Deal Breaker: Harlan Coben

In this first book in the Myron Bolitar series, sports agent Myron Bolitar is about to get a big break when his client Christian Steele, a rookie quarterback, is offered a deal to sign for the Titans football team. Unfortunately for both of them, a tragedy from Christian's past comes back to haunt him. Christian's girlfriend from college has been missing for 18 months; there have been rumors that he is responsible. Now Christian receives a magazine in the mail with a picture of Kathy in it. To complicate things further, the girlfriend, Kathy Culver, is the younger sister of Myron's ex-girlfried, Jessica. The Culver family has recently suffered an additional tragedy; Adam Culver, the girls' father, was killed in a robbery attempt. Myron tries to determine if Kathy is still alive or if this is some malicious hoax.

The book was very readable; it held my interest until the very end. Mainly what I want when I read a mystery novel is to be entertained and enjoy the story. This book provided that. I had expected the book to be closer to a cozy mystery than the fast-paced, suspense-filled novel that it is.

I liked the characters, even though some of them were over the top. Myron works with Esperanza, his business associate, and Windsor Horne Lockwood III (Win), his best friend, who also rents his office space to him. Myron is sort of normal; these other two characters are over the top. Esperanza was formerly a female wrestler. Win is often described as a sociopath. Win and Molitar met first in college, then worked for the FBI as undercover agents. Jessica, Myron's old girlfriend, is featured a lot. Much of the story is told through her viewpoint, as she looks for clues to what has happened to her sister.

I did have some quibbles. Myron has way too much personal involvement in this case. This sort of makes sense in a amateur sleuth novel, but is not my favorite story line. There is a lot of humor, and I think we are not supposed to take it all too seriously, yet the subject matter is serious.

Overall, however, this was a fun read. Will I return to this series? I am almost always interested in checking out more books in a series, if the subject matter or the characters interest me. In this case I do wonder what happens to all the continuing characters, and I imagine that the remaining books will be just compelling to read as the first one. On the other hand, I have plenty of other books on hand to read. So maybe yes, maybe no. I would love to hear if others have loved or hated this series, or even felt neutral about it.

Harlan Coben wrote seven Myron Bolitar novels, and then wrote a very successful standalone novel, Tell No One. At that point, he wrote four more standalone novels before returning to the Bolitar series in 2006. Since that time he has gone back and forth between the series and standalone novels. In 2011, he started a series for young adults starring Mickey Bolitar, Myron's nephew.

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Publisher:   Delacorte Press, 2006 (orig. publ. 1995)
Length:       339 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Series:       Myron Bolitar, #1
Setting:      US
Genre:       Mystery
Source:      I purchased this book.