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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Nobody’s Fool by Harlan Coben is a police procedural led by a man, Sami Kierce, who was no longer a policeman. He had been asked to leave because of behavior outside police procedures. He deserved it; he often did not think before he acted. He did a variety of things to keep his family safe, including teaching a class on sleuthing, to which he had a cadre of regulars. One night someone slipped in he didn’t recognize, until he did. He had known her twenty years earlier when he had been just out of college and on a trek across Europe. He had woken up one day to find her dead body next to him and a knife in his hand. In a panic he ran to the police. When he finally convinced one to return to the apartment with him, nothing was there. He called his father who advised him to get a flight out to the United States immediately. It didn’t matter where. Now, here she was. The sharing that night had been about surveillance devices and he had one in his hand which he stuck in her pocket as she rushed away. Where that led him is almost beyond belief.
Her family was rich; very rich. He was turned away, aggressively, by security, so was interested when his lawyer called him with an interesting proposal from them. He went, and the Arthur, the lawyer, was waiting for him. That started an investigation that lead in and around many things in his past. It involved his dead partner who had also been his fiancee; his wife and son; a kidnapping and return to the family eleven years later; as well as all kinds of other twists and turns. What a good book. It is the first Coben book I have read and I am asking myself, “Why?” Sami was an interesting character with a backstory and a current story, and stories in between. The plot was complex and well-thought-out. The assistance Sami received from a variety of people was heart-warming. And the conclusion and the after-conclusion where both things no one had seen coming. What a good book!
I was invited to read Nobody’s Fool by Grand Central Publishing. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #GrandCentralPublishing #HarlanCoben #NobodysFool
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
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
adventurous
funny
mysterious
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
Harlan Coben brings us a second novel starring Sami Kierce, a former Manhattan detective who lost his job because of inappropriate approaches to his investigations. I really enjoyed the plot, characters and writing in this novel. Coben never disappoints, but this time, he wowed me! Sami graduated from a prestigious private school where he was a scholarship student, then a prestigious college and is accepted to medical school. He is heading on a summer backpacking trip with very well-off friends from high school, having deferred his entry to medical school. While in Spain, he falls for Anna, a woman he meets in a bar, and they have a vacation fling that feels kind of serious to Sami. It ends badly and changes the entire trajectory of Sami's life.
Sami's first fiancé, another police officer, was murdered twenty years earlier. Thanks to his termination from the force, her convicted killer is being released based on Sami's conflict of interest in working on the investigation and assertions of wrongdoing. He is happily married, deeply in debt, has an infant son and works as a private investigator. He also teaches a pay as you go weekly class on crime solving, with each week's theme based on a Sherlock Holmes quote placed on the blackboard.
The class members are a hodgepodge of older women who try to solve cold cases online, an obviously wealthy guy who obviously plays golf, a woman Sami uses in some of his divorce investigations who is very poor and the unhoused, unhinged man she gives a sandwich each night. Three influencer type women round out the class, which has grown in recent weeks from a much smaller attendance rate. One night, twenty years after he last saw Anna, a woman stops in the doorway of his class and Sami is convinced it is Anna. This starts him on the road to finding out where she seems to live, who owns the well guarded mansion she apparently lives in, a cold case mystery surrounding the kidnapping of a daughter of the house, and just in general, Remi's getting involved when he shouldn't. Simultaneously, since his fiancé's alleged murderer was not pardoned, he might get retried. Sami wants to find new proof to nail him, but it's looking like they got the wrong guy.
In a great spirited move, Remi engages his most talented students in an advanced version of his course, kind of an adult group of Baker Street Irregulars. There is a definite need to follow the bouncing ball in the two very much fun and sometimes scary investigations. The ending was a great surprise but the clues were there. The characters were a lot of fun. The writing was Coben at his best which is the best!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I admit that I am fairly new to Harlen Coban's books but I am now addicted, unfortunately I hadn't read the first book in the series so some of the background was missing, my bad, but it didn't spoil the my enjoyment, I was gripped from the first page.
Sami Kierce was dismissed from the police force for misdemeanours, he was now earning a living as a PI and teaching collage students in criminology.
