384 pages ( )

Mystery

Blurb from the cover:

Sports agent Myron Bolitar is poised on the edge of the big time. So is Christian Steele, a rookie quarterback and Myron's prized client. But when Christian gets a phone call from a former girlfriend, a woman who everyone, including the police, believes is dead, the deal starts to go sour. Trying to unravel the truth about a family's tragedy, a woman's secret, and a man's lies, Myron is up against the dark side of his business where images and talent make you rich, but the truth can get you killed.

In novels that crackle with wit and suspense, Edgar Award winner Harlan Coben has created one of the most fascinating and complex heroes in suspense fiction Myron Bolitar, a hotheaded, tenderhearted sports agent who grows more and more engaging and unpredictable with each page-turning appearance.

My review:

Before going into my review of this book, I have to say I have read just about all of Harlan Coben's stand-alone books, and could not possibly gush about them more. I have always enjoyed reading, but stumbling upon this author has opened my world back up to immersing oneself into another time and place. I normally get bored with series, which is why I put off starting the Myron Bolitar novels, not wanting to get tired of Coben's books. It has been about eight months since I last picked up a novel by Coben, and was getting the itch to fall into his twisty-turnie storytelling once more. In that way, I may have set myself up with too high of expectations given that this is one of the first (if not the first) books he published.

That being said, I did very much enjoy the fast paced, page turner that is Deal Breaker. I was already familiar with some of the main characters (namely Win- from his own book), so it was nice to already feel connected with them. The same quick wit and slightly dark sense of humor was still present, which was something I enjoyed the first time meeting the characters and was happy to see it carry through.

Myron, who at one point was a professional athlete before a career ending injury, joined the FBI and eventually became a sports agent. At the time of the writing of the book, Myron had not yet made it to the big time as a sports agent, but seemed to make payday when signing up and coming rookie quarterback star, Christian Steele. It is revealed that Christian is connected to Myron because Christian was engaged to Myron's ex-girlfriend's (Jessica) sister (Kathy). The reader comes into the story learning that Kathy mysteriously disappeared 18 months prior, and is presumed dead. At the start of the story line, Kathy and Jessica's father, Adam, is killed in what the police deem to be a robbery. The wake for Adam Brings Jessica back into Myron's life, and with it a whole bunch of questions that the two set out to answer.

**Spoiler in this paragraph**

Deal Breaker provides the same amount of action and surprises that I have grown accustomed to in reading Coben's books. The pages read fast with the reader always wanting to find out what happened with the multiple subplots and how they all will come together at the end. Where this book fell a little short for me is I feel as though I had more questions at the end than I normally do. The main one being why Christian seemed to bring attention back to Kathy's disappearance if he thought he had killed her. Even if she had managed to survive and just lay in hiding for 18 months, why would he want his sports agent (especially since he was prior FBI) to start digging into things. We know that Jessica was having uneasy feelings about her father's death being ruled a robbery gone wrong, but Christian seemed in my opinion to be the one who sparked Myrons' hard look into everything. Also, can I just mention that Paul is a terrible character? Coben did a fantastic job of getting us to feel certain emotions for various characters.

All in all, I did enjoy this book. I finished it very quickly as it is fast paced and makes you want to keep reading. I think I gave it an unfair rating only because I am comparing it to other books by Coben. He has become his own rating system in my opinion, and it isn't in my top ten. That being said, I would absolutely recommend anyone to read it; it was a very good book. I also think those who have not yet read a Coben book would enjoy it even more. ( )

Read by Jonathan Marosz
Full of hysterical comments
"Laughing so hard like she was sniffing gas"
"He was the size of a small third world country"
"Just going to the bathroom- been doing it by myself since I was 14"
What fun this was. I look forward to reading more by this author. ( )

Myron Bolitar is a sports agent, and he represents Christian Steele. Christian’s girlfriend disappeared over a year ago and was presumed dead, when Christian receives a phone call supposedly coming from her, so Christian calls Myron for help. It appears that her naked body is also now in an ad in a porn magazine with very low circulation, and this magazine has been sent to Christian and a few others. Myron also used to date Kathy’s sister, Jessica. More recently, Kathy and Jessica’s dad was murdered, but the police have chalked that up to a robbery and not related.

I had forgotten that I’d already read one other book in this series, although this is the first in the series (unusual for me to read out of order). I wasn’t sure I’d like it with all the references to sports, but I still did. And there were a lot of sports references. But the mystery and what happened to Kathy kept me interested. And even the sports negotiations and such were interesting (there was another story thread about another one of Myron’s clients, as well) – or more likely, what was happening around those negotiations was interesting. I liked Jessica and her relationship with Myron; not too sure about Myron’s friend, Win, though – he’s a bit scary! I’m still not convinced this series will be nearly as good as Coben’s standalones, but I will definitely continue this series to see where it goes. ( )