The Final Detail: A Myron Bolitar Novel

Harlan Coben is at it again. Myron Bolitar, sports person, private investigator, friend of a millionaire, is constantly stumbling into murder and mystery. The Final Detail is, as always, exciting and entertaining. Once you start reading, it follows you into the night.This book is for those who love whodunnit types. Please read and enjoy.

Coben nevertheless disappoints! The Myron Bolitar series always amuses, causes consternation, and challenges even the most perceptive and analytical of all of us. This one was particularly intriguing. Thanks, Mr Coben!

After breaking up, finally, with his girlfriend Jessica, and mourning the death of Brenda, a woman he might have loved had she not been killed in the previous One False Move, sports agent Myron Bolitar is adrift and confused. He has fled to the Carribean with a woman he barely knows for cold emotionless sex. This is unlike him, for he is no bed hopper. His clients, feeling abandoned, are beginning to go elsewhere for representation. Suddenly, his friend Win, the psychologically deranged investment adviser for whom violence is like a midnighht snack, appears and informs him that a client has been murdered, with Myron's partner and pal, Esperanza Diaz having been arrested for the crime. There is evidence that the client, a pitcher by the name of Clu Haid, had a physical confrontation with Esperanza. The murder weapon, a gun, has been found in Myron's company car.Haid was Myron's first client, a fraternity brother from their days at Duke. Wild and irresponsible, and separated from his wife, he was getting his last shot with the Yankees, and pitching well. But his last drug test, like so many others, contained what are known as dirty drops, this time heroin. Clu Haid will remind baseball fans of the Dodger relief pitcher Steve Howe, who, unable to keep cocaine out of his nostrils, was suspended 7 times, and died young. Naturally, Myron, sure that Esperanza is not a murderess, wants to clear her name. But Esperanza does not want to see nor speak to him. Her high-profile lawyer tells him to stay away. The lady he relies on for emotional and business support is hiding something, perhaps an affair with Haid. So. rather than rely on Esperanza, as he has done in the past, he looks to his gigantic and weird receptionist Big Cyndi, for help. Surpisingly, she is efficient and alert, and even intuitive. Among the things she does is take him to a strange club, where sexual identity is all guesswork. It is possible that the dead pitcher frequented the place between relief appearances.In the course of working his way around Esperanza's silence, he comes across the Yankees' new owner, Sophie Mayor, a software billionairess, whose daughter disappeared years ago and was never found. Myron receives a disturbing diskette in the mail regarding the missing girl, and the owner asks Myron to find out what happened to her. It was the owner, not a baseball expert, who made the trade acquiring Haid, thus putting him in pinstripes.The book starts a bit slowly, but like a Number 1 starter, picks up strength as the story moves along. The humor, a staple of the Myron Bolitar series, is occasionally forced in the beginning, but gets progressively better. Especially funny is the dialogue between Myron and Win about a motivational guru employed by the Yankees. There are no straight hittable fastballs here, just plenty of sharp curves and sliders, and a number of screwballs mixed into the repertoire. The climax is shocking. You never know what comes next or where a break in the case will occur. And Myron, not really healed and still suiffering from loss at the end, doesn't know whether the breaks in life will fall his way again.

I thought I’d read all the Myron Bolitar series, and was delighted to learn how Terese came onto the scene. As always, Myron is learning and doing his best, but this Final Detail actually had me worried about his about his chances to continue living. That rotten, brilliant Harlan Coben saves the most important detail till the dead last. Brilliant.

Myron Bolitar, sports agent, is a good man who looks out for his friends, loves and even likes his parents, and just wants to settle down with a good woman. But every now and then he reluctantly bends the rules a bit, like most people. By contrast, his best friend Win has killer instincts, which he indulges, though always in a good cause. In this book, Myron faces some tough ethical questions.The story opens with Myron on an island in the Caribbean with a beautiful brunette. But Myron needs to hurry home to help his business partner. Esperanza has been arrested for the murder of one of their clients.Myron and Win investigate. The path through clues and surmises is torturous. The truth is slowly revealed in bits and pieces – through phone records, an autopsy report, a framed photo of a missing girl, tense conversations in bars and Starbucks with criminal types. Myron comes within an inch of a violent death more than once.There are plenty of funny scenes – Myron and Win making fun of a motivational guru; Myron's mom and dad fussing over him in the manner of Jewish parents; Big Cyndi, Myron's enormous receptionist, dazzling the eye with her multi-colored outfits...The solution to the mystery is a complete surprise and leads Myron to go a great deal of soul-searching.Final Detail rates high on humor, emotional content, scary confrontations and moral ambiguities – a worthy addition to the series.

Ever a dull moment with a great story. A new twist in every chapter. Recommend for a good weekend read.

Myron returns from a break to find his partner Esperanza has been arrested for the murder of one of their clients. No-one will tell Myron and Win what is going on and their investigations take them to some unexpected places and into areas no-one wants them to go.If you like the author and/or the Bolitar stories then you will love this. It has all the elements of plot twists, wit and character inter-play that we have come to expect and it all hangs together very well. Interestingly Coben has, in places, introduced a couple of subtle changes to his narrative. There are some slightly darker aspects to this one and there are times where he puts humour directly into the narrative rather then into the things his characters say but it does work well.It is all here, the wit, the banter, the twists and the way it all comes together neatly in the end.Very enjoyable.

No offense meant at the heading because I like the Bolitar stories. Him and Win are the adult version of schoolboy capers, play it for fun and the banter between them is excellent. This story is good and has the usual twists and turns. OK the serious life threatening escapades he gets in to are at times a bit far fetched but it doesn't really detract from the case in issue. Crime writers sometimes get too involved in side issues such as voyeuristic sex scenes, past cases etc and it us a distraction from the storyline but Harlan Coben plays it straight and cuts out all the unnecessary side issues.

One of the series of Myron Bolitar books. An engaging read, from start on finish. Make sure that you read the Bolitar books in series though, as this one, like all of them, picks-up from the previous title in the series.

Harlan Coben never disappoints. Myron Bolitar series just gets better and better the characters develop further in each book and plots an sub plots never disappoints. Would always recommend this series of books.

This is the first of Coben's books I've read and I am impressed. I found it rather an unusual experience (as an Englishman), being immersed into the world of US sports agents, a subject I wouldn't normally gravitate to. The Final Detail, however, thrived on this refreshing theme, and I loved the quick-fire banter between the colourful characters.