01/11/2021
Early in this disappointing thriller from bestseller Coben (the Myron Bolitar series), FBI agents ask sports agent Myron’s wealthy blueblood sidekick, Windsor “Win” Horne Lockwood III, to accompany them to the Beresford, “one of the most prestigious buildings in Manhattan,” where an unidentified older man has been found in one of the Beresford’s tower rooms, dead of either strangulation or a slit throat. Win tells the agents he doesn’t know the victim, but the cluttered room includes a Vermeer that was stolen from the Lockwood family 20 years earlier and a suitcase with Win’s initials. The mystery deepens when the body is identified as the leader of a radical left group responsible for the accidental deaths of seven people. A connection to Win’s cousin Patricia Lockwood’s traumatic abduction, abuse, and captivity as a teen raises more questions, but the melodramatic plot developments that follow don’t live up to the tantalizing setup. Readers will struggle to empathize with Coben’s hedonistic lead, who can’t help viewing even his own aunt as a sexual object. Hopefully, Win will return to a supporting role in any future outings. Agent: Lisa Vance, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (Mar.)
"Listeners will delight in [Steven] Weber's performance as he unravels this plot, launching new characters into the mix as Windsor takes on both these cases in his own way. Listeners will hear New York, Middle Eastern, and female voices young and old. All are Steven Weber, and all are sheer perfection." —AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award Winner
"Coben never, ever lets you down." ―Lee Child
"Twisty—and we'd expect no less from the author of hot thrillers like Tell No One and Missing You." ―AARP
"I gobbled [Win] in literally a couple of days . . . It's fantastic." ―Rachael Ray
"Coben is the undisputed king of suspense." ―The Real Book Spy
"Harlan Coben’s books are full of the thrilling, the unexpected, the twisty, and the memorable." ―CrimeReads
"A propulsive thriller about a man whose quest to enact vigilante justice takes him down a dangerous path." ―POPSUGAR
There is no denying the talent that narrator Steven Weber brings to this audiobook. With a slow, deliberate cadence, he becomes Windsor Horne Lockwood III, an eccentric protagonist with a penchant for violence. Weber’s lush characterization allows listeners to know this affluent, bored antihero. Twenty years ago, his cousin, Patricia, was kidnapped, and at the same time two of his family’s famous paintings were stolen. Listeners will delight in Weber’s performance as he unravels this plot, launching new characters into the mix as Windsor takes on both these cases in his own way. Listeners will hear New York, Middle Eastern, and female voices young and old. All are Steven Weber, and all are sheer perfection. E.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
2020-12-15
Memo to fans who’ve longed for Windsor Horne Lockwood III, the moneyed, omnicompetent buddy of sports agent Myron Bolitar, to snag a starring role of his own: Beware what you wish for.
Nothing would connect privileged Win with the murder of the reclusive tenant of an exclusive Upper West Side building if the police hadn’t found a painting inside Ry Strauss’ apartment—a Vermeer belonging to Win’s family that was stolen long ago while on loan to Haverford College—along with a monogrammed suitcase belonging to Win himself. The two discoveries tie Win not only to the murder, but to the Jane Street Six, a group of student activists Strauss led even longer ago. The Six’s most notoriously subversive action, the bombing of an empty building in 1973, left several innocents accidentally dead and the law determined to track down the perps. But except for Vanessa Hogan, whom Billy Rowan tearfully visited soon after the bombing to beg her forgiveness for his role in bringing about the death of her son, no one’s seen hide nor hair of the Six ever since. The roots of the outrage go even deeper for Win, whose uncle, Aldrich Powers Lockwood, was killed and whose cousin, Patricia, to whom he’d given that suitcase, was one of 10 women kidnapped, imprisoned, and raped in an unsolved crime. These meaty complications are duly unfolded, and gobs of cash thrown at them, by the ludicrously preening, self-infatuated Win, who announces, “It’s good to be me,” and “I can be charming when I want to be.” As if.
Densely plotted and replete with incident if you can overlook the insufferable narrator.
