Book Review: Shelter by Harlan Coben

Shelter is the first book of a series starring Mickey Bolitar, the nephew of the now famous sports agent and part -or rather, most- time detective Myron.
     Mickey has just moved in into his uncle’s house and their relationship is, for the time being, if not hostile, at least tense. Myron once had a big fall out, if you can call it that, with his brother and Mickey’s father, and since then things between them have fallen apart. Despite Myron’s willingness to let bygones be bygones, Mickey who’s recently lost his dad, while his mom is in rehab, is not that eager to form any kind of bond with him. Truth be told, life has never been easy for Mickey; exciting maybe, but not easy. He was born in Chiang Mai province in Thailand and his life, until recently, was like that of a nomad. Following in his parents footsteps who were volunteers for various NGO’s, he’s lived in Africa, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere, and so he was unable to make any really good friends, while his education, though rich, could be better be described as sporadic. He spent year after year collecting bits and pieces of knowledge that’d probably sometime in the future prove useful, but which for the time being left him feel somehow wanting. However, that future is now here and it’s up to him to work things out in a new city, Newark, and in a new school.
     Well, at the beginning, luck seems to be by his side, since from his very first day at school he meets Ashley, a beautiful, kind girl with whom he falls in love. Not before too long though she just seems to vanish from the face of the earth and as expected he feels at a loss. Where did she go? Has anything bad happened to her? He has to find her; he needs to do that; but how? He doesn’t know how, but as he’s soon to find out he’ll not be alone in his quest, as he’ll become friends with two of the least popular people at school: the streetwise Ema and a seemingly worthless, but nevertheless clever boy whom he calls Spoon.
     So the three of them will start investigating the case together and they will soon come to realize that there’s more to it than they had ever imagined, since everything suggests that Ashley has been kidnapped. Behind this abduction though lies a bigger mystery, a world full of danger, secrets and lies; a world they have to infiltrate in order to discover the truth and save her life. The investigation will lead them to strip bars and tattoo parlors, and even to a haunted, according to the locals, house, and time and again they will come face to face with great danger and in close contact with fierce criminals. During the whole ordeal Mickey will come to realize that things are never exactly the way they seem to be and that more often than not our personal truths are no more than big illusions.
     The author drives his heroes into strange and dangerous situations, he trips them over and makes them smile, he gives them some true life lessons, but also lessons in history, and he makes them fight with their demons in order to overcome them. Mickey is, whether he likes it or not, a younger copy of his uncle Myron: he’s stubborn and strong, and believes in a cause, whatever that may be. Spoon on the other hand is one of those guys that everyone else describes as a loser, but given the chance, he’s bound to prove them wrong. As for Ema, well, Ema is a star: she’s a tough girl and a Goth, with a strong will and no fear, and with a sense of humor that cannot easily be matched by others; she’s one of the best fictitious characters I’ve ever met.
     This book is the perfect start to a new series of adventure stories. And even though according to the publisher its target group is young adults, I feel confident that the author’s regular readers will enjoy it just as much. Coben here seems to have placed a bet with himself, and I dare say that he won that bet already.

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Live wire 

Book Review: Live Wire by Harlan Coben

It’s been a few years since the last time I’ve read a novel by Harlan Coben, but I can still remember pretty well his favorite fictional character, sports agent Myron Bolitar, who seems to be moonlighting most of the time as a detective.
     In Live Wire we see Myron getting into a shitload of trouble, as he tries to help one of his clients, the ex tennis player Suzze T., to set things right in her life. The latter is now the proud owner of a tennis academy and with child, the father of which is an infamous musician called Lex Ryder. Or is it? Somebody has a different opinion on the matter and posts it on Suzze’s Facebook profile; and that’s when it all begins, as Lex, just after reading that puts on a disappearing act. Now Myron has to trace the tracks of the musician, as well as find out who’s behind the post. The first he can do easy enough, but when it comes to the second things get a little bit complicated, since the one to blame for all this is none other than his sister-in-law Kitty, someone he haven’t seen for sixteen years.
     When he catches a glimpse of her at a club from a distance, he feels like his world has been turned upside down. What was she doing there and what was her relationship with Lex, whom he also spotted at the same place? That’s the big question. And there are a few to follow, concerning the absence of his brother, the whys of her return to town and so on. He suspects that she has again fallen into drugs, but has no time to find out if that’s so, as she manages to escape with the help of the club’s bouncers, along with Lex.
     The more Myron looks into these interconnected cases, the more things get complicated. As he knocks on doors that do not open and asks questions that go unanswered, he finds himself heading from one dead end to the next. And something that starts as a simple investigation, as time goes by, turns into a fast paced chase, which through its various twists and turns brings to surface lots of secrets and lies. Myron, who feels like he’s a victim and a victimizer at the same time, will put his life at risk in order to bring the truth to light; whichever truth that might be. During his long and dangerous pursuit he’ll come face to face with bouncers and cops, with drug dealers and their minions, and to survive he’ll have to ask for help from his friends: Esperantza the brave, Big Cyndi the, er, big (whom somewhere the author likens to a Volkswagen Beetle) and Win, a muscular and trigger happy millionaire, who likes picking up fights, and nowadays keeps a couple of lovers that go by the names of You and Mee.
     This is one of those books you can read in one sitting, since the writer manages to keep the reader moving fast, page after page, giving him some laughs on the way, but also making him meditate, at least a bit, on the big subjects of love and humanity. And he’s not soft on his hero; he slaps him around every now and then and kind of pushes him to change his way of thinking.
     Crime literature at its best.