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Description of  Live Wire (Myron Bolitar)

When Myron Bolitar gets involved in the family drama of his former tennis star client and her rock star husband, he discovers secrets about his own family, specifically his brother, who abandoned the Bolitars long ago. As Myron races to locate his missing brother while their father clings to life, he must face the lies that led to their estrangement-including the ones told by Myron himself. Coben, who has perfected the techno-thriller, in which social media tools are used in ingeniously devious ways (Hold Tight, 2008), has won the trifecta of mystery awards: the Edgar, the Shamus, and the Anthony and is the only writer to have such a clutch at his command. Here, he returns to his humble roots and resurrects his sports agent and sleuth Myron Bolitar, who appeared in Coben's debut, Deal Breaker, in 1995, and has starred in nine other novels. Coben may be a little too fond of Bolitar over the years, he has transformed him from a struggling New Jersey sports agent to a wildly successful superagent who handles all forms of entertainment and, bad news for the reader, is now given to self-indulgent introspection, rumination, and endless dialogue with his sidekick, Win. This overwriting changes the Bolitar novel from spare and lively to a flabby 350-plus pager. A prime example of this works need for a less-indulgent author (or editor) is the cringe-inducing scene in which Win appears with two Asian beauties, named Mee and Yu. Bolitar and Win carry on with sophomoric puns and a forecast of sexual activity that is supposed to be hilarious but reads as incredibly insensitive. The plot is fairly standard, involving a client whose husband disappears, with a link to Bolitar's sister-in-law and estranged brother. Bracing action, a Coben staple, is bogged down by bloated writing. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Coben takes a literary misstep with his return to series character Myron Bolitar, but his name-brand status ensures an audience. Connie Fletcher This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.