The Match
Ratings23
Average rating4
15
Ratings23
Average rating4
Valerie Simpson is a young female tennis star with a troubled past who's now on the verge of a comeback and wants Myron as her agent. Myron, who's also got the hottest young male tennis star, Duane Richwood, primed to take his first grand slam tournament, couldn't be happier. That is, until Valerie is murdered in broad daylight at the U.S. Open and Myron's number one client becomes the number one suspect.Clearing Duane's name should be easy enough. Duane was playing in a match at the time of Valerie's death. But why is his phone number in Valerie's black book when he claims only to have known her in passing? Why was she calling him from a phone booth on the street? The police stop caring once they pin the murder on a man known for having stalked Valerie and seen talking to her moments before the murder. But Myron isn't satisfied. It seems too clean for him.Myron pries a bit and finds himself prying open the past where six years before, Valerie's fiancee, the son of a senator, was brutally murdered by a juvenile delinquent and a straight-A student was subsequently gunned down on the street in retaliation, his death squandered in bureaucratic files. And everyone from the Senator to the mob want Myron to stop digging.The truth beneath the truth is not only dangerous, it's deadly. And Myron may be the next victim.In novels that crackle with wit and suspense, Edgar Award winner Harlan Coben has created 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 page-turning appearance.From the Paperback edition.
Featured Series
3 primary booksWilde is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2003 with contributions by Harlan Coben and Janelle Denison.
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Book Review Time. This week I'm participating in ProWriting Aid's Crime Writer's virtual summit, so I'm in the mood to review a thriller. In The Match by Harlan Coben, the protagonist, Wilde, who was abandoned as a child to fend for himself in the Ramapo Mountains, stumbles upon a murderous plot when he receives a shocking genetic match.
First off, how have I never read a Harlan Coben before? This is the type of fast-paced, morally gray thriller I love. I must have been living under a rock because he's the creator of the #1 Netflix show Stay Close and the Match is endorsed by Lee Child, who is a genius.
I knew I was in for a great read by the first sentence. “At the age of somewhere between forty and forty-two—he didn't know exactly how old he was—Wilde finally found his father.” Whoa! A sentence that sucks you in and makes you ask questions!
The pacing of this book was in my opinion, perfect. I love when a book's pacing resembles a Fibonacci Spiral or a tornado. Circling slowly at the beginning and then next thing you know you're caught in its vortex.
This thriller had depth. Wilde is not just some macho action hero, he's layered and has a substantial emotional arc. Like I say, I love reading the morally gray, and Coben took us deep into the scary realistic world of social media, bots and the dark side of celebrity.
The Match was a deeply satisfying thriller that had me on the edge of my seat until the very last page.
3,5 stars because even though I was gripped from page 1, there were way too many lessons on genetics and attempts at plot twists.
