I discovered Harlan Coben by watching a couple series based on his books on Netflix. I liked them. They were fun and twisty, with good characters. So, I decided I wanted to read some of his books. I did some research and found that, while many of his books are stand-alones, he has a series with a main character named Myron Bolitar. I read some brief reviews, which gave me hope this might be the kind of book series I could get into. So, I looked up the list of Bolitar books, finding there were twelve in the series that stretched from 1995 to 2016. My research revealed that this was likely going to be the kind of series I would enjoy. It also told me that, despite all the Netflix adaptations I’d seen being British, Harlan Coben is American and his books are set in the US. This was neither here nor there to me. I was just slightly surprised. Happily, the first book, Deal Breaker, was available as an audiobook from my local library. So, I checked it out. I’m really glad I did.

Myron Bolitar is a former basketball star at Duke whose NBA career ended before it even began due to a freak injury. After that, he went to law school, worked for the federal government on something highly classified (I’m really hoping more comes out about that in the subsequent books), and then took the next logical step–he became a sports agent. But he’s a sports agent who solves sports-related crimes. His two best friends are Windsor “Win” Horne Lockwood III, a college roommate who is now Myron’s financial advisor as well as his scary tough-guy buddy when things get rough; and Esparanza Diaz, his secretary and a woman with a truly interesting history. The three make quite a formidable team.

The fun begins when Myron is hired by one of his clients, a young man named Christian Steele, who is about to sign a monster deal with the fictional New York Titans (This book was written before the existence of the Tennessee Titans), and who just received a pornographic magazine in the mail containing a nude picture of his former girlfriend. That’s puzzling and troubling for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the girl has been missing for a year and a half and is presumed dead. Christian wants Myron to find out who sent him the magazine and also if his girlfriend is really alive. In the meantime, Myron has to do battle with the owner of the Titans, who also knows about the magazine and wants to use it to his advantage. On top of that, he’s trying to help another client who has run afoul of a mob-connected agent who claims to have signed the kid first. As if all that weren’t enough to handle, Myron’s ex Jessica has reappeared in his life. She wants him to investigate the recent murder of her father as well as the disappearance of her sister, who just so happens to be the young lady in the magazine.

The book is full of twists and turns and dead ends, all of which come together into a climax that somehow manages to weave every seemingly disconnected thread into a coherent whole. At different points throughout, it becomes obvious who the culprit is, except it isn’t them. When we finally find out exactly what happened, the seemingly impossible turns out to be the only outcome possible. This is a finely crafted story that keeps the reader guessing from beginning to end.

But the part that I loved the most was the humor. Told in third person, but from Myron’s point-of-view, the reader hears Myron’s constant hilarious inner dialogue. His relationship with Win is just as funny, as the two are constantly trading witty quips with each other. And both Myron and Win always know just the wrong thing to say to the bad guys. If they weren’t both so tough and resourceful, their mouths would have gotten them shot years ago.

As with any series, the big test is always whether I want to read the next book, and, if so, how badly. In this case, all I’ll say is I was searching for book two in the series, within thirty seconds of finishing this one. Drop Shot just got promoted to the top of my TBR list.

If you’ve read Deal Breaker, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.