Back Spin
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Product Description
Kidnappers have snatched the teenage son of super-star golfer Linda Coldren and her spouse, Jack, an aging pro, at the height of the U.S. Open. To help get the boy back, sports agent Myron Bolitar goes charging after clues and suspects from the Main Line mansions to a downtown cheaters’ motel–and back in time to a U.S. Open twenty-three years ago, when Jack Coldren should have won, but didn’t. Suddenly Myron finds himself surrounded by blue bloods, criminals, and liars. And as one family tree’s darkest secrets explode into murder, Myron finds out just how rough this game can get.
In tales that crackle with wit and suspense, Edgar Award winner Harlan Coben has made 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 appearance.
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A common theme in modern detective novels: when the protagonist needs information, the first resort is torture. It’s okay, because the protagonist is the excellent guy. Boy, I’m tired of that. When do detectives start detecting as a replacement for of getting information by torture.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
If ever a thriller failed to excite, this surely is it. Riddled with forced (and not particularly amusing) “humor” this book grates from the first page to the last.
Where the humor in Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole series works and works brilliantly, it utterly fails in Coben’s work. The difference is that Coben has written Backspin in the third person, whereas Crais writes in first person. When using the third person, the commentary is agreed far too much attribution to the leader, the opinions of which have no business being stated in any work. When an leader needs to prompt an opinion, it must only be done through the words and actions of the characters, and not the narrative. This is a basic tenet of writing (and, I feel one of many) that Coben has either never learned or chosen to snub.
There is also a huge difference in the skills of the Crais and Coben. At one stage I was wondering if Coben could possibly write a single paragraph lacking using the word “nearly” – a name needs to instruct Coben that to “nearly” acheive something is to fail. The difference that right word usage – to say nothing of the occassional simile or metaphor – would make to Coben’s work would not render a silk purse from his sow’s ear, but it would at least result in something worth reading.
This book shows no evidence of an editor’s touch, nor even of the leader performing a re-write. It is that raw.
There is small or no background agreed to the main character, additional than him being an agent for sportsmen and women. There are allusions to his having had a different career path, but this is not made clear by the middle of the book, and by then it is too late: I had agreed up wondering, determined to end the book only because I had bought it. Again, contrast this work to any of Crais’ pieces, and the difference is profound.
Another tenet of excellent writing has been thrown out the window: introduce your characters and renovate them. Myron Bolitar had virtually none, but Esperanza piqued the interest from time to time. Consider this: a man whose income depends upon wheeling and dealing for his sport-playing clients rumor has it that has no knowledge or interest in one of the most lucrative sports on the planet? Add “inability to suspend disbelief” to the list of shortcomings for this book!
The thriller genre need not be devoid of excellent writing just because it is a genre – witness Crais’ work and also that of John (not Michael) Connelly. Both writers know how to please the intellect as well as excite the imagination. Their work has pace, tension, credible characters, descriptive prose, and cannot easily be place down. Andrew Klavan’s superb Right Crime is also in a different league to Coben’s work.
No, I cannot recommend this book – but take note of the authors I have mentioned and your dollar will be spent far more wisely, and ultimately, enjoyably.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
It was an enjoyable tale with a few twists and really a fantastic listen, but not the best I’ve ever read/listened to. If the additional reviewers reflect Harlan Coben is a fantastic mystery writer they haven’t read Vince Flynn yet. Get his books in order, you’ll like them. Not taking anything away from Harlan, I like him a lot, but lemme tell ya, Vince Flynn is fabulous. The very well loved TV program “24″ is taken from Vince’s books.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
Back Spin, for me, only got going way late in the book. Perhaps it was my utter indifference towards the plot, which was not nearly as appealing as Coben’s previous novel in the series, “Fade Away”. Plus the humor just wasn’t there as it was in the additional Myron books. Perhaps it was due to Win’s absence in most of the novel. The “twists” were only okay too.
I recommend that people read the Myron Bolitar series in order, starting with Deal Breaker, but to skip Back Spin. Fade Away was Coben’s best MB book. Gone for Excellent is his best stand-alone.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I am a fan of Mr Coban & M. Bolitar, Eaq., but I liked this book less than the 5 I’ve read previously. The reason is that the plot is way too convoluted. There is no way the reader can follow, because new facts are dropped into the stew up to the very end. The leader & the hero readily admit they see small sense in golf. Perhaps this is why this novel makes less sense that their others.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5