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It seems as if Harlan Coben came out of nowhere several years ago,
publishing a series of memorable and increasingly successful stand-alone
novels that have deservedly earned him a permanent place on the
must-read lists of legions of readers. What isn't so widely known,
however, is that Coben's earliest work consists of a quartet of
novels featuring a former basketball player turned sports agent
named Myron Bolitar. Coben's latest effort, PROMISE ME, brings his
career full circle, reintroducing Bolitar in a setting reminiscent
of Coben's most popular novels.
One need not have read Coben's early Bolitar works --- DEAL BREAKER,
DROP SHOT, FADE AWAY, BACK SPIN, ONE FALSE MOVE, THE FINAL DETAIL
and DARKEST FEAR --- in order to appreciate PROMISE ME. Coben does
an admirable job of bringing latecomers up to speed regarding Bolitar
and his fine supporting cast, not the least of whom is Windsor Horne
Lockwood III. Win, in fact, is interesting enough that he could
easily carry a book all by his lonesome. But PROMISE ME is Bolitar's
vehicle, and a fine one it is.
The book begins with Bolitar having a conversation with two teenaged
girls at a party, in which he extracts a promise from them that
if they are ever in trouble, they will call him. His promise, in
return, is that he will come and get them, no questions asked. I
could go on forever about the whys and wherefores of how this came
to be, but it would be more fun for you to read about it yourself;
if you've encountered Bolitar before, you're more than halfway there.
Suffice to say that one of them takes Bolitar up on his offer and
promptly disappears. The police trace the girl's last appearance
back to Bolitar, which naturally causes him endless difficulties.
Of particular interest to the police is the fact that the girl's
disappearance eerily parallels that of another young woman some
weeks previously.
Needless to say, things don't look good for Bolitar. He feels duty-bound,
however, to find the girl who called him, not only to clear himself
in her disappearance but also to fulfill his own promise to her.
Win, of course, is there to help, as the plot takes some weird and
seemingly inexplicable twists and turns between two disappearances
that are eerily connected in some ways and not related at all in
others.
PROMISE ME chugs right along on all eight cylinders with nary a
misfire from first page to last. Coben has indicated that he wrote
this book with the thought of topping his previous works (not an
unusual goal for a writer, to be sure) while penning a novel that
was, in his words, "uniquely Myron." As Coben fans new and old will
happily discover, he has succeeded. Highly recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
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