The Barnes & Noble Review
After six long years, fans of Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar saga (Darkest Fear, The Final Detail, et al.) can finally rejoice: The New Jersey basketball legend turned sports agent and amateur sleuth is back -- and better than ever -- in Promise Me, an addictively readable thriller that turns a simple act of kindness into a convoluted nightmare.
During a "coming out" party to celebrate Bolitar's budding new relationship with freelance writer and 9/11 widow Ali Wilder, the 6'4" former Boston Celtics washout overhears a drunken conversation in his basement between Wilder's daughter, Erin, and Aimee Biel, both students at Bolitar's alma mater, Livingston High School. In an attempt to protect the girls from the potentially deadly situation of accepting a ride with an inebriated acquaintance, Bolitar makes the girls promise him that if they're ever in need of a ride they will call him, regardless of the time or place -- no questions asked. Shortly thereafter, Biel takes him up on his offer. Upholding his promise, Bolitar picks up the Duke-bound high school senior in midtown Manhattan at two o'clock in the morning and drives her to what he thinks is a girlfriend's house in suburban New Jersey -- only to find out the next day that she has gone missing. Vowing to find Biel, Bolitar investigates her personal history and uncovers a viper's nest of dirty little secrets -- secrets that could destroy more than a few prominent Livingston families…
The ingeniously elaborate plot of Promise Me is a virtual roller-coaster ride of wild twists and turns, and no one will be able to predict the bombshell of a conclusion. In a word: Unputdownable. Paul Goat Allen
Janet Maslin
Promise Me shows off the best of Mr. Coben's plotting skills, though he has overtaxed them in recent books. This time he's got it just right: the story is tricky enough to be exciting but not tricky enough to cause whiplash.
— The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
After a six-year hiatus, it's good to herald the return of Myron Bolitar, the former Boston Celtics basketball star who became a sports agent and crime solver in Coben's sprightly, exciting series. Even better, it's great fun to hear Coben himself performing this excellent audio version. As a reader, Coben has a quality best summed up by the Yiddish word hamishe (homelike, in its weaker translation). He may not be Laurence Olivier, but he sure knows how to make believers of his listeners. When Bolitar talks about going back to live with his parents in New Jersey, Coben catches the basic boyishness of his aging hero and the impact such a move has on Myron's love life. Of course, the world has gotten a lot more complicated: Bolitar's ladyfriend lost her husband on September 11. When he offers to help her teenage daughter, he quickly finds himself involved in some very dangerous adventures. With fading sports stars behaving badly in real life, it's a great pleasure to see that Bolitar has found ways to survive honorably. Simultaneous release with the Dutton hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 6). (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Forbes Magazine
Too bad the book's hero, Myron Bolitar, a former basketball-star-turned-sports-and-entertainment-agent, can't go into politics. Myron vividly learns the perils of promises: They can have unpleasant, disappears. Three months earlier another local teenager had disappeared. Both adolescents had used the same ATM in Manhattan. The book takes off in high gear. (19 Jun 2006)
—Steve Forbes
Library Journal
A promise made on a whim comes back to haunt sports and entertainment agent Myron Bolitar. Worrying about two neighborhood girls riding with drunk drivers, Myron vows to help them anytime and anywhere as long as they call. Keeping his word a few nights later, he drops off one of the young girls in a suburban neighborhood, and she promptly vanishes. Her angry parents question his motives, and eventually so do the police. Myron swears to the missing girl's mother that he will find her daughter, even if she doesn't want to be found. The return of reluctant hero Myron (Darkest Fear) after a six-year absence will be applauded by his fans and enjoyed by newcomers. Abandoning the expected thriller elements, Coben has written a compelling drama that examines the power of honesty and determination to do the right thing. This should be shortlisted for major awards. Promise to read it. For all fiction collections.-Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
After six years of spinning jaw-dropping stand-alone thrillers, Coben brings back his sports agent-make that everything agent-Myron Bolitar (Darkest Fear, 2000, etc.) for an encore. Overhearing high-school senior Erin Wilder, his current ladylove's daughter, sharing confidences with her friend Aimee Biel about getting driven by wasted friends, Myron Bolitar promises both girls that if they ever need a ride, they can call him and he'll pick them up, no questions asked. All too soon he gets a chance to deliver. Aimee phones him from midtown Manhattan, where he just happens to be staying, and asks him to drive her to suburban New Jersey. Myron obliges but pushes a bit too hard with the questions, and Aimee vanishes into a strange house. The next day she's still missing, and in jig time the police, armed with Myron's credit-card slips and EZ-Pass records, come calling. It turns out that Myron's not a credible suspect. But because everybody connects Aimee's disappearance to that of fellow student Katie Rochester three months ago, Myron's on the hook with some serious people, from Aimee's parents, who beg him to bring her home, to Katie's mobbed-up dad, who's too proud to beg but has other ways of getting him to cooperate. As usual, Coben piles on the plot twists, false leads, violent set pieces and climactic surprises with the unfocused intensity that have made his thrillers (The Innocent, 2005, etc.) such a hot ticket. Book-of-the-Month Club/Mystery Guild/Literary Guild/Doubleday Book Club main selection
From the Publisher
Praise for Promise Me
“Shows off the best of Mr. Coben’s plotting skills...an intricate, satisfying book.”—*The New York Times
“The reappearance of Myron Bolitar is welcome, indeed....This book has [page turning suspense] in spades.”—Chicago Sun-Times
“Skillful pacing and truly surprising turns of plot.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Coben hits the ground running with the compelling Promise Me.”—South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“It’s a blast.”—San Jose Mercury News
“Supersuspense maestro Coben has again given us an addictive page-turner with plenty of twists, turns, plots, and subplots.”—Forbes
“A hard-edged plot with yet more strands of suburban desperation...After finishing Promise Me, you realize that all the clues to the twists were evident, but you still didn’t see it coming.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“A deftly written, well-plotted exploration of the tender underbelly of life in the New Jersey suburbs, where all is not as it seems.”—The Columbus Dispatch
AUG/SEP 06 - AudioFile
Worrying about the teenaged daughter of his girlfriend and some of her friends, who have been riding with drunk drivers, former Boston Celtics star Myron Bolitar promises to come and get them, wherever they are at any time, no questions asked. True to his word, after a late-night phone call, he picks up one girl and drives her to a friend’s house. The next day she is reported missing, and Bolitar becomes a suspect. He needs all his wits to untangle what began as a well-intentioned promise. Harlan Coben is a master storyteller and an enthusiastic reader. However, his convoluted plot with its fascinating multilayered characters would have benefited from the subtlety and finesse of a professional voice actor. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
