced into hiding; a television reporter caught up in something she could have never imagined. Coben writes with such brilliance; twists and turns that just when you think they have stopped, continue to shock and surprise as you flick the pages.

His language doesn't just capture the reader, it's thought-provoking as well. Not everything is as it seems, and it's difficult to know who can be trusted. Everyone has their motives, and someone wants to see those around them crash and burn. If you enjoy a cracking thriller that has you questioning throughout, grab this when you can.

5/5.