Back Spin: A Myron Bolitar Novel

Even though Win was not in this case. It gave great insight on who Win is. I cannot believe how Harlan Corbin consistently comes up with this surprising endings.

This author is a magician at connecting all of the dots and tying a nice bow around everything. The anticipation builds at a nice pace but he doesn’t let the reader down with unresolved plot points. I love it!!

There are so many characters with so many secrets and so many ulterior motives but the author does a great job developing them and the story. Good mystery that will keep you guessing. It was hard book for me to put down.

I did not see the ending coming. I love that in a good mystery novel. The characters are are so vivid. This is sooo much better than a daytime soap opera. The story keeps you going right up to the end and finishes of with a flourish that is satisfying.

Myron Bolitar, the sports agent who spends much of his time solving crimes involving his clients, does not like golf. However, at the invitation of his friend Win, who serves as his strongarm man when not displaying his investment wizardry, he attends the U.S. Open at Merion, the famous Pennsylvania course with wicker baskets attached to the pins rather than flags. There, he meets up with Linda Coldren, the best female golfer going. Her husband Jack, a journeyman on the PGA Tour, is leading the Open, 23 years after he blew up on the 16th hole at Merion, losing that Open, and essentially, his career. The Coldron's teenage son has been kidnapped, and Myron has been promised that if he helps find the boy, the Coldrons will become his clients. Somebody wants Jack to lose the Open yet again.Win, usually more than willing to employ his special skills for Myron, violent and otherwise,refuses to help. The Coldrens are family, and he wants nothing to do with them or his own mother, who is Linda's aunt. So Myron this time is on his own, except for his associate, the creative Esperanza Diaz. There is also a personal complication. Myron, joined at the hip and living with his girlfriend Jessica in New York, begins having feelings for Linda.There are twists and trysts in this story, which is more complex than the other Bolitar novels I have read. People rich, poor, ambitious, money hungry and grungy, are all implicated in one way or another. Family secrets are uncovered by Myron's search into the past, as well as by his basic intuition. The conspiracy behind Jack Coldren's failure so many years ago, controversial and strange, leads directly to a linkage between separate families intertwined in longstanding personal agonies. We learn too, why Win is always so cold and emotionless, and except for his friendship with Myron, cares about no one. The dialogue, as to be expected in any one of the Bolitar novels, is sharp and funny, with plenty of poignant observations of youthful foolishness, adult misbehavior and moral confusion. While the family entanglements might seem derivative of Ross McDonald's Lew Archer novels, Coben writes with more wit and doesn't get bogged down in psychology, except for exploring Win's state of mind, always a subject in these books. Back Spin is a hole-in-one on any course.

The Coldrens are the first family of golf. And Jack is about to win the US Open. Sounds like things are going according to plan, right? Wrong! A kidnapper snatches their son Chad Coldren. Myron Bolitar is there for clients but he must also solve a mystery as he must unravel the mystery as only he can do. At the same time Myron is also involved sticky situation involving his best buddy Win's past which could affect their friendship forever.This novel combines a great mystery along with a dramatic turn that is the past of Win Lockwood III. The Lockwood and The Coldren family have been connected all of Win's life, which in the beginning is how Myron gets involved in a kidnapping case that could turn the sports world on its ear. Chad Coldren has vanished, kidnapped but what do the kidnappers want? While Jack Coldren is fighting to win the US Open, he must deal with the demons of his past because twenty-three years ago he lost the same event in the final hole. After U.S. Open two decades ago, lives were ruined but the outcome of this event lives could be lost. It is up to Myron to find out who and why young Chad was kidnapped. At the same time Win's past and present could be shattered by his mother who is trying to get back in his life after years of avoidance. Win will have nothing to do with her so that of course makes Myron the next logical source. Win's hatred is so strong that it could affect a friendship that is as strong as brothers.I must say that the Myron Bolitar series is becoming one of my favorites. The characters are terrific and the stories are fascinating and grab you from the first page. Back Spin is no exception, the new characters are excellent, the old characters are so familiar they feel like old friends. Another can't miss from Coben.Grade: A+

One of the series of Myron Bolitar books. An engaging read, from start on finish. Make sure that you read the Bolitar books in series though, as this one, like all of them, picks-up from the previous title in the series.

A likeable romp, involving a dysfunctional family of pro golfers, households with skeletons in closets, Myron Bolitar, sports rep, turned derective. Coben's books are always entertaining.

I found Halan Corben by chance and now i am hooked. I just lose myself in his books, am now working my way through the Myron Bolitar series, 10 books. There are always lots of twists and turns and regular characters, which leave you wanting more. If you love a good mystery, read these books, you will be hooked like me.

Too many twists. Too many red herrings. Too many shallow characters (who is this name again?). Too long. Too boring. Too slow. Who did it? In the end, I wasn't too bovvered... Definitely not up to the usual Harlan Coben standard, which is high.

Predictable format and an easy read. Books should be read in order of publishing.