Myron Bolitar Series

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The Myron Bolitar series is an eleven-part crime series by US author Harlan Coben , who wrote it between 1995 and 2016.

General

The series has won numerous crime prizes. Myron and his friends are not heroes, and the line between right and wrong often blurs, and good does not always win. The first six books focus on one sport each.

The main characters

Myron Bolitar

The ex-basketball player, who hates his own name, had to abandon his professional career after a knee injury and then studied law at Harvard . He also spent some time with the FBI with his friend and business partner Win .

Myron is now a sports agent for his own company, MB SportsRep. He doesn't tolerate alcohol, loves the drink yoo-hoo , likes musicals and films by Alfred Hitchcock , the Marx Brothers and Woody Allen . He also earned the third degree black belt in Taekwondo .

Windsor Horne Lockwood III

The stockbroker is the finance manager of MB SportsRep; He also runs a securities agency ("Lock-Horne Investments & Securities") that has been family-owned for years. He was Myron's roommate at the University and was briefly employed with the FBI . It was also the amateur golfer who initiated Myron into the secrets of martial arts and Asian relaxation techniques. He himself has the black belt sixth degree (6th Dan ) in Taekwondo .

He is a professional at picking door locks, always carries several weapons with him and acts brutally and inconsiderately.

Jessica Culver

Jessica is Myron's ex-girlfriend at the beginning of the first volume, but is reconciled with him again in this volume, so that they become lovers again. She re-enters Myron's life when her sister Kathy disappears and her father is murdered (see Volume 1 below).

The writer lives very physically and knows about its effect on men. From Myron's point of view, she is always described as a vamp and the best looking woman on earth who no one can resist, so Myron takes her to important business meetings every now and then. She is not popular with Win and especially Esperanza, as she once broke Myron's heart. When she learns that Myron almost fell in love with Brenda Slaughter in her absence, the relationship falls apart again.

A few years later, she married, but confessed to Myron that the attraction between the two of them never really let up.

Esperanza Diaz

Myron's secretary and wife for everything is an ex- wrestler who once won numerous titles under the name Little Pocahontas , although she is not of Indian descent, but of Latin American .

She hates Jessica that they always only in the original English Bitch ( bitch called); nevertheless, in volume 4, she lets herself be part of a dinner with her.

Esperanza is bisexual and has been with a woman named Lucy in the first two volumes. Myron and her tingle again and again, but they never let it get too far and hide their mutual attraction in dialogues dripping with sarcasm. She usually greets Myron by saying he has hundreds of new messages.

She is completing a law degree at night school and graduating with Volume 4, whereupon she becomes an equal partner in Myron's agency. Happiness does not last long as she is accused of murdering MB SportsRep's first client and arrested; but she only wants to protect Myron and is finally exonerated by this.

Six years later, to everyone's surprise, she marries (a man); in Myron's (so far?) last case, she is on her honeymoon and therefore hardly active.

After several unsuccessful attempts, Esperanza has a 49% share in "MB Reps" (Volume 6)

Big Cyndi

Big Cyndi, a very overweight ex-wrestler, is also employed as a receptionist at "MB Reps". She is extremely make-up, wears very colorful and unsuitable clothes for her figure and doesn't want Myron Bolitar to call her Big or Cyndi, but Big Cyndi. Although they have known each other for years, Big Cyndi always addresses Myron Bolitar as "Mister Bolitar" because she appreciates formality.

The volumes

Volume 1: Deal Breaker (German: The game of his life)

Kathy Culver, Jessica's sister, grew up religiously and adores her mother. When she catches this one day committing adultery, she swears revenge and becomes a slut. She has sex with countless men and takes photos that she sends to her mother. This in turn hides these photos in shock in the attic.

But Kathy soon wants to give up her campaign because she has met and loved the football professional Christian Steele, who is under contract with Myron , and wants to lead an honest life again. But one of her sex acquaintances smells profit and wants to blackmail her with photos she has taken; when she wants to pay him, she is brutally raped by him and his gang, whereupon Kathy breaks and from then on disappears from the scene.

