Copyright 1995 by Harlan Coben. Published by Dell, an imprint of Random House, New York.
This is the first of the 11 books by Harlan Coben featuring Myron Bolitar, sports agent and investigator. I have read one other Myron Bolitar book – One False Move – and wasn’t impressed. But I saw this one in the bookstore in South Carolina and thought I would give the first in the series a try. I don’t regret that decision.
In this one Bolitar is just getting started in his career as sports agent after his basketball career was cut short by injury. He has a major new client, Christian Steele, the #1 overall pick in the NFL draft. He negotiates a great contract for Christian, but is sidetracked by a mystery surrounding the disappearance of Christian’s girlfriend when he was a senior in college. The girlfriend is the sister of Jessica, Myron’s ex-girlfriend. Everyone assumed that the sister, Kathy, was dead. But then her photo appears in a sleazy magazine, in an ad for a phone sex company. Is she a victim of white slavery? And is her disappearance connected to the murder of her father?
The search for Kathy and unraveling the twin myteries of her disappearance and her father’s murder (and. eventually, the murder of Kathy’s best friend) fully consume Myron and Jessica. He has to navigate threats from some underworld thugs who want to control one of Myron’s other clients, but that is just filler and an opportunity for Win – Windsor Home Lockwood III, Myron’s best friend and bodyguard – to crack some heads.
The mysteries are deep and Coben unravels them gently, with good pacing. Overall a very satisfying book.
7 out of 10.