Promise Me (2006)

Six years have passed since Harlan Coben mainstay Myron Bolitar — basketball star turned sports agent turned part-time PI — appeared in print, and apparently for good reason. In those six years, we learn, Myron ''hadn't thrown a punch... hadn't held, much less fired, a gun.'' But after the 18-year-old daughter of a dear childhood friend goes missing and it looks like it's all Myron's fault, Coben's appealingly world-weary and wisecracking hero returns to his old rhythms. Punches are thrown and guns are fired, but what satisfies more in Promise Me are Coben's skillful pacing and truly surprising turns of plot. Even the fact that Myron's new squeeze is a 9/11 widow is handled with the lightest of touches. Now, that ain't easy.