Forensic doctor Adam Culver, Kathy's father, finds the photos in the attic and believes that Kathy herself hid them there. He believes the photos are the key to Kathy's disappearance. Suddenly, after almost two years, the police find a body in the forest - Adam recognizes his daughter immediately, but withholds her identity, because he wants to find the murderer in his own way: He has one of the sex photos of his daughter published in a magazine in order to lure the murderer from his reserve. He would have to return to the scene of the crime to see whether the body buried there is still there or not; Adam wants to convict him there with cameras. But everything turns out differently: Adam is pursued by the murderer, who senses that the coroner is on his heels, and finally killed.

Myron and Win plan a bluff: At the funeral (an empty coffin) of Kathy Culver, they burst in and tell Jessica that her sister is alive and wants to meet her where she was murdered. Christian Steele, the murderer, falls for it and comes armed to the place where he is arrested. His motive: He was afraid that Kathy's wild past, which he found out about quite late, could end his sports career.

Volume 2: Drop Shot (German: blow by blow)

The tennis player Valerie Simpson is shot Richwood during a game of standing at Myron signed Duane. The trail leads from her to her ex-boyfriend Alexander Cross, son of a US governor , who was also murdered six years ago when - according to the official report - he surprised burglars. His killer, Errol Swade, allegedly escaped, but the accomplice Curtis Yeller was shot dead by the police on the scene.

It turns out that the intruders weren't really stealing anything, they were trying to play tennis on Alexander Cross' tennis court when Alexander surprised them. Being drugged, he attacked and was stabbed by Errol Swade. He was shot by the police - Curtis' mother Deanna Yeller found him and shot him in the face to make him unrecognizable. She claimed the body was her son and arranged for a quick cremation ; but her real son Curtis escaped and assumed a new identity: Duane Richwood. When he escaped, however, he ran into Alexander's friend Valerie Simpson - who in turn suddenly recognized him years later, despite surgical interventions on his face, when she saw him in Myron's office. Her research falls on Deanne Yeller, who kills Valerie.

Volume 3: Fade Away (German: The Insider)

Basketball star Greg Downing disappears without a trace - of all people, Agent Myron Bolitar, who was his fiercest competitor on the way to professional sport until he was injured, is hired to look for him. In order to fulfill his real mission, Myron is even accepted into the professional basketball team of the Dragons, where he quickly realizes that after his injury he has no chance to keep up with the professionals.

Together with the reporter Audrey Wilson, a friend of Jessica, Myron goes in search of Greg. Myron quickly discovers Greg's involvement in a mysterious murder case: Liz Gorman, a former supporter of a radical group in the 1960s, blackmailed Greg and was shortly afterwards murdered in her apartment - and blood is also found in Greg's apartment. As soon as Myron and Win noticed this and alerted the police, the unbelievable happened: The apartment was completely cleaned of blood, as if nothing had happened.

The solution: Liz Gorman was part of a group that robbed a bank and, among other things, robbed the lockers there. One of the lockers belonged to a certain Burt Wesson. A cassette in his locker puts a heavy burden on Greg Downing - so Liz blackmails him. Reporter Audrey falls in love with Greg and decides to kill Liz. Greg enters the apartment after the murder to pay the money for the extortion, discovers the body and flees in a panic. Emilie, Myron's ex-lover and Greg's ex-wife, who fears for custody of her child after the divorce, is the next to step on the scene as she craves information about the custody battle, which Greg apparently has a lot of money for willing to pay. She finds the corpse and takes care of the blood in Greg's apartment to massively incriminate him. But the blood is again removed by Audrey.

It was only when Audrey was caught that Myron found out about the contents of the recording: Greg Downing wanted to secure his position on the professional team and bribed the player Burt Wesson to inflict the knee injury that would end his career in Myron; what always seemed like an unfortunate accident in Volume 1 was a planned attack.

