Darkest Fear (Myron Bolitar)
by Harlan Coben
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Book Summary Information
Author: Harlan CobenEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-05-08
ISBN: 0440235391
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Dell
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780440235392
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Darkest Fear (Myron Bolitar)
Book Review: Coben At His Best - A Review of "Darkest Fear"
Summary: 5 Stars
Seth Godin is a marketing guru and a prolific writer. One of my favorite books by Seth is "Free Prize Inside." Godin reminds us of the thrill we experienced as kids in opening up a cereal box to dig for the free prize buried amongst the Corn Flakes or Cheerios - a whistle, a decoder ring, a puzzle. His premise is that the best companies and the best brands offer something extra - something beyond what the consumer expected when he purchased the product or the service. This seems to be an apt description of what Harlan Coben offers as an author to his loyal readers. Hidden inside the box of each of his mystery genre novels is something extra - an unexpected exploration of some aspect of human nature that takes the reader to a depth not usually experienced in a suspense novel. In the case of "Darkest Fear," Coben stands on the shoulders of Turgenev and explores the relationships between fathers and sons. Without his free prizes inside, it is possible that his Myron Bolitar series could have devolved into him cranking out a string of formulaic page-turners. To his credit, Coben has opted for doing the harder work of mining deeper veins of insight and understanding - hidden within the bedrock of murder, mystery, intrigue and non-stop action.
In "Darkest Fear," Coben's exploration of the vagaries of fatherhood is set within the story of the kidnapping of a child desperately in need of a bone marrow transplant. Myron and Win are called upon to find not only the boy - but also a missing bone marrow donor. The plot twists are breathtaking and brilliant.
This story contains some of Coben's most moving and incisive writing:
In this excerpt, Myron feels the thrill and frisson of expressing fatherly love for the first time in his life after he helps to find and rescue the kidnapped Jeremy, whom he has just discovered is his biological son:
"Myron felt his knees buckle, but he fought them and stayed upright. He ran to the boy. The boy stretched out his arms. Myron embraced him and felt his heart fall and shatter. Jeremy was crying. Myron lifted his hand and stroked his hair and shushed him. Like his father. Like his father had done to him countless times. A sudden, beautiful warmth streamed through his veins, tingling his fingers and toes, and for a moment, Myron thought that maybe he understood what his father felt. Myron had always cherished being on the son side of the hug, but now, for just the most fleeting of moments, he experienced something so much stronger - the intensity and overwhelming depth of being on the other side - that it shook every part of him." (Page 276)
In the process of exploring what it means to be a father, Coben also touches on an examination of what is means to be a man. In the selection below, Chase Layton ruminates on his feelings after having been physically assaulted by Myron, who resorted to violence to force Chase to help him find Jeremy. Myron interrupts Chase's workout in the gym:
"Chase Layton nodded and sat back on the bench. Then he looked at Myron. `Do you want to know what the worst part of it is?'
No, Myron thought, `If you want to tell me.'
`The shame,' Chase said.
Myron started to open his mouth, but Chase waved him quiet.
`It's not the beating or the pain. It's the feeling of total helplessness. We were primitive. We were man to man. There was nothing I could do but take it. You made me feel like' - he looked up, found the words, looked straight at Myron - `like I wasn't a real man.'
The words made Myron cringe.
`I went to these great schools and joined all the right clubs and made a fortune in my chosen profession. I fathered three kids and raised them and loved them the best I could. Then one day you punch me - and I realize that I'm not a real man.'
`You're wrong,' Myron said.
`You're going to say that violence is no measure of a man. On some level you're right. But on some level, the base level that makes us men, we both know you're wrong. Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. It'd just be a further insult.'
Myron swallowed down the clichés. Chase took deep breaths and reached for the bar.
`Need a spotter?' Myron said.
Chase Layton gripped it and jerked it off the stand.
"I don't need anybody.' he said." (Pages 285-6)
It is because of this kind of writing that I keep returning to read one more book by Coben. As far as I can tell, I still have one more book in the Myron Bolitar series I have not yet read. Stay tuned!
Al
Summary of Darkest Fear (Myron Bolitar)
Edgar Award-winner Harlan Coben brings us his most astonishing?and deeply personal?novel yet. And it all begins when Myron Bolitar's ex tells him he's a father ... of a dying thirteen-year-old boy.Myron never saw it coming. A surprise visit from an ex-girlfriend is unsettling enough. But Emily Downing's news brings him to his knees. Her son Jeremy is dying and needs a bone-marrow transplant?from a donor who has vanished without a trace. Then comes the real shocker: The boy is Myron's son, conceived the night before her wedding to another man.
Staggered by the news, Myron plunges into a search for the missing donor. But finding him means cracking open a dark mystery that involves a broken family, a brutal kidnapping spree, and the FBI. Somewhere in the sordid mess is the donor who disappeared. And as doubts emerge about Jeremy's true paternity, a child vanishes, igniting a chain reaction of heartbreaking truth and chilling revelation.
Myron Bolitar's father's recent heart attack brings Myron smack into a midlife encounter with issues of adulthood and mortality. And if that's not enough to turn his life upside down, the reappearance of his first serious girlfriend is. The basketball star turned sports agent, who does a little detecting when business is slow, is saddened by the news that Emily Downing's 13-year-old son is dying and desperately needs a bone marrow transplant; even if she did leave him for the man who destroyed his basketball career, he wouldn't wish tsuris like that on anyone. And he's not at all interested in getting involved with Emily again, not even to track down the one mysterious donor who may be able to save the boy. But when Myron learns that Jeremy Downing is his own son, conceived the night before Emily and Greg Downing married, he embarks on a search for someone who disappeared a lifetime ago. And what he finds leads him to a powerful family determined to keep an old secret, a disgraced reporter who may have plagiarized a novel to create a serial killer, a very interested FBI agent, and a missing child.
This is the seventh outing in a series that's been gaining in popularity since Bolitar's first appearance, in Harlan Coben's Deal Breaker. Myron's a bit of a baby, but he's not afraid to get rough when the situation calls for it, he's eminently likable, and his heart's in the right place. The fireworks are supplied by his friend and partner, Win, who really deserves a series of his own, and Esperanza, the lesbian wrestler-lawyer who has finally talked Myron into making her a partner in the business. Like Coben's other Bolitar novels, she's worth every penny. --Jane Adams
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