Chapter One


Otto Burke, the Wizard of Schmooze, raised his game another level.

"Come on, Myron," he urged with neoreligious fervor. "I'm sure we can come to an understanding here. You give a little. We give a little. The Titans are a team. In some larger sense I would like all of us to be a team. You included. Let's be a real team, Myron. What do you say?"

Myron Bolitar steepled his fingers. He had read somewhere that steepled fingers made you look like a thoughtful person. He felt foolish.

"I'd like nothing more, Otto," he said, returning the pointless volley for the umpteenth time. "Really I would. But we've given as much as we can. It's your turn now."

Otto nodded vigorously, as if he had just heard some philosophical whimsy that put Socrates to shame. He tilted his head, angling the painted-on smile toward his team's general manager. "Larry, what do you think?"

Taking his cue, Larry Hanson pounded the conference table with a fist hairy enough to be a gerbil. "Bolitar can go to hell!" he shouted, playing enraged to the hilt. "You hear me, Bolitar? You understand what I'm telling you? Go to hell."

"Go to hell," Myron repeated with a nod. "Got it."

"You being a wiseass with me? Huh? Answer me, dammit! You being a wiseass?"

Myron looked at him. "You have a poppy seed stuck in your teeth."

"Goddamn wiseass."

"And you're beautiful when you're angry. Your whole face lights up."

Larry Hanson's eyes widened. He swung his line of vision toward his boss, then back to Myron. "You're out of your league here, Bolitar. And you fucking know it."

Myron said nothing. The truth of the matter was, Larry Hanson was partially right. Myron was out of his league. He had been in sports representation for only two years now. Most of his clients were borderline cases--guys who were lucky to make the cut and grabbed the league's minimum. And football was far from his specialty. He had only three NFL players, only one of whom was a starter. Now Myron sat across from thirty-one-year-old wunderkind Otto Burke, the youngest owner in the NFL, and Larry Hanson, former-football-legend-turned-exec, negotiating a contract that even in his inexperienced hands would be the biggest rookie contract in NFL history.

Yes, he--Myron Bolitar--had landed Christian "Hot Prop" Steele. Two-time Heisman trophy-winning quarterback. Three straight AP and UPI number-one rankings. All-American four years in a row. If that wasn't enough, the kid was an endorsement wet dream. An A student, good-looking, articulate, polite, and white (hey, it mattered).

Best of all, he was Myron's.

"The offer is on the table, gentlemen," Myron continued. "We think it's more than fair."

Otto Burke shook his head.

"It's a load of crap!" Larry Hanson shouted. "You're a goddamn idiot, Bolitar. You're going to flush this kid's career down the toilet."

Myron spread his arms. "How about a group hug?"

Larry was about to offer up another expletive, but Otto stopped him with a raised hand. In Larry's playing days Dick Butkus and Ray Nitzchke couldn't stop him with body blows. Now this one-hundred-fifty-pound Harvard grad could silence him with but a wave.

Otto Burke leaned forward. He hadn't stopped smiling, hadn't stopped the hand gestures, hadn't stopped the eye contact--like an Anthony Robbins Personal Power infomercial come to life. Disconcerting as all hell. Otto was a small, fragile-looking man with the tiniest fingers Myron had ever seen. His hair was dark and heavy-metal long,...

 

In this first entry in Coben's popular Myron Bolitar mystery series, murders and other felonies can be traced back to moments well before the crimes in question occurred, when people acted in a selfish or hypocritical manner, or one way or another didn't do the right thing. This humanistic approach adds depth to a story that is involving to begin with. Marosz performs capably, delivering sports agent and investigator Bolitar's wisecracks and asides with just the right amount of dry detachment and his more serious pronouncements with the appropriate level of solemnity. Marosz has fun with the upper crust WASP accent of Bolitar's entertaining but deadly partner, Win, and also does well with our hero's secretary Esperanza, a female ex-wrestler of Latin descent. J.P.M. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

 

"A mystery thriller with all the right stuff, intrigue, suspense, romance and humor...Coben keeps you in suspense from beginning to end."

 

"Like fellow wise-cracking P.I.'s Spenser and Elvis Cole, Myron Bolitar is great fun in the best hard-boiled tradition."

 

Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben
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