Win by Harlan Coben

Author: Harlan Coben

Title: Win

Publisher: Century

Published: 2021

Pages: 384

Genre: Mystery / Thriller

     Over twenty years ago, heiress Patricia Lockwood was abducted during a robbery of her family's estate, then locked inside an isolated cabin for months. Patricia escaped, but so did her captors, and the items stolen from her family were never recovered. Until now. On New York's Upper West Side, a recluse is found murdered in his penthouse apartment, alongside two objects of note: a stolen Vermeer painting and a leather suitcase bearing the initials WHL3. For the first time in years, the authorities have a lead not only on Patricia's kidnapping but also on another FBI cold case.

     I have been a fan of Harlan Coben for a long time now, devouring each book with great delight. He creates stories that are all too easy to get wrapped up in. We as readers can happily spend many an hour trying to beat him to the conclusion be it in his stand-alone work or the long-running Myron Bolitar series. He is in fact one of the few authors I read that I can pretty much guarantee that if I pick up one of his books I will have a great read. So what happens when you set out to write a book based around a character that already exists within Coben's writing world.  Can it possibly be as good as the series it was plucked from? or will it in fact feel like a book from said series just with the heroes name changed?

     Win as a character has been around as long as he's been Writing the Bolitar series. A permanent fixture in his works but never getting his own time in the spotlight. Now to call Win, Maryon's sidekick I think would be doing a great disservice to the character. He has developed over the years to become a key part of the franchise always there to look after the very few he holds dear to him. But never playing second fiddle to those he is put with. I can't ever imagine Win being in need of rescue from any one reality. And whilst we have come to learn bits and pieces about him over the years Coben has always held back from delivering too deep into his back story. 

     Now in part, I wonder if this is down to the fact that Win is not always the most likable character?

A point he is all too aware of himself. So here where we get to spend a whole three hundred and eighty four pages with him you might start to wonder if he starts to grate a little. But for me, it all felt like part of the charm of the novel. And after all, there is a long record of novels with none to likable leads that do amazing. Win is someone who is very sure of himself and has the ego to go with it. He is after all a man who knows exactly what he is capable of doing. But as we slowly start to see within these pages he is also some with a heart. A side of him we never get to experience. When it comes to those he loves there is truly no length he will not go to to help them out. You get the impression he has built very high walls around himself in order to protect himself. and he will go to great lengths to stop someone from breaking into them. And this story is very much about those people he holds close to his heart. 

     In many ways, this novel felt like those old Raymond Chandler novels I fell in love with many years ago. It is soaked in those old tales of mystery and the super-rich. The big difference here is that whilst Chandler's, Marlowe was the consummate outsider Win is definitely part of the establishment. Which also allows for Coben to play about a little more than you might otherwise. A case in point would be Win's ability to jump on his private jet to fly here and there in search of leads. But for me, it still has that noir detective heart. A point the would make this novel work if nothing else did. But as chance would have it that is only a small part of what made this a great read for me. He has managed to mix together those of school detective novels with his own form of thrillers. In doing so he has created a chimera that stands on its own two legs. 

     Whilst we do have power and money and the corruption of others as themes here Coben has also delved into the counter culture of the sixties and seventies in America. It is a time and place that I once spent a great deal of effort reading about and watching every documentary I could find. I tend to go all out on a subject that grabs my interest. So to see a fictionalized versions showing up in this book piqued my interest for certain. And without wanting to give anything away here I feel he did this in a way that fitted in with the story he wanted to tell. Now there is nothing wrong with that in this context, after all this is not some autobiographical book. So we allow for leeway, things don't have to be exactly as they were because within the context of Win he wants to give us a great thriller, and boy oh boy does he do this. 

     So when coming to the end of this long ramble you can tell it was a book I greatly enjoyed. Time and again Coben has shown me he is at the top of his field when it comes to thrillers. We are always not only treated to some great entertainment but if you choose you can get the little grey cells working to try and guess the ending. Now whilst this is technically a spin of from a long-running series in my opinion you don't really have to have the need of reading the others to get into this one. This is entirely Win's own story for him to tell in his own words. And yes you might not like him as a person a fact I feel he would not give to hoots about. But it is still a book that will grab you by the collar and drag you along for what will surely be a wild ride.