Two stories run simultaneously in this book, the first is Tad Grayson who had just been released from a life sentence in jail for, twenty years ago, murdering Sami's fiance, Sami needed to prove that he did indeed murder Nichole.........or did he ? had Sami put away an innocent man ?
Mystery number two was when a woman walked into one of Sami's classes, a woman who was dead, a woman who twenty years ago, as a student visiting Spain, Sami had enjoyed a five day fling, a woman who he had woken up next to covered in blood with a bloody knife in his hand, a woman who promptly disappeared from his classroom.........Sami needed to find her, he needed answers.
This story has more twists than a corkscrew, it has nail biting suspense, it has secrets that can be bought and everything else inbetween, forget eating, forget sleeping, you wont be able to put this book down.
I found the characters very likeable and easy to connect with, I love the relationship that Sami has with his wife and son, I love how he used his unlikely band of mishmash, but eager, students to help solve his crimes but most of all, I loved that I had no idea how the story would end.
Thank you Net Gallery for this ARC, my review is voluntary.
Sami Kierce was dismissed from the police force for misdemeanours, he was now earning a living as a PI and teaching collage students in criminology.
Two stories run simultaneously in this book, the first is Tad Grayson who had just been released from a life sentence in jail for, twenty years ago, murdering Sami's fiance, Sami needed to prove that he did indeed murder Nichole.........or did he ? had Sami put away an innocent man ?
Mystery number two was when a woman walked into one of Sami's classes, a woman who was dead, a woman who twenty years ago, as a student visiting Spain, Sami had enjoyed a five day fling, a woman who he had woken up next to covered in blood with a bloody knife in his hand, a woman who promptly disappeared from his classroom.........Sami needed to find her, he needed answers.
This story has more twists than a corkscrew, it has nail biting suspense, it has secrets that can be bought and everything else inbetween, forget eating, forget sleeping, you wont be able to put this book down.
I found the characters very likeable and easy to connect with, I love the relationship that Sami has with his wife and son, I love how he used his unlikely band of mishmash, but eager, students to help solve his crimes but most of all, I loved that I had no idea how the story would end.
Thank you Net Gallery for this ARC, my review is voluntary.
I was so excited to get a copy of Nobody’s Fool. I love Harlan Coben and I loved Fool Me Once(first Sami Kielce book). While you don’t have to read the first one to read this one I recommend it, it was so good.
Nobody’s Fool is full of mystery, family drama, lies, and deceit. It was a wonderful mystery(more mystery than thriller in my eyes) book. Right from the first pages it takes you on a crazy ride. I was hooked from the first page. As always Harlan delivered a 5 ⭐️ read. Ok, I am biased, as he is one of my favorite authors.
Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for a honest review.
Nobody’s Fool is full of mystery, family drama, lies, and deceit. It was a wonderful mystery(more mystery than thriller in my eyes) book. Right from the first pages it takes you on a crazy ride. I was hooked from the first page. As always Harlan delivered a 5 ⭐️ read. Ok, I am biased, as he is one of my favorite authors.
Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for a honest review.
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
First, a big thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Nobody’s Fool is the second book in the Detective Sami Kierce series, but will work very well as a stand-alone. The past and present day collide and, as he tries to find the answers of what happened way back when, he finds himself knee deep in mystery, secrets, lies, revelations, and danger!
As night school teacher, Sami has his class looking into a cold case, Sami is seeking answers for an event that left him reeling and with lifelong questions ultimately changing the trajectory of his life.
There are twists, turns, and revelations. The ending was definitely a complete surprise – I never saw it coming.
Nobody’s Fool is the second book in the Detective Sami Kierce series, but will work very well as a stand-alone. The past and present day collide and, as he tries to find the answers of what happened way back when, he finds himself knee deep in mystery, secrets, lies, revelations, and danger!
As night school teacher, Sami has his class looking into a cold case, Sami is seeking answers for an event that left him reeling and with lifelong questions ultimately changing the trajectory of his life.
There are twists, turns, and revelations. The ending was definitely a complete surprise – I never saw it coming.