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The newest books by three of my go-to suspense authors have been huge disappointments.
Harlan Coben's Win is awful. I feel like Coben's been going downhill for a while, but this was like a rollercoaster drop. The protagonist is apparently a character in Coben's Myron Bolitar series--which seems like a cheat; I've read only the Coben standalones and had no interest in Myron Bolitar. If this book is a window into that series, I've been right to steer clear. The plot is boring, and the protagonist is an amoral ass--and not in a fun way.
Peter Swanson's Every Vow You Break has a decent if fairly familiar premise--new bride's one-night stand stalks her--but a twist turned it into an unrealistic mess. I like twists, but not when they morph a domestic thriller into something else entirely.
But I still had Linwood Barclay's latest to look forward to; surely he at least would come through, I thought. Alas, no. His Find You First is implausible and dull--a terminally ill millionaire/former sperm donor searches for his now-adult biological children, both to leave them money and to warn them that his illness might be genetic; meanwhile, someone else is looking for them too.
What all three novels have in common are filthy-rich men as heroes and/or villains; the power they wield and the resources they are able to employ make the stories improbable and ultimately unrelatable.
The narrators are all good--Steven Weber, Karissa Vacker, and George Newbern, respectively--but narrators can't save these stories.
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