Myron wasn't put back on the team for nothing: the manager hoped that if he was a part of it, he would keep the truth to himself and not burden the team. But Myron finds Greg, who is hiding with a teammate, and wants to blow him and the management of the Dragons.
In the final lines of the book, Win Burt pays Wesson a visit ...

Volume 4: Back Spin (German: Prize money)

The son of the two golf pros Jack and Linda Coldren, Chad, is kidnapped. Since Jack's father is the brother of Win's mother, she recommends Myron's services - should he crack the case, Jack and Linda would immediately sign with him. (Since Win’s mother is involved, Win refuses to do anything in this case.)

Can it be a coincidence that the son disappears at a point in time when Jack could win the US Open after more than 20 years? Has he actually been kidnapped or is it all a large-scale hoax?

The solution to the case goes back many years. As a child, Jack allowed himself a harmless joke and made sure that Win surprised his mother during an affair. Win's mother Jack could never forgive this: She later bribed Jack's caddy, Lloyd Rennart, to see that Jack lost the US Open. Jack knew nothing of the bribe, but he made Lloyd Rennart out of favor. He soon became a drunkard, was responsible for the accidental death of his first wife and eventually committed suicide.

After 20 years Jack has a second chance to win the US Open, but Esme Fong wants to thwart that. She is not only the agent of his fiercest competitor, but also Rennart's daughter from his first marriage. Jack had destroyed her father's life, now she wanted to destroy his. Her first, rather innocuous, plan was to get Jack's homosexuality exposed, which could have distracted him so much that he could lose. But the plan goes wrong; Jack takes the lead in the tournament and Esme strikes: She kidnaps Chad and tells Jack to lose the tournament if he wants his son back. But Jack wants too much to win - when his wife Linda learns that he would even accept the death of her child in order to win, she shoots him. Myron cannot convict Linda because she has officially taken him to the law and he is subject to confidentiality.

Volume 5: One False Move (Eng .: blocked)

In this central novel for Myron's character, professional basketball player Brenda Slaughter receives threatening phone calls after her father Horace disappears and hires Myron to track him down and find out if the calls are from him. Horace is an old friend of Myron who helped him start his career. Brenda's mother Anita has also disappeared - but she has been for 20 years. Are both cases related?

While Myron threatens to fall in love with Brenda in Jessica's absence (she's away on business), Esperanza puts more and more pressure on her desired partnership in his company - Myron finds it difficult to concentrate in the event. But it quickly becomes clear that a very influential, political family is involved in the disappearance of Brenda's parents: Anita was a housewife for the Bradfords and joined them 20 years ago when the wife of the politician Arthur Bradford fell from her balcony and died. Curiously, Anita worked for the Bradfords for another nine months before she hastily left Horace, stole all the money she had saved for Brenda, and disappeared. But she is not dead, because she keeps contacting Horace's sister Mabel to inquire about Brenda. The case becomes more and more intricate when Horace's body is found - he was executed from a close range head shot.

All roads lead to the Bradfords, a family that even Myron's father is very afraid of: The Bradfords once threatened to mutilate baby Myron bit by bit if Myron's father got in the way of their politics.

Myron pokes around and finds out that Anita had initially wanted to flee with her daughter, but then decided at a Holiday Inn at very short notice and left her behind. Myron comes across the policeman who helped cover up the death of the wealthy Mrs. Bradford and who also reports that he testified how an employee of the Bradfords wore Anita from the Holiday Inn that night, which was also the cloak of silence was spread. The cop commits suicide after his confession, and it is up to Myron to piece together the final pieces of the puzzle.

Arthur Bradford was having an affair with Anita; his mentally unstable wife - she suffered from depression - surprised the two and committed suicide in front of Anita's eyes to make her feel guilty for the rest of her life. But Arthur saw his chance to flee together with Anita - with Anita and their daughter Brenda. Before she escaped, Anita only confided in her sister-in-law Mabel - a fatal mistake, because her greed made her a murderer: she killed Anita at the Holiday Inn (Anita was not only battered, but dead), stole her money, took her first five-year-old Brenda came with her and occasionally claimed that Anita called her often. When Horace inquired, she also killed her brother, took the inheritance, and pretended once more that one of her victims was still alive.

