The Final Detail

Harlan Coben

After getting caught in a nasty situation with a bad outcome and the end of a love affair, Myron Bolitar ran off for three weeks in the Caribbean. Win tracks him down and ends the idyll with the news that Myron's partner and best friend, Esperanza Diaz, has been arrested for murder. She is accused of killing Myron's first client as a sports agent, Clu Haid. Clu was a pitcher who often was kicked off teams for drug and alcohol abuse. He had been clean for the past few months and had a last chance shot with the New York Yankees baseball team. The he failed a drug test that apparently sent him on the skids again.

Myron returns immediately. He knows Esperanza didn't shoot Clu. He also doesn't know who did, or why. Esperanza, her lawyer, and Clu's wife all tell Myron to leave it alone and let the lawyer do her work. Myron can't leave it alone. He has to clear Esperanza's name. And he has to know what happened to Clu.

He also has to shore up his business. Most of his clients are upset that he was out of touch for so long. A number of them have left him. A couple signed with a new agency run by the son of a mobster who threatens Myron. Was F.J. involved in Clu's death as a way to get to Myron? Why did Clu contact the offbeat night club? Were any of the cross dressing bouncers involved? They certainly do their best to keep Myron away. Or is the new owner of the Yankees the intended target of the backlash of Clu's murder?

Harlan Coben has a lot of threads twisted into The Final Detail. There are so many partial story lines that tangle together that the reader could get lost. But Coben untangles them into a believable, albeit odd, story. When I finished The Final Detail I was satisfied. But when I think about it more, it becomes less satisfying. Some of the connections are hard to swallow. The cross dressing androgynous bar and its patrons scenes could have been cut or worked in another way. That section, along with Thrill, the person who followed Myron, feel like cushion to make the story longer.

Coben is excellent at making seemingly innocuous incidents turn out to have more importance than could have been guessed. That's what makes the ending of The Final Detail work well. Challenge your brain. See if you can untangle the threads. Check out this sixth book in the Myron Bolitar series.

Notice:  Graphic violence,

Deal Breaker
Drop Shot
Fade Away
Back Spin
One False Move
The Final Detail
Darkest Fear
Promise Me
Long Lost
LIve Wire