Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben

Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben
Published by Delacorte Press

Deal Breaker is the first in Coben’s Myron Bolitar mystery series. I read one Coben book years back, a standalone, and really enjoyed it, and always meant to read more of his books but just didn’t get around to it. I wanted to read the Bolitar books in order so I started here. The basic premise is that Bolitar, a sports agent, is trying to help one of his clients, a college football star, with the fact that he recently got a call from someone who he thinks is his ex-girlfriend. Only problem is, she disappeared several years ago and everyone believes she is dead. Bolitar enlists the help of his best friend, his assistant, and his own ex-girlfriend (who happens to be the sister of the “dead” girl) and attempt to figure out what is going on and if his football star client is in on it.

I liked this book. I found it to be a fun ride and it was the perfect amount of entertaining. Like brain candy. Bolitar himself is funny, sarcastic, and even a little nerdy at times. The mystery wasn’t super difficult to figure out, but it wasn’t obvious either. It was a good mix of fun for the brain and something to actually think about while reading.

Because it is a series, it was quite clear that many of the characters are being set up for further reveals as the series wears on. While in theory I like that, in this book it was sort of annoying because there were just too many “clues” that will, I assume, lead to further development of these characters in future books. In theory, cool, but in practice it was just too obvious in this particular novel.

So Deal Breaker – pretty good, decent start to a mystery series. It’s not a series that I’m running out to buy the second book immediately, but I would read the next book if it came across my desk.