Determined to keep his friends' children safe, Myron Bolitar makes two neighborhood girls promise to call him if they are ever in a bind. Several nights later, a call comes in at two o'clock a.m. The next day, a girl is missing, and Myron is the last person who saw her. And now, he must race to find her, before she is gone forever...
From Publishers Weekly
Last seen in bestseller Coben's Darkest Fear (2000), Myron Bolitar, former basketball star (Boston Celtics) turned sports and entertainment agent and occasional knight in shining armor, is back in fighting form in his action-packed eighth thriller. For the past six years Myron has been leading a quiet life, much of it at his parents' old house in Livingston, N.J. A new girlfriend, Ali Wilder, a 9/11 widow, is helping to bring him out of his shell. Concerned that Ali's teenage daughter, Erin, and Erin's friend, Aimee Biel, might fall in with the wrong crowd, Myron gives them his contact information in case either of them feels she needs help. Aimee later calls him in the middle of the night for a lift to a friend's house, on condition that her request remain a secret. When Aimee turns up missing in circumstances mirroring those surrounding another vanished girl, Bolitar himself becomes a suspect in her disappearance and must use his wits and martial arts skills to uncover the truth. Coben fans will find much to enjoy in this well-crafted suspense novel, which has a startling final twist. (Apr. 25)
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From Booklist
Starred Review Coben, the reigning master of clockwork suspense, and winner of the trifecta of mystery-writing honors--the Edgar, the Agatha, and the Shamus--produces a fascinating hybrid thriller here. Coben began his career writing detective novels starring Myron Bolitar, an ex-Celtics basketball player turned entertainment agent. For the past six years, he has concentrated on stand-alone thrillers. Coben's novels are noted for their use of technology, both as weapons used against the innocent and as ways for victims to escape their tormentors, usually with a clock ticking ominously in the background. In Promise Me , Coben skillfully grafts this deadline suspense onto the career of his series hero, Bolitar. As in his stand-alones, the novel starts with a purely domestic situation--at a party in his home, attended by friends and their offspring, Bolitar overhears two teen girls talking about driving home drunk from parties. Stung by his own memory of a high-school friend who died in a car crash, Bolitar makes the girls promise to contact him if they ever need a lift or are in trouble. The call does come a few nights later. Myron drives the caller to a friend's house, but she ends up disappearing, and guilt-ridden Myron must use all his resources to try to find what happened. Coben's resurrection of Bolitar works superbly: the melding of high suspense and high technology with a somewhat battered, very canny, questing hero is sure to produce another major hit for the way-hot Coben. Connie Fletcher
Copyright ยฉ American Library Association. All rights reserved