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« Book Review - The Master Planets by Donald Gallinger | Main| Shred My Code - Parsing text in a Rich Text Field »

Book Review - Fade Away by Harlan Coben

Category Book Review Harlan Coben Fade Away

A picture named M2

I've been on a bit of a recreational reading kick lately...  probably trying to escape the stress of the economy.  Anyway, my number finally came up at the library for the latest Myron Bolitar novel by Harlan Coben...  Fade Away.  It's been awhile since I've had the pleasure of reading Bolitar's irreverent dialog and his interaction with his partner Win Lockwood.  And as always, it's a treat.

Bolitar, a sports agent and one-time promising basketball phenom (before his knee was blown out at the very start of his professional career), is approached by the owner of the New Jersey Dragons.  They're a playoff-bound team with a minor problem...  their star player Greg Downing has disappeared.  He's a bit of a head case anyway, and the team is trying to sell it to the media as seclusion to rehab an injured ankle.  The owner wants to sign Bolitar to finish out the season with the team, basically as a scrub player with some name appeal of what "could have been".  But what he really wants is for Bolitar to investigate from the inside and see if he can solve the mystery.  Bolitar's not sure he wants to subject himself to public ridicule as a player, but the chance to have his shot at the pros is too strong.  He takes the case and quickly finds a number of people who could have wanted Downing dead, including an ex-wife and some underworld characters.  As Bolitar digs deeper, no one ends up being exactly who they say they are (or who Bolitar thinks they are).  He has to question everything, including his own past, to solve this case and find closure for his professional life that never was.

There's not much more to say other than this was just a fun read.  Bolitar always seems to be one snide remark away from getting the pulp beat out of him.  He basically says all the smart-alex things you'd *like* to say if you had time to think about it (and there were no repercussions).  The dialog is one of the main reasons why I enjoy the Myron Bolitar series.  Couple that with a plot that keeps twisting with no resolution until the end (and even then, there's still a few surprises), and it's my idea of a perfect book for killing a few hours at  home or on a plane.

Comments

Gravatar Image1 - I have read several of Harlan Cobens books, and the Myron Bolitar books are the best.

You got me hooked for this one. Emoticon

Now I have to go buy it.

Gravatar Image2 - A comment on Ben Poole's blog got me hooked on Myron... this actually isn't the latest. The newest one is Promise Me { Link } which takes place 6 years after Darkest Fear. They've started re-releasing the older ones with new covers, so be careful before you buy - I ended up with a few duplicates because I wasn't paying attention to titles.

Gravatar Image3 - Thanks for pointing that out, Esther. I'll have to watch out for that.

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