Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben

Paperback 1995, 343 pages
Sydney, Australia

This is a simple plot made unnecessarily complicated. The disappearance of Kathy Culver and the murder of her father Adam were the main mysteries to be solved. It turns out Adam was trying to lure out the killer by mailing compromising photographs of Kathy to possible suspects. Myron Bolitar, a sports agent trained as a lawyer and was a former FBI agent, was asked by Kathy's boyfriend Christian Steele – who was his client – to help. If the world is not small enough, Myron used to date Jessica Culver, Kathy's sister. The investigation ended up going in many different directions, opening up many old wounds, caused the death of Kathy's college roommate, and eventually led to a trap that led to the capture of the killer, who turns out to be Christian Steele himself. Christian killed Kathy when he found out about her past which came into being because she discovered an affair between her mother and a good family friend. In the end it is a wonder that the story can be finished in “only” 343 pages.

Despite all my misgivings, this was an easy book to read, and it was reasonably suspenseful that I thought of staying up late to finish it, but not enough that I actually did so. I did finish it while sitting at the Manly Beach, though.

I rate it above average.