Basketballs to This! (One False Move - Harlan Coben)

Member Name: samueltyler

Product:	One False Move - Harlan Coben
Date:	16/07/09 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun lead character, pacy start

Disadvantages: Bogged down in the past

Men do is faster, stronger and better. Sport that is! This is the argument that some people would use to explain why male based sports are more popular than the female equivalent; be it football, basketball, rugby etc etc. The unfortunate thing for people who would argue against this is that its pretty much fact. As men, our bodies are designed to hunt which means we are stronger and faster, but also that we die younger. This does not mean that women cannot be good at sports or more skilful, it's just that they have a disadvantage before they even start. What would make women's sport more popular is if we win! The women's England Cricket Team is far better known now after winning the World Cup. With all the major male sports sponsored up there is no room for new investors. However, if a women's sport was to become popular the benefits could be huge for a company getting in at the ground floor. Would these benefits be enough to kill for?

Brenda Slaughter is the star of female Basketball in the US. She alone if picked to be the face of a new women's league being set up. However, with fame comes pressure and this is no more obvious when Brenda's Father goes missing and she is threatened. The worried league organiser is scared for Brenda, but realises that police intervention would cause bad press. Therefore, he asks maverick sports agent Myron Bolitar to take Brenda as his client and protect her. Bolitar's skills are more than just sports based as he is an ex-CIA agent who does some private investigation on the side. With a rival league on the lookout for Brenda's signature Bolitar must find her father before the opening game of the season.

'One False Move' is part of the Bolitar series of novels by Harlan Coben that has been around for a while now. Bolitar is the quintessential modern American PI, dangerous and funny. For this reason the books are always fun to read, no matter what, as Bolitar's one liners are very good. However, in a market flooded by pithy PIs this alone is not enough. The story itself has to hold up under scrutiny and it is in this area that Coben has continually failed to do well. Whilst the likes of Robert Crais' 'Elvis Cole' novels are both thrilling and funny, Coben seems to get too bogged down in a mystery. There is also a small issue that Bolitar is such a strong lead that the other characters in the book do not get a chance; leading in this case to Coben potentially writing a criminally underused character out.

For the first half of the book you are in a simple, but fun, crime thriller. The sports agent angle means that the book feels slightly different from other crime series and the banter between the leads is as good as always. Then the inevitable happens - the book is Cobenised. Coben is an author obsessed with using the past in the telling of his mysteries. What is happening now has always got something to do with what happened 15 years ago. This is a very difficult thing to pull off as you are constantly basing a mystery on second hand evidence. The book descends into lots of conversations with people about what they did all that time ago. Personally, I prefer to read about something as it happens rather than through a filter of time. A solid crime thriller that is trundling along at a good pace is suddenly brought to a shuddering halt as we are made to explore the motives of people over a decade ago. This is not to say that the book is still not decent at times as Bolitar is always good value in a grisly conclusion. The final act of the book stands out as a compelling action sequence; it is just a shame that we had to read through 100 pages or so of dull self searching to get there.

With its clichés and reliance on the past, 'One False Move' is certainly not a classic. I am increasingly disillusioned with Coben as he repeats the same tricks over and over again. What makes this even worse is that these tricks are so prevalent in the crime genre that they are done elsewhere a lot better - see Crais of Michael Connelly. Despite its flaws 'One' still holds up as a fun novel because even in its most mundane sections Bolitar is a fun character who always has something amusing to say in the most inopportune moments. As long as this character remains at the focal point this series of books will still be passable reading material.

Author: Harlan Coben
Year: 1998
Price: amazon uk - £6.99
play.com - £5.49

Summary: Passable, but flawed