Darkest Fear - Harlan Coben

“Darkest Fear” is one of those books that I bought because the story line sounded somewhat appealing and because the book was on sale in a clear-out. Although I had never heard of the author, Harlan Coben was noted to be a best selling author of the novel ‘No second chance’. Consequently I thought that this book would be, at the very least, an average piece of reading. I bought the book and I kept it for several months, before I was finally persuaded ...
...a business trip.

I first started this book on the way back from my business trip. My colleague, who was sitting opposite of me, took an interest in what I was reading. I confessed that I did not remember what the book was about, as I had bought it ages ago. All the more shocked was I to commence reading the book and starting to feel increasingly uncomfortable about my choice – the first thirty to fourty pages made this seem like some ... more

“Darkest Fear” is one of those books that I bought because the story line sounded somewhat appealing and because the book was on sale in a clear-out. Although I had never heard of the author, Harlan Coben was noted to be a best selling author of the novel ‘No second chance’. Consequently I thought that this book would be, at the very least, an average piece of reading. I bought the book and I kept it for several months, before I was finally persuaded by a Ciao review to take it with me on a business trip.

I first started this book on the way back from my business trip. My colleague, who was sitting opposite of me, took an interest in what I was reading. I confessed that I did not remember what the book was about, as I had bought it ages ago. All the more shocked was I to commence reading the book and starting to feel increasingly uncomfortable about my choice – the first thirty to fourty pages made this seem like some kind of cheap sex novel that you would buy at the cash register in a supermarket. To give you a flavour:

“As a young coed she’d had long, kinky hair that always had that just-did-the-nasty muss to it, a crooked smile that could knock a movie up a rating, and a subconsciously undulating body that continuously flickered out the word sex like an old movie projector.”

It was language like that that made me blush and turn to the back of the book to reassure myself that I had not in fact picked up some kind of embarrasing book. I was quickly calmed down by the fact that the back of the cover revealed nothing of the like, and continued reading.

♦♦♦ The plot ♦♦♦

The book is the story of Myron Bolitar, a sports-agent at MB SportsReps. His career is somewhat going down the tubes and life is not that great in general. Sure, he has this woman in his life, a quite successful TV personality named Terese, but that is all a rather sad rebound relationship.

One day, his long-term girlfriend from college calls his office with an urgent request to see him. Myron is not very keen on seeing her, as there relationship had never been easy. In fact, Emily had broken up with Myron back then and then married his former friend Greg – only to cheat with Myron the night before she got married to Greg. Needless to say, Emily is a little messed up. At first Myron tries to avoid meeting up with Emily, but then he finally gives in – only to be presented with a shocking piece of news. Emily reveals that apparently she has a 13-year old son named Jeremy. And Jeremy is apparently a result of the one night of passion shared the night before her wedding to Greg.

The news is made more astounding by the fact that Jeremy is seriously ill and is on the verge of dying – unless he receives a bone marrow transplant. Emily begs Myron to help her in this matter. Emily reveals that they had found a matching bone marrow donor on the register, but that this donor had disappeared without a trace. She urges Myron to help her find the donor. If this should fail, she suggests the unthinkable to Myron – to create another child with his semen and her eggs to save Jeremy. As much as he would like to say ‘no’, Myron of course helps out, not least because he may be the father of this suffering child.

Myron soon embarks on an interesting journey of trying to find the bone marrow donor – and at the same time also considers pursuing the other option, though naturally, a lot more reluctantly. Along the way this bone marrow-hunting expedition brings a number of surprises – not least because he soon appears on the FBI radar that suspects Myron’s involvement of sorts in a kidnapping ordeal along the side of a reporter named Stan Gibbs.

♦♦♦ The main characters ♦♦♦

The great downfall of the book are its characters, who appear rather lifeless and faceless. They lacked character to such an extent, that I simply could not care about what was happening to them.

►Myron Bolitar◄

Myron, as mentioned above, is a sports agent who makes his money by trying to get sports personalities sponsorship and advertising deals. He is pretty much a bachelor, has never been lucky in love, and his newest partner Terese does not seem to be a likely soulmate. Myron used to be a sports personality himself, but his career was ended when Greg, who found out about the sexual encounter between Emily and Myron the night before his wedding, injured Myron so badly, that he had to give up pro-ball.

