Take a photo of a barcode or cover
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It may be hard to believe, since I read so much, but Nobody’s Fool is only my second book by Harlan Coben. Given that he’s written SO many books, it truly surprised me. Anyway… Nobody’s Fool was a very engaging mystery and I’m glad I read/listened to it!
Sami Kierce is the main character, a former NYPD detective who was forced out of the department due to problematic behavior in a couple of cases. So he’s scrambling to make a living for himself, his wife and baby son, by taking on various low-level private investigations, such as surveilling cheating husbands. He also teaches a sort of adult education detective class on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. That class is filled with a wide variety of “interesting” people. I loved that Sami referred to them mostly by nicknames, such as Gary The Golfer, Leisure Suit Lenny, and a few women he calls the Pink Panthers. (It actually helped me remember who was who, as opposed to just a list of names.) I really enjoyed Sami; he has a good sense of humor and it was a nice change of pace to read a main character who grew up in New Jersey of Pakistani heritage.
The book opens with some scenes from 20-odd years earlier, when he was backpacking in Europe with some of his college buddies (whom he refers to as the “lax bros”, i.e. lacrosse players), before starting med school. In Spain he meets and has a brief affair with a young woman named Anna. The publisher’s blurb gives this away, so it isn’t a spoiler: he wakes up next to Anna, who is dead and he’s holding a bloody knife! He runs, basically. And he never goes to med school; instead he becomes a police officer.
Fast forward those 20-odd years and a woman shows up at his class and he just knows it’s Anna, older of course. When she turns and runs instead of talking to him, he follows her. Most of the book involves figuring out how Anna could still be alive. I enjoyed how some of his more promising students helped him in this effort. Another thread is the release from prison of a man he helped convict, a man he believes killed his then-fiancee. Because of his checkered past, his lawyer has gotten that guy out of prison.
I mostly listened to the audiobook version, beautifully narrated by Vikas Adam. I sped through this book, not wanting to stop listening.
If you enjoy a fast-paced thriller with some good twists and great local atmosphere, check out Nobody’s Fool.
Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook and to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Blood, Gaslighting
Moderate: Drug abuse, Trafficking, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Finished reading: March 15th 2025
*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Hachette Audio in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***
There is just something about Harlan Coben's thrillers that makes them highly engaging, so I couldn't resist adding Nobody's Fool straight away. I wrongly assumed that I had already read the first Detective Sami Kierce book though... Which I ended up doing before listening to this audiobook, although I can now say that Nobody's Fool can be read as a stand-alone without any issues. Our main character Sami Kierce only plays a minor role in the first book, and this second book focuses on completely different cases instead... And I'm happy to announce that I ended up having such a great time listening to this story!
Like I said before, while Sami Kierce isn't a new character, Nobody's Fool can very easily be read as a stand-alone as we don't exactly get to learn much about his character in the first book and this story focuses on completely different cases instead. I actually preferred this sequel myself, mostly because it was easier to root for Sami Kierce as he tried to solve both cases close to him... He is no longer a detective and now works as an (unofficial) private investigator, which is always an angle I enjoy in thrillers. The fact that he teaches a crime class and uses his students in his investigations is a brilliant touch, and it also helped adding a dose of humor to lighten things up. The Sherlock Holmes references were likewise a bonus!
Nobody's Fool focuses on two cases, and both are linked to our main character's past. This made you feel more invested in the outcome, and it was interesting to learn more about past and present. I do have to say that the pace wasn't always consistent, and there were parts where the story slowed down a bit too much to my taste... But as a whole I was without doubt still entertained by this story. There were also a couple of twists involved that I definitely didn't see coming, although I do wish that the ending would have been more neatly wrapped up.
As for the audiobook itself: the narrator has a voice that is very easy to listen to. It's true that he speaks quite slowly at times, but it is done in a way that didn't make me want to speed things up just to get it over with... So I personally didn't mind the pace. His voice also fitted the main character Sami Kierce very well, and I liked how he used different voices for the other characters. True, there were one or two voices that could be a bit annoying, but as a whole they fitted the other characters well.
Nobody's Fool has quite a big cast of characters and it can take some time to keep them all apart, but it wasn't too difficult to do so even on audio. Sami Kierce makes for a great flawed main character, and I especially liked his students and how they helped the investigations along the way. The cases themselves are both intriguing, and I was very much invested in their outcomes. It's true that the way things ended didn't quite hit the mark for me personally, but there is no denying that the journey itself was very entertaining. All in all another successful Harlan Coben book!
*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Hachette Audio in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***
There is just something about Harlan Coben's thrillers that makes them highly engaging, so I couldn't resist adding Nobody's Fool straight away. I wrongly assumed that I had already read the first Detective Sami Kierce book though... Which I ended up doing before listening to this audiobook, although I can now say that Nobody's Fool can be read as a stand-alone without any issues. Our main character Sami Kierce only plays a minor role in the first book, and this second book focuses on completely different cases instead... And I'm happy to announce that I ended up having such a great time listening to this story!
Like I said before, while Sami Kierce isn't a new character, Nobody's Fool can very easily be read as a stand-alone as we don't exactly get to learn much about his character in the first book and this story focuses on completely different cases instead. I actually preferred this sequel myself, mostly because it was easier to root for Sami Kierce as he tried to solve both cases close to him... He is no longer a detective and now works as an (unofficial) private investigator, which is always an angle I enjoy in thrillers. The fact that he teaches a crime class and uses his students in his investigations is a brilliant touch, and it also helped adding a dose of humor to lighten things up. The Sherlock Holmes references were likewise a bonus!
Nobody's Fool focuses on two cases, and both are linked to our main character's past. This made you feel more invested in the outcome, and it was interesting to learn more about past and present. I do have to say that the pace wasn't always consistent, and there were parts where the story slowed down a bit too much to my taste... But as a whole I was without doubt still entertained by this story. There were also a couple of twists involved that I definitely didn't see coming, although I do wish that the ending would have been more neatly wrapped up.
As for the audiobook itself: the narrator has a voice that is very easy to listen to. It's true that he speaks quite slowly at times, but it is done in a way that didn't make me want to speed things up just to get it over with... So I personally didn't mind the pace. His voice also fitted the main character Sami Kierce very well, and I liked how he used different voices for the other characters. True, there were one or two voices that could be a bit annoying, but as a whole they fitted the other characters well.
Nobody's Fool has quite a big cast of characters and it can take some time to keep them all apart, but it wasn't too difficult to do so even on audio. Sami Kierce makes for a great flawed main character, and I especially liked his students and how they helped the investigations along the way. The cases themselves are both intriguing, and I was very much invested in their outcomes. It's true that the way things ended didn't quite hit the mark for me personally, but there is no denying that the journey itself was very entertaining. All in all another successful Harlan Coben book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism