Darkest Fear (Mass Market Paperback)

Myron finds out that the donor's name matches that of the son of a wealthy, prize winning author. He mysteriously disappeared as a young child. Now his name appears again. Myron's attempts to find him have him at odds with the donor's family, who refuse to give up his identity or where he can be found.

Myron also finds out that there is a serial killer in the mix who may or may not exist. The killer was profiled in a series of articles by a reporter who allegedly made the stories up with the help of an old novel. When Myron tries to talk to the reporter, the FBI gets interested and and that interest has Myron struggling to get to the bottom of just who the real donor is. Could he be the serial killer?

As with all Mr. Coben's books, this whodunit has more twists and turns than you can shake a stick at, more plot and subplot than anyone would expect. And I particularly liked the way Mr. Coben reminds us of that special tie between fathers and sons. However death and violence are present throughout: this is where John Lennon bled to death, over there is where Malcolm X was shot, but even so, this is another excellent read from Harlen Coben.

The character Myron Bolitar is back from six other novels (it is not mentioned on the cover or inside the book itself) but too be honest this novel sort of assumes you've gotten to know him so he is not as interesting in this one. In Darkest Fear an ex university girlfriend who left him for his arch enemy reappears and pleads for help to find a bone marrow donor who refuses to donate his marrow to help her dieing son. Myron refuses so she confesses the boy, Jeremy is his son.

Of course Myron can not say no now, so puts his sport agency on hold and sets off with his friend Win who also like Myron can beat anyone in hand to hand combat and has numerous contacts, but unlike Myron is rich, very rich. You don't really get to know much about Win in this novel as previously said you really need to have read One False Move first or maybe some of the others in the series. Anyway all indications are that the marrow donor is a sick serial killer who likes to torment the victim's family forever after he has committed the crime. Myron knows he must find him no matter what the cost.

Make sure you have read his other novel with the same four key characters as this novel, Fade Away first as if you read this one before reading Fade Away then you will know how Fade Away is obviously going to turn out. Not knowing the Myron Bolitar books were a series when I got this book I made the mistake of reading it first which kind of ruined my Fade Away reading experience.

Like I previously said this isn't up to the high quality of previous novels but it is better than most other authors' work. It is an enjoyable read but if you haven't already gotten to know Win and Myron from other books you may struggle to get into it. Coben is a sensational author though, and you should definitely check out his masterpiece novels Tell No One and Gone For Good.