Myron comes across as pretty much an average joe, and he is so characterless that it is hard to paint a true picture of him.

►Emily Downing◄

Myron’s college sweetheart and somewhat of a sex kitten, as it would appear. The impression one gets is that she simply uses men to her advantage and to get what she wants. I pretty much imagine a big-breasted Bimbo, very fake looking, who spends most of her time in hair saloons and mail studios. She was married to Greg, but the marriage is on the rocks and the two are separated.

►Greg◄

Emily Downing’s soon-to-be ex-husband, who loves Jeremy more than anything in the world. Having been extremely hurt by the events before his wedding night, he has never quite forgiven his former friend and is at first very upset about Myron’s involvement in the quest for the bone marrow. He probably would not have agreed if it was not for the purpose of saving Jeremy’s life. Greg comes across as a bit of a rough man, tall and muscly, with a bit of an anger management problem. Yet, he also comes across as somewhat of a softy on the inside.

►Jeremy◄

Jeremy is Myron’s and Emily’s 13-year old son, who suffers from a bone marrow disease. Emily tries to stop Myron from meeting Jeremy, because she feels like Jeremy’s father figure should remain Greg. Consequently, we do not meet Jeremy till late in the book. This is rather unfortunate, because it makes one care so little about the whole process of obtaining the bone marrow to save Jeremy’s life. If he was met earlier in the story, there may have been more appeal to it. Funnily enough, Jeremy is one of the few characters with some soul – he is a bright and cute skinny boy with a good head on his shoulders.

►Stan Gibbs◄

The most character-less individual amongst all of them, Stan Gibbs is a budding reporter who apparently had first-hand access to a demented kidnapper and serial killer about whom he has written a best-selling book. The FBI, however, reckons that this book is plagarised and that Stan is indeed the kidnapper himself. When Myron comes across Stan in his hunt for the bone marrow, he quickly has the FBI on his trail himself and has a hard time convincing them that he has nothing to do with the whole story.

♦♦♦ My opinion ♦♦♦

As I said above, the first flaw in this book is the fact that the characters are so pointless and so boring, that you can never relate to any of them or care about any of them.

A second flaw is the huge amount of needless sub-plot. In the story line you often get these little sub-plots and facts about Myron that seem pointless and do not make you care about him any more than before. The whole relationship with Terese, for example, is only briefly touched upon and never really comes to a conclusion. From time to time you also meet some of his clients from his sports agency – which is also needless plot.

The third flaw is the actual plot itself – it just so drags on and on and never really gets you excited. The story has some 338 pages, and it took me until about page 275 to get any kind of thrill from it.

The fourth flaw is its predictability. Yes, there is supposed to be a twist in this book and there is indeed a twist, but it does not have much of a surprise effect, as any regular reader can easily see where the story is going.

The fifth flaw is its title. It is indeed very catchy and is trying to catch your attention. And there is a reason for the title –as deep inside the story there does lie something which, for many people, would seem like the ‘darkest fear’ they could have. However, as the plot and the character fails miserably to instill the fear in the reader, the title also does not seem very appropriate.

The book is written in simple language – and any reader with time on his hands should be able to read it in one or two days, but I found myself not caring enough to do so. I read the first 100 pages and then left the book for a few weeks before forcing myself to finish it.

If you are a bookworm and find this in the library or for £1.99, like I did, then you could be reading worse than this one. Go for it. But if you are pressed for time and are looking for a good read, then I would definitely give this a miss.

♦♦♦ What some of the critics said – and what I say ♦♦♦

“What sets Harlan Coben above the crowd are wit and … an entertaining plot” – Los Angeles Times Book review

Response: I could see neither wit nor entertainment value in this book!

“Fast action, snappy dialogue, and plenty of insuder hoops material make this a fast, enjoyable read” – Toronto Star

Response: This book was slow, the dialogue was not snappy and the read was boring.

“Coben … scores a hole in one! The characters are deftly etched and the details keenly observed.” – Publishers Weekly

Response: I do agree that Coben is great on some day-to-day detail and he does have some good descriptive writing, but he fails to give the detail to his characters.

♦♦♦ Further information ♦♦♦

Published by Orion
ISBN0 75284 919 0
Price: £6.99

 

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