Harlan Coben’s new novel is something of a return to his roots. ‘Win’ is Windsor Horne Lockwood, III, Myron Bolitar’s best friend. Win functions as what I have termed the ‘avenging angel’ character: like Spenser’s Hawk or Elvis Cole’s Joe Pike, an invincible figure who can be turned to in a pinch, particularly a pinch requiring the old ultra-violence. The difference with Win is that he appears unassuming, like Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher, but he has endless wealth, an armory of weapons, deadly martial arts skills and few scruples. His superhero power (he says here) is his wealth and he compares himself explicitly with Bruce Wayne. In his fascination with and demand for premium goods carrying exquisite brand names he reminds us also of James Bond. Though he has never been on her Majesty’s Secret Service he spent a brief period of time in the FBI.
Here he gets his own novel and he also gets to narrate it. His relationship with the reader is by turns coy, slightly arrogant, deadly honest, endearing and annoying. He knows that he must be faithful to himself but that may irritate the reader; he says as much in a number of direct addresses, when he breaks the narrative wall between us.
The story is very complex (but always intelligible). A body has turned up in an expensive apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. An elderly man has had his throat slit. On his wall is a Vermeer that was stolen from the Lockwood family decades ago. Decades ago Win’s uncle was murdered and decades ago his cousin was abducted and raped for five months before she was able to escape from a tiny shed (the ‘hut of horrors’) in the Pennsylvania woods. Win’s old FBI handler/mentor/friend asks Win to investigate and determine the perpetrator of all of these things. The NYC mob is also interested and, as we soon learn, the case ultimately involves the doings of a domestic terrorist group (the ‘Jane Street Six’) who have been on the lam for a long, long time.
I am a sucker for domestic terrorist group stories (having been at Wisconsin for the bombing of Sterling Hall) and this is a fascinating one. Win is determined to get to the bottom of things and when he is thus determined there is nothing that can stop him.
The story is set in New York and mainline Philadelphia, with Win shuttling hither and yon on private jets, helicopters . . . whatever it takes. Win has always been a solid, offbeat character, and who doesn’t like the lifestyles of the rich, famous and deadly? The principal theme here is something like ‘being faithful to oneself, one’s family and one’s roots, even when they lead to conflict’ but the real star is the story. Investigations are always more interesting when you’re richer than God and prepared to use that wealth in ingenious ways.
Bottom line: a solid Harlan Coben novel but with a familiar protagonist we have always wanted to know better. Whether we love him or not is our problem (Win would be quick to point out).
Thomas La Roche
Pamalam
Richard B. Schwartz
Kindle Customer