Live Wire: A gripping thriller from the #1 bestselling creator of hit Netflix show Fool Me Once - Softcover

Coben, Harlan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1409150585 ISBN 13: 9781409150589

Publisher: Orion, 2014

Synopsis

Sometimes the ugliest truth is better than the prettiest of lies... From the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of SIX YEARS.

A beautiful woman walking into Myron Bolitar's office asking for help should have been a dream come true. Only this woman, Suzze T, is in tears - and eight months pregnant...

Suzze's rock star husband has disappeared, and she fears the rumours questioning her baby's paternity have driven him away. For Myron, questions of fatherhood couldn't hit closer to home. His own father is clinging precariously to life, and the brother who abandoned the family years ago has resurfaced - with danger following close behind. Myron is soon forced to confront deep secrets in Suzze's past, his family's mortality - and his own...

About this title

Review

It was only matter of time before Facebook and other electronic social media found their way into thrillers – as they do with Live Wire. For some years, Harlan Coben has been situated firmly at the top of the tree in the crime and thriller stakes, and each new outing consolidates his already enviable reputation. So far, there have been no missteps (not something every bestselling crime writer can claim), and Live Wire is another example of his command writing. Coben’s engaging protagonist Myron Bolivar is back in the thick of things again in this one. But the author has something special up his sleeve here for his beleaguered hero.

A Facebook posting sets out destructive claims about who the father of a child yet to be born. On the receiving end of the questionable revelations are ex-tennis champion Suzze T and her retired rock star partner Lex. Lex deserts his pregnant lover, and the distressed Suzze calls on private eye-cum-sports agent Myron Bolitar, hoping he can retrieve her relationship. More is, in fact, at stake – including, it seems, the life of the errant Lex. And Myron’s private life is in its customary jumbled state. He runs into his sister-in-law Kitty (married to a brother who has broken off contact with Myron) and the couple’s teenage son Micky. The boy rages at Myron, who he considers responsible for his parents’ estrangement. So Myron has multiple problems: sorting out the chaos caused by the unpleasant Facebook posting, saving the life of Lex and curing his own headaches over his warring relatives. From this busy premise, Live Wire goes off at a surprising tangent, with Myron even confronting an existential question: his own shifting identity.

Coben’s dialogue here fizzles like the best vintage crime fiction, and Myron remains one of the strongest characters in the genre. As always, the sense of place is crucial with the author: the settings here have a pungency that leaps off the page. But it’s the plotting that really grabs the interest – along with what we learn about Myron, which changes the face of this entertaining sequence of books decisively – and permanently. --Barry Forshaw

Review

Harlan Coben specialises in rousing the snake that lurks in the perfectly cut grass of American suburbia ... Coben makes you care about them but never neglects a plot that is full of his trademark shocks (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

Harlan Coben is the modern master of the hook-and-twist - luring you in on the first page, only to shock you on the last (Dan Brown)

[A] brilliantly tense, beautifully written new mystery for Coben - possibly the most joyously readable crime writer in the world right now (HEAT)

In the hands of Harlan Coben you are kept guessing - and intrigued - until the last line (GUARDIAN)

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1409150585
• ISBN 13: 9781409150589
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400