Think Twice

by Harlan Coben

Book list Best-selling mystery and thriller writer Coben brings back longtime series hero Myron Bolitar (last seen in Home, 2016) in a rewardingly action-packed mystery. In this, the twelfth Bolitar title, Coben quickly brings readers up to speed on Bolitar, a former college basketball star with a single, very brief, ended-by-injury pre-season in the NBA, who then set up a sports agency. This time, a former NBA star and coach—one of Bolitar’s longtime friends, rivals, and clients—is wanted by the FBI for murder. There are two kickers: Myron attended this friend’s funeral three years before, and this friend’s DNA was found at a recent crime scene. Bolitar and his sidekick, financial adviser Win Lockwood, investigate, careening from New York to Las Vegas as they hunt and are hunted by the Mob. Readers may be put off by the forced humor that Bolitar and Lockwood engage in, with Lockwood even making a sexual pun out of two Asian women’s names. Plenty of biff-boff action and suspense throughout for fans of the series.

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Publishers Weekly 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)

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Kirkus 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. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.