Thursday 24 May 2007

One False Move by Harlan Coben

Being a crime fiction fan and a choosy one I am running out of books to read. You would be thinking crime fiction and running out of books I should be crazy. Well, I am choosy about the books I read. I expect the author to respect the readers intelligence and also at the same time play the game. Give subtle hints and finally surprise. Most of all I love the surprise, "Oh! Why didn't I see it before?". The book should be a satisfying read and finally tie up all loose ends. My First favourite is ofcourse the Dame Agatha Christie, Never found her equal so for. And second is Ruth Rendell, though her writing is much different from the genre I usually I read. She is obssessed with obsesssions and I like the way she writes and the way she builds her character, how her story lies on one main character is marvelous. So when I have read all the books of these authors I moved on to Sue Graton, Val Mcdermid and PD James. Well, I have not read all the books of these authors but I am slowly exhausting these. I wasn't much impressed with Sue Grafton intially, I didn't like her A for Alibi at all. But I gave her a second chance and read B for Burlglar and quite liked it. I have a few more to read. I am not reading in order but just reading the books I could get my hands on. Sue Grafton's PI Millhone is funny sometimes and her fisr person narrative is impressive. Only thing I don't understand is why do so many people contact Millhone to find somebody lost 15 or 20 years before. Millhone seems to be running a lost and found home quite well. I wonder are there really so many people who need to be found by somebody else desperately that they hire a PI.

Now I am casting my net little further and trying a few new authors. (Of course I keep trying always, but only a few authors that I try again.) So here I am with Harlan Coben. There are all kinds of detectives in fictional world from a Priest to an eccentric lord. There are the PI's and there are the Psychologist. But here is a sports agent who is the detective. Well, sports agent as a detective. yes. yes. he has had some secret background with the feds. So would all the crimes he solves happen in the sports arena? I don't know. I have read One False Move and it does deal with a gorgeous Basket Ball player. Yes yes it is a woman. Brenda Slaughter gets threatining calls and her father goes missing. Myron Boltair is introduced as her new sports agent and he is our hero. Brenda wants him not only find her father but also her mother who went missing 20 years back (Why do people wait 20 years to find their loved ones? Are they stuck by lightning twenty years later that they suddenly recognise their loved one is missing and desperately want to find them. Well, that is the stuff of fiction. When I write fiction I will also make somebody look for something they lost twenty years before.) Myron is very funny most of the times and comes up with clever repartee. This book has lots of dialogue but the dialogue is interesting. Yes the end was a surprise. I liked the book and defenitely pick one more of his very soon.

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