Arthur Bradford is unaware of Anita's death as his brother wanted to cover up everything for political reasons - his 'threatening phone calls' were made to track down Anita, assuming that Brenda would turn to her in her fear - and Brenda's phones were tapped .

Ultimately, Myron brings Brenda too close to a memory she linked to the Holiday Inn. Mabel reacts quickly and kills Brenda too.

Mabel haughtily confesses everything to Myron, but Myron has no evidence to convict her. Dismayed by the death of his near-lover, Myron Bradford reveals who the real killer of Anita and his daughter is - the politician ensures that Mabel dies a slow death.

Volume 6: The Final Detail (German: Bad Game)

Esperanza Dias, now Myron's partner at MB SportsRep, is charged with the murder of their first client, baseball star Clu Haid - the evidence seems overwhelming. Nevertheless, she consistently refuses Myron's help. He had isolated himself from the outside world for weeks and withdrew to the Bahamas to digest Brenda Slaughter's death, his involvement in the subsequent murder of the perpetrator and his renewed end of relationship with Jessica. He enjoyed himself with the news anchor Terese Collins, who was also shaken by fate (see also Volume 7); this absence cost him some clients and the trust of others.

Despite Esperanza's assertion that she does not want his help and although she does not give him any details, Myron sets out to find the real murderer of Clu Haid, since he categorically rules out that Esperanza could be a killer. Since Clu was addicted to drugs and was involved in dubious circles, this will be a journey into the depths of the human psyche for Myron. He is mainly accompanied by Big Cindy, Esperanza's wrestling friend and, for some time, secretary at MB SportsRep.

The case takes an unexpected turn when a floppy disk is leaked to Myron showing a girl dissolving in blood before the disk erases itself. Myron quickly finds out that this is Lucy Mayor, who has been missing for years, the daughter of Sophie Mayor, the sponsor of Clus baseball club. Myron knows that the two cases are related and works on both of them in turns.

The truth is a shock and a relief in one: Esperanza is not guilty, it was just in the wrong place at the wrong time - namely in Myron's car, in which there were traces of blood from Clu. Myron was supposed to be charged with the murder, but that was in the Bahamas and Esperanza got it. But why Myron?

The solution lies in the past: no sooner had Clu signed his contract with MB SportsRep than he was involved in a car accident when Clu hit a tree while drunk. Since hardly anything has happened to him and the two passengers (his girlfriend and a friend), Myron helps bribe the police and preserve Clu's reputation: alcohol was removed from the protocol, Clu just wanted to avoid another vehicle. What Myron did not suspect: A fourth inmate had been killed in the accident, in a panic Clu had hidden her in the forest. The dead woman is none other than Lucy Mayor. Her mother Sophie finds out about it in a roundabout way, and the experienced hobby hunter becomes an avenger. She kills Clu (actually driving him to suicide) and his friend, who helped remove the body (the girl was passed out and only later learned the truth); then she wants to attach everything to Myron, as Sophie assumed he knew about the death.

In the end it is a tie: Myron knows who the killer is, but since he is involved in a bribery case, he cannot hand her over to the police and has to admit to himself that he can almost understand this vigilante justice case.

Volume 7: Darkest Fear (German: His darkest hour)

The seventh part of the series becomes Myron's most personal case by far, as his own son is involved. Not that he even knew before that he had a son: Only the appearance of his ex-Emilie Downing (see also Volume 3) leads Myron to find out about it. As if that wasn't shock enough, he has to live with the knowledge that his now 13-year-old son Jeremy is dying. He suffers from a rare type of anemia and will die if a bone marrow donor cannot be found.

That's why Emilie is here - not to win Myron as a donor, but to put him on a case: The donor has already been found in a database, but cannot be found. Since everything is handled with strict confidentiality, Emilie only knows that the database yielded a hit, that the person was contacted several times, but repeatedly did not answer.

