I am always happy to be reading another Harlan Coben mystery/thriller. They are never simple; several mysteries are always going on.

WIN is a continuation of Coben's Myron Bolitar series and it’s not. Myron doesn’t even make an appearance. He just gets a few mentions.

If you are familiar with the Myron Bolitar series, you will know that Win is Myron’s best friend. Win is always a part of these thrillers, always helping Myron and his endeavors. That’s why throughout this book I was expecting Myron to show up at some critical moment. But no. This one is all Win. It’s the beginning of his own series.

Apparently (I would probably have known this if I had read Coben’s young adult series about young Mickey Bolitar), Myron is now married and living in Florida. This leaves rich, handsome, violent, and unbelievably successful Win on his own. Ordinarily I’d be turned off by the violence, but it is in the name of justice, and Coben somehow makes it fun.

A couple of disappointments: (1) as I already said, this story has no Myron, and I missed him, and (2) I was disappointed in myself for not highlighting each new name. Because Coben’s mysteries/thrillers always include lots of characters, I find that it’s best to highlight each name the first time it appears. This aids my memory when they show up later in the story. I didn’t do that this time, forcing me to search previous text, sometimes unsuccessfully because the names were not highlighted.

So is Myron now retired? At a presentation more than 10 years ago, Coben said he was considering this. I told him that wasn’t a good idea then, and I still don’t think so now.

A side character of previous books by Harlan Coben, gets to step into the spotlight.

We learn about Win's past and his rich excess is fun to discover.