One False Move

February 15, 1998
Edgar and Shamus Award winner Coben breaks into hardcover with a new Myron Bolitar mystery. Here, Bolitar must protect the star of a women's basketball team.

May 1, 1998
Series sports agent Myron Bolitar handles everything with panache: his relationships, his clients, and this search for two missing people. When a sports store mogul asks him to "watch over" basketball star Brenda Slaughter, Myron winds up looking for her father, who disappeared a week ago, and her mother, who deserted the family some 20 years earlier. Myron not only discovers mob interest in female basketball but also a connected suspicious death in a high-profile political family. Standard plotting, then, but authentic conversation, colorful characters, and exciting New York and New Jersey surrounds more than compensate. Strongly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/98.]

May 15, 1998
Brenda Slaughter may be the greatest female basketball player ever, and sports agent Myron Bolitar takes Brenda under his wing. Bolitar's ability to hone his basketball skills as a young man was made possible by Brenda's father, Horace, who acted as the white Bolitar's guardian angel on the very hostile inner-city playgrounds. Bolitar and Brenda forge a business relationship, and the first order of business is finding Horace. The trail Horace left is troubling because it contains hints of a 20-year-old scandal that left the wife of current gubernatorial candidate Arthur Bradford dead. The fifth Bolitar mystery--and the first in hardcover--continues the series' realistic portrayal of the contemporary sports world while dishing up a bit of murder and mayhem. Bolitar is a solid protagonist who is plenty tough but also smart enough to accept his shortcomings. If you haven't been including the Bolitar paperbacks in your mystery collection, this is a good place to start. ((Reviewed May 15, 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)