Although Myron has vowed not to get involved in cases that do not directly affect his agency, this is too personal and he agrees. Terese Collins (his love affair in the Bahamas in Volume 6), the well-known news anchor with whom he has a long-distance relationship, is of great help to him, but maybe not, both are not entirely sure. With her help, he quickly finds out that the donor's name is Davis Taylor.

That doesn't do much; As Esperanza finds out, Davis Taylor has no tangible background, must be an alias. In fact, it doesn't take long before Esperanza comes across his real name: Dennis Lex. This opens up a whole new spectrum, because Dennis is the son of the famous, now deceased author Raymond Lex, whose only book was made into a very lucrative film.

A mysterious call, possibly from Dennis Lex himself, is Myron's next lead, as the caller keeps repeating a quote: "Sow the seeds ." As he typed this into an internet search engine, he came across a column by a journalist, Gibbs, who wrote spectacular articles because he was in contact with a kidnapper who initiated him into his most intimate fantasies. Since the FBI has no knowledge of these kidnappings - the perpetrator is forcing the victims' relatives to remain silent - they intervene and want to force Gibbs to expose his source. It turns out that everything is a hoax, because Gibbs was just plagiarizing an old novel. But why this tip?

But Gibbs is hot: Another reporter, with whom Myron has good contacts, knows that his wife was murdered shortly after the plagiarism was cleared up, even if he doesn't know any further background. So Myron visits Gibbs personally, who actually receives him when the name Dennis Lex is mentioned. Gibbs claims to have been deceived: The kidnapper really exists, the similarities to the old novel could be because the kidnapper knew and quoted it.

Myron can hardly believe it, but suddenly the FBI is interested in the case, because Gibbs has her under constant surveillance - and Myron was the first to let Gibbs in. In return for his information, Myron learns that the FBI also believes that Gibbs was set up; they hope that the kidnapper will continue to contact him, which is why Myron is briefly suspected. But there is also a terrible alternative: perhaps Gibbs himself is the kidnapper and thus reported on himself to gain notoriety on two fronts.

Myron logically rattles off the leads and ends up next with Raymond Lex's family. He found out that Dennis Lex disappeared without a trace when he was a preschooler. Apparently the family is keeping a dark secret here - and penetration is impossible; the bodyguards do a good job; In fact, it appears that Dennis' sister Susan caused Gibbs to lose his job by sniffing too deep into her family matters. With Win's help, Myron barely escapes a vicious demonstration of what it means to get involved in the Lex affair.

But then the situation escalates dramatically: Jeremy is kidnapped. Then Susan picks up Lex and proves that her brother cannot be the culprit: Dennis Lex has been in a special hospital for decades - he is no longer responsive after Susan herself seriously injured him while playing with a gun. Dennis is the well-kept family secret. But the visit to this hospital has its good side when Myron learns that Gibbs' father was also stationed here.

Now the pieces of the puzzle fall together: Gibbs' father Edwin is the kidnapper - he confided in his own son, because he could assume that he would hold up. And he knew about the vegetating Dennis Lex, whose identity he assumed undetected. This is how the FBI actually succeeds in arresting Edwin Gibbs, but he defends himself beforehand and seriously injures Jeremy's foster father Greg. But after the kidnapper's arrest, the horror is not over: Jeremy is nowhere to be found.

When the deal is made with Edwin that he will not be sentenced to death, he reveals the boy's whereabouts and Stan takes them all there. Jeremy is safe and sound; Edwin, however, surprisingly kills himself with a poison pill - Jeremy's donor is dead. Myron can solve the last riddles, because there are still some unanswered questions.

Not Edwin, but Stan is the donor, because it was Stan who kidnapped Jeremy and raised suspicions on his father. Only in this way could he strike the balance between maintaining his own integrity and condemning the monstrous father. When the truth is revealed, Myron offers him secrecy in exchange for Stan's bone marrow donation. Stan agrees on the condition that his identity as a donor remains secret. This is how Jeremy can be saved; his father also survived.

