The Final Detail (Unknown Binding)

by Harlan Coben (Author) "Myron lay sprawled next to a knee-knockingly gorgeous brunette clad only in a Class-B-felony bikini, a tropical drink sans umbrella in one hand, the aqua..." (more)
Key Phrases: mounted deer, Billy Lee, Big Cyndi, Clu Haid (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Myron Bolitar is a fascinating character--a guy in his 30s who just moved into his own New York apartment, and who still looks forward to dinner with his parents in New Jersey. A former pro-basketball star and Harvard Law School grad, he now runs his own sports agency, and also dabbles in the private investigation business. He is helped (and sometimes hindered) by his rich, blond, preppy friend Windsor Horne Lockwood III. Win has some awesome lethal powers hidden under his Brooks Brothers suits!

In The Final Detail Win and Myron are looking into the murder of a client--a troubled New York Yankees baseball player called Clu Haid. Clu was apparently shot to death by Esperanza Diaz, who just happens to be Myron's best friend and partner in the sport's agency. Esperanza is hiding something, but Myron isn't sure if it has to do with her job, or with her private life. His search for the truth takes him back to a shabby incident from his own past, and to times he would rather forget. Author Harlan Coben casually drops in dozens of poignant moments of humanity that keep us--and Myron--firmly grounded in reality.

Other books in this excellent series include Backspin, Deal Breaker, Drop Shot, and One False Move. --Dick Adler --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
You know things are getting tough for Myron Bolitar when the crime-solving sports agent finds that his favorite tippleAthe chocolate drink Yoo-HooAhas lost its kick. At a particularly harrowing point in his latest Bolitar book (after One False Move), Coben reveals that his hero actually "craved a venti-size skim iced latte with a splash of vanilla." Despite being a former pro basketball star and Harvard Law School grad, Myron remains a touching everyman, a guy who still looks forward to dinner with his parents and can even cry in the bathroom after his father admits to some recent chest pains. In this case, Myron probes the murder of one of his clients, a troubled baseball player named Clu Haid, who was apparently shot by Myron's sports-agency partner, Esperanza Diaz. Esperanza is hiding something, but Myron isn't sure if it has to do with business or with her bisexuality. His search for the truth takes him to a bar called Take a Guess ("It's About Ambiguity, Not Androgyny"), where he falls for a Julie Newmar/Catwoman look-alike who may or may not be female, and to the front offices at Yankee Stadium. Ultimately, the trail leads him to revisit a 12-year-old mystery about a missing girl as well as a shabby incident in his own past. Along the way, Coben works in poignant scenes, such as an interview with a mother who wallpapers her house with family photographs. Myron relies less on the lethal powers of his rich, blond, preppy friend Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III) than in previous adventures. The change makes for the strongest entry yet in a series that deftly balances realism with excitement, while refusing to fall back on genre clich?s. Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Unknown Binding: 320 pages
• Publisher: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) (December 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075286730X
• ISBN-13: 978-0752867304
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,338,386 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 6 in The Myron Bolitar Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Modern Hammett, April 22, 2004

By	Louis Barbarelli (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Final Detail (Myron Bolitar) (Mass Market Paperback)

The Final Detail is not just the first Myron Bolitar mystery I've read, but also the first Coben book. I haven't been this absorbed in a mystery since reading The Maltese Falcon as a kid. Coben has created unforgettable, quirky characters who engage us even more than the story does.

Some other reviewers have suggested that The Final Detail was a bit stale. But, since it was my introduction to the series, it seemed fresh and new to me. The novel did stand pretty well on its own, but there were a few out-of-the-blue references to characters like Brenda Slaughter, who appeared in earlier stories, that were not put into context. On the other hand, these tantalizing unexplained references increased my desire to read the rest of the series. This time, I'll do it in sequence of publication.

There are some electrifying characters in this series, particularly Win, the semi-psychotic playboy/money manager/intellectual. And Big Cyndi is both a hilarious and edgy creation.

I would have given the book 5 stars had it not been for a couple of points. I thought the character of Thrill (Nancy) was completely unecessary, unless she's simply being introduced as a central character for a future installment. I felt that there too many women throwing themselves at Bolitar and that Bolitar's affection toward his parents got mawkish at times. I also felt that Esperanza is a convenient conglomeration of political correctness (Lesbian, Latina, professional woman, brainy beauty, assertive, etc. etc.) rather than a real flesh-and-blood character, at least in this installment.

Overall, I feel this was a terrific mystery and that Coben is right up there with the greats of the genre.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Never Saw it Coming ..., April 11, 2005

By	E. Baker (Tustin, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Final Detail (Myron Bolitar) (Mass Market Paperback)

After reading most of his more recent works, I have become a BIG Harlan Coben fan. Gone For Good, Tell No One, Just One Look are three of the best books I have read in a long time. Hungry for more Coben, I went back to read some of his earlier work, picking up The Final Detail.

While I found the book enjoyable to read, it is not as satisfying as his more recent books. The protagonist, sports agent Myron Bolitar, is a well-developed, sypmathetic character, and it is fun to follow him on his rather improbable adventures. But I found many of the other characters in the book to be more cartoonish and less believable. The biggest disappointment for me was the conclusion which smacked a bit of pulling a rabbit out of a hat. While it was a tidy conclusion, it was unsatisfying because the reader had no hints of what the outcome would be. Rather than "Oh my! Of course that's what happened! Why didn't I see it!" the reader is left scratching his head and wondering why Coben wrote a conclusion that did not flow logically from what had gone before.

I am eagerly looking forward to reading Coben's next book (The Innocent), but doubt that I'll be reading any more of the Myron Bolitar books.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Cracking Fine Read, February 12, 2004

By	Kesha Dylan (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Final Detail (Myron Bolitar) (Mass Market Paperback)

Sports agent Myron Bolitar has lost both the women he loved and he is recuperating with a CNN reporter in the Caribbean. His vacation is cut short when his alter-ego Win comes to fetch him back to New York, where his client, a relief pitcher for the Yankees, has both failed a drug test and been found murdered. Worse, Myron's agency partner, Esperanza, has been arrested for the crime.

Myron investigates and discovers Esperanza may be more involved than he thinks she is. And as he learns the answers to this mystery's multiple questions, he realizes that the case hinges on revenge motives and actually points to him as the most likely suspect, which leaves him wondering whether or not he wouldn't be better off not knowing who did what to anybody.

Once again Mr. Coben puts in enough twist and turns to get your pulse pumping as you race through the book to get to the final detail. And as usual, Mr. Coben has peopled a story with unforgettable characters, like Myron's blue-blooded, aristocratic sociopath, best friend, Windsor (Win) Horne Lockwood III, gender-jumping musclemen, failed baseball players, team owners chasing disappearing children and a young gangster name Frank Ache Junior, who has turned agent and lusts after Myron's business, among others. What a cracking fine read!