Which of the other Myron Bolitar stories would you recommend?

Top three Amazon reviews were also 2-stars.


Most helpful Amazon review (and comments) here:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R24VOIZP...

Myron Bolitar has been a favorite character of mine, so I was delighted to see a new book featuring him. Alas. Somewhere between the last one I read and "Long Lost" Myron has acquired a son (as has Esperanza!) and gone from sports agent to any-old-kind of agent. Did Coben run out of sports??? Further, he has taken up with the needy Therese Collins, who apparently was designed to launch him into a new career as 007, fighting terrorists and going global. Sorry. That's not my Myron, and I find this jump just a little too big to take. Gone are his clients (what happened to Myron, the agent who puts his clients first?) Gone is Esperanza, who plays such a minor role she might as well be missing in action. Even Win pops up only when needed, like a reliable Kleenex. Is Coben looking for (and writing for) a blockbuster, shoot-em-up, blow-'em-up movie contract? I prefer Myron Bolitar as Jerry Maguire, not Bruce Willis. Give this one a miss.

(Oh..I listened to this on the Unabridged CD version--bring back the original reader. Stephen Weber just doesn't cut it.)

Other two most helpful reviews:

I'm only a recent Myron Bolitar fan, having discovered the series a few months ago and devoured them all since. This is, by far, the weakest of the books. The premise was ridiculous, the scope of the plot literally unbelievable, and the ending just pathetic.

Mr. Coben? Tangentially: why on Earth have you created an obviously only-child protagonist, only to slip in throwaway references to a brother and, now, sister? It's simply a stupid choice, especially since you provide no background, no mention of either sibling at all aside from two sentences in the fourth or fifith book and two more in this one.

If you write any more Bolitar books, please return to the actual character we fell in love with--the agent whose criminal entanglements follow believably from his work, his friendships, his life. Not this reasonably well-written but credibility-devoid schlock.

Aside from being one of his most disappointing "Myron/Win" books in the series, I was very surprised and annoyed to see that Cobin has espoused the Robert Parker "How To Make Less Look Like More" philosophy -- i.e. using thick pages and large print to make a 150 page book into over 300 pages. I read it in less than a day - not because it was so riveting, but because, in actuality, it was so short! If you can get it at the library at no cost, then you might enjoy it - simply because of the characters. However, in my opinion, you should not waste your money buying it!

Jim wrote: "Which of the other Myron Bolitar stories would you recommend?"

That's a tough question. The only redeeming factor of the whole series was the 2 main characters, which can be enough with pop fiction.

I'd start the series in order. As far as high and low points, well, you'll end up extremely annoyed at how much material Harlan Coben recycles. The first few books are fresh enough to familiarize you with the main characters, but by the fifth or sixth books, you'll begin to notice whole sentences transcribed word for word, from one book to the next, explaining for instance what the "MB" in "MB Sports Reps" stands for, or why someone is nicknamed something, and so on.

Starting with the first book might also amuse you in light of the technological differences as you breeze through the series.

Deal Breaker begins lightly, with Myron behaving like a more volatile version of Jerry Maguire. The main plot is dark though, and involves a very grotesque teenage murder.

The last book, incidentally, wasn't even that bad compared to the rest. In fact, I really liked some of the side characters that popped up. But the plot was batshit insane. Republican conspiracy theories of Terror Babies are hilarious. I chortled all the way to the end.