But Stan's impunity is short-lived when Myron can produce evidence that Stan not only knew of the book's existence that he plagiarized, but that he murdered his ex-lover to silence her , the fun is over and Stan is arrested by the FBI.

In the end, both Greg and Jeremy himself learn of the boy's true paternity; both cope with this truth surprisingly well and accept Myron's marginal role in their families.

Volume 8: Promise Me (German: A fateful promise)

In Myrons, as in the World of the Reader, six years have passed since the last fall.

Following an inner impulse, Myron wrestles a promise from the daughter of a befriended couple at a party. The daughter is Aimee Biel, her parents Erik and Claire, the promise is that she can call him, Myron, anytime if she's in trouble. He makes this suggestion because he has inadvertently overheard her beforehand and believes that her attitude to ride with drunk people could endanger her.

The promise is harmless, but a little later Aimee actually calls him in the middle of the night and desperately asks him to drive her to a certain location and drop her off there without asking any questions. Myron keeps his promise, but curses himself when Aimee disappears immediately afterwards, apparently being kidnapped.

Aimee's case is quickly linked to that of another missing girl, Katie Rochester. The similarities cannot be overlooked: both girls just turned eighteen, both went to the same high school, both turned out to be pregnant, and both - and this is the clearest clue - withdrew cash from the exact same ATM before they disappeared. In addition, both of them contact their respective parents and assure them that they are fine.

Have both run away from home and are all matches pure coincidence? As is so often the case, the truth lies in between: Katie has indeed run away because she could no longer bear her tyrannical father. But she is recognized on the street by a doctor, Dr. Edna Skylar, fervently pleading not to tell anyone about it. In fact, Skylar is silent, but then has a diabolical idea.

She herself has a completely failed son, with whom she did everything wrong that a mother can do wrong. When she learns that her son from her first marriage, Drew Van Dyne, a substitute teacher at the high school, is impregnating a student - Aimee Biel - she believes after the initial shock that she could manage a fresh start with her grandchild. But she is very disappointed when she learns that Aimee wants to abort the child. Skylar takes quick action: She kidnaps Aimee, who is three months pregnant, to hold her for a month so that an abortion is no longer possible. To make her look like another runaway, she makes sure that Aimee also withdraws money from Katie's machine; For a long time everyone gets very confused by it.

Nevertheless, the authorities assume a kidnapping and around Skylar's crimes there are some skirmishes, some of which are fatal. Myron is suspected by Erik for being the last to see Aimee; Aimee's ex-boyfriend Randy is targeted by the police for being a small drug dealer at the school; Both Randy's and Aimee's father want to take the law into their own hands and practice vigilante justice. Eventually Drew Van Dyne, who has no idea about his mother's goings-on, also loses his temper and draws the wrong conclusions: He believes Randy's parents had something to do with the kidnapping, a mistake that will cost him his life - whoever kills him , however, is never clarified, since the family holds together; officially, Randy's father takes the blame.

Volume 9: Long Lost (German: Of my blood)

Teresa Collins left her husband ten years ago, now he asks her, surprisingly, to come to Paris immediately. But when she gets there, the prominent investigative journalist is already dead - murdered. And at the crime scene there are fresh traces of blood from a person who should have been dead for years. Desperate, Teresa asks her old friend Myron Bolitar for help. He embarks on a very dangerous search for the truth - and comes across a conspiracy that makes his blood run cold.

Volume 10: Live Wire (German: His last will)

We all lie - to protect those we love from the truth ...

Rock star Lex and his wife Suzze have an extremely happy marriage. Full of anticipation, they await the imminent birth of their first child - until a malicious Facebook comment casts doubt on Lex's paternity. He then disappears without a trace, and Suzze desperately asks her agent Myron Bolitar for help. Myron agrees without taking the matter particularly seriously. But then he is confronted with a first corpse - and with the abysses of his own family history.

Volume 11: Home (German The Price of Lies)

Ten years after the high profile kidnapping of two young boys, only one of them returns home.