In Harlan Coben’s series of books following sports agent Myron Bolitar, there have been some hits and misses along the way, but in general, it has been a fun ride filled with humor.  Sure, at times, it gets a little unreal, but that’s part of the fun.  Myron isn’t quite a superhero when he is solving mysteries his clients and friends find themselves involved in, but sometimes his adventures get a little outlandish.

In Darkest Fear, a woman from Myron’s past, Emily Downing, re-enters his life and announces that the one-night stand they had just before her wedding resulted in her son, Jeremy.  Jeremy is now dying and needs a bone marrow transplant.  It seems a donor has been found, but for some reason will not come forward.  Emily turns to Myron to locate the donor and get him to come forward.

Myron’s head is reeling.  Emily agrees to a DNA test, but while they wait it’s a race against time to locate the donor.  Along with his best friend, Win, and business partner Esperanza, they find themselves involved in a plot involving a serial killer and allegations of plagiarism.  Not only does he have to find the bone marrow donor, but he ends up unraveling a cold-case murder in the process.

The first few books in the Bolitar series had intrigue centered around Myron’s sports clients.  Now it seems Coben is turning it around to have the intrigue surrounding Myron himself.  The business and that angle take a backseat.  They used to describe it in soap operas when a baby was born and subsequently disappeared until it was old enough to start causing real trouble as “being dumped in the umbrella stand.” Well, Myron’s sports-rep business is in the umbrella stand.

I’d understand that Myron’s personal life has gone through great changes lately, and he’s feeling the need to connect to both his past and his future.  Dropping a son he didn’t know he had into the mix does that without him having to get involved in another relationship.  It feels a bit clichéd and just as convenient as when the kids show up in those soap operas.

The mystery and intrigue is pretty good.  I enjoyed seeing where it would go, although I did have something of an idea.  Coben is starting to have a harder time surprising those of us who have read this series, something that will get worse down the line.  Although Myron and Win buddy up quite a bit, there’s less of the warmth that there was in earlier books.  The same goes for Esperanza.  Where it used to seem like the three of them worked well together, now it feels like she is being left behind to handle everything at the office so they can be off playing superheroes.

I did enjoy Darkest Fear, but it was a weak entry in the series.  I think the books involving Myron Bolitar have become more sporadic because Coben is having a hard time with him too.  This is just all right, and not nearly as good as earlier entries.

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