One False Move

Media:	Mass Market Paperback
Author:	Harlan Coben
Publisher:	Dell
Release date:	11 May, 1999
Our price:	$7.99

One False Move

Average rating: Stars

I wish Myron could catch a break!

Having read all the Myron Bolitar books in order I can't help but feel for Myron and his perpetual disappointments. I have found Myron to be a very human and beleivable character. I root for him and hope that he can succeed. Myron has a conscience and uses it but continually gets kicked while he is down. With each book, I have found myself getting deeper into his life and enjoying what I find. In this book, we see Myron developing a spine in his relationship. The prologue made me want to read the book even faster to see what the heck it was refering too. I won't give away any of the book as I hate to read reviews that give away too much. I don't even read the back of the jacket so I don't get too much of the plot given away. I like to be surprised, so you won't find that here. Suffice to say that the book was awesome. I was saddened to see that there is, at present, only one more Bolitar book in the series. I can understand the desire to branch out to other books, but I sincerly hope that Mr. Coben will continue his series with Myron. It is refreshing to read a book where the central character is not only humble but has human falibilities. I can compare these books to the Dennis Lehane Kenzie-Gennaro books. I am afraid to read the last one because I don't want the series to end! This may not review the book all that well but like I said, I hate to give away anything.

Suffice to say I would reccomend this book to anyone. There would only be one disclaimer though, you need to read the books in series order. I would suggest that with any series though.

One False Move - Harlan Coben

Only for Myron Bolitar fans

I would only recommend this book to those who are already addicted to Coben's Myron Bolitar novels. It's definitely not a good book by itself, and in my opinion it's the first of the Myron books to begin declining.

I don't really understand Harlan Coben's obsession with main characters who are complete and utter wimps. He probably thought he was being fresh and original by creating a protagonist who is in his mid-thirties, drinks NOTHING but Yoo-Hoo, lives with his parents, makes constant sarcastic comments regardless of the situation, is a complete spineless worm when it comes to his girlfriend, refuses to punish bad guys because of some weird moral rules, and, worst of all, makes himself feel morally superior to others by chastising them when they do stuff he doesn't approve of.

For instance, whenever Myron gets into a scrape, his buddy Win always comes and saves him (this happens about fifty times per book). Then, instead of being grateful to Win for saving his butt for the two-hundredth time, all Myron does is lecture him about how it's wrong to hurt people, even bad people that are trying to hurt you. Win just rolls his eyes every time, and I wonder why a cool character like Win still hangs around with Myron, who is anything but cool. The answer, of course, is that Coben wants Myron to be the perfect guy -- peaceful, witty, kind to women and everyone else, et cetera. So he uses Win to do the dirty work.

Bottom line: I don't CARE if Coben is being "realistic" by portraying Myron this way. I don't want to read a mystery novel where the hero is a complete whiny baby who does nothing but make sarcastic comments at inappropriate times and lets his hard-hitting partner do all the real work. If you want to read a noir book with a main character who is actually cool and can fend for himself without having to be saved by an infinitely cooler partner, I would suggest the Parker series by Richard Stark (pen name of Donald E. Westlake), or the Elvis Cole series by Robert Crais. NOT this book.

Harlan Coben - One False Move

Misses the Mark

'One False Move' was my first Harlan Coben novel, and while it had its moments, overall I was disappointed. I understand that Coben is a prolific writer with a large fan base, but I found Coben, at least in this effort, far inferior to today's best writers of crime fiction: Dennis Lehane, James Lee Burke, and Lee Childs all do a better job with plot, setting, and characters. And if you prefer to add witty dialogue and one-liners to that mix, consider Robert Crais, William Lashner, or David Rosenfelt (who also does a better north Jersey).

In 'One False Move', ex-basketball star and current sports agent Myron Bolitar agrees to protect Brenda Slaughter, the bright and beautiful star of the WNBA, the women's professional basketball league. Her mother had deserted Brenda some twenty years ago, and now her father, Horace Slaughter, has vanished. Bolitar has a personal stake in this, as Horace was Myron's mentor as he was rising through the ranks of amateur basketball. This seemingly innocent assignment begins unraveling a sordid 20-year old tale of bad love, murder, deception, corruption and power.

Perhaps a reader needs a couple of installments of Myron Bolitar to appreciate him, but I couldn't figure out what Coben was trying to do with himr. While the big ex-jock persona was incongruous with the indecisive, somewhat neurotic mamas boy image, neither of these fit with the gun-toting tough guy always ready with a snappy wisecrack. We are to believe that Myron, who struggles to decide whether or not he some make is assistant a partner in his firm, and who only recently moved out of his parent's home, can stand down ruthless mobsters and power-crazed gubernatorial candidates? Believe that, and you probably can believe that, as positioned in this story, the WNBA really does matter. But while Bolitar was somewhat of an enigma, Bolitar sidekick Winston Lock-Horne manages to add an entirely new dimension to 'annoying'. (As an example, in answering his phone, the insufferable 'Win' inserts 'articulate' for 'hello). The reader is to believe that the manicured and polished Win, of old money and Ivy League society, is really a Clint Eastwood in a blue blazer and tasseled loafers. Yet the mere mention of this pretty-boy's name sends chills down the spine of even the most hardened of New Jersey's mobsters. Right.

Add to this a plot that is wholly unbelievable, cluttered with a love tangent that turns as sappy as it is unnecessary, and you have 'One False Move', fiction that while mildly entertaining leaves little to recommend it.

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