Review: WIN by Harlan Coben

Earlier this month, Harlan Coben’s latest mystery/thriller was released. A fan of the author’s earlier work, I was eager to read WIN and am happy to share my review with you today.

Description*

Over twenty years ago, the heiress Patricia Lockwood was abducted during a robbery of her family’s estate, then locked inside an isolated cabin for months. Patricia escaped, but so did her captors — and the items stolen from her family were never recovered. 

Until now. On the Upper West Side, a recluse is found murdered in his penthouse apartment, alongside two objects of note: a stolen Vermeer painting and a leather suitcase bearing the initials WHL3. For the first time in years, the authorities have a lead — not only on Patricia’s kidnapping, but also on another FBI cold case — with the suitcase and painting both pointing them toward one man.

Windsor Horne Lockwood III — or Win, as his few friends call him — doesn’t know how his suitcase and his family’s stolen painting ended up with a dead man. But his interest is piqued, especially when the FBI tells him that the man who kidnapped his cousin was also behind an act of domestic terrorism — and that the conspirators may still be at large. The two cases have baffled the FBI for decades, but Win has three things the FBI doesn’t: a personal connection to the case; an ungodly fortune; and his own unique brand of justice. 

* as appears on Amazon

My Review

In this novel, the story is told from the point of view of Win Lockwood, an enigmatic character who emerges from the shadows in several of this author’s Myron Bolitar novels, however whose backstory was never divulged. Win is a complex character – his violent nature and the liberties he takes in dispensing his idea of justice counter the traditional sense of what a good guy is. How can identify with a protagonist who has a thirst for violence, who leverages his wealth and social standing to get what he wants? Well, somehow as the story unfolds and we learn about his family and their past, and we view his actions on the backdrop of persons whose crimes and propensity for cruelty are truly unfathomable, our perspective shifts a bit. This book is all the multi-faceted Win – the good and the bad, the violent and the benevolent, and made for a fascinating read. The plot was fast-paced, with surprising twists and a healthy dose of tension that kept those pages turning.

FTC Disclosure: I received an advance reader copy of this book from Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley. This has not affected the content of my review in any way.