OK, this time I publish in English, because too much is too much.
After reading the last Myron Bolitar and the first Mickey Bolitar (which actually follow each other), I had already been disappointed (critic here, in French though). So I thought I’d give a try to one of his thrillers I hadn’t read yet, Miracle Cure (Remède Mortel in French).
Where to begin ? The characters are so over the top that they’re not believable, the plot is so Hollywood-like that there is absolutely no surprise, never, not once, even the writing (which I used to love) is just average and doesn’t have the humor and wit Harlan Coben once and more than once charmed me with.
So what happened ? Too much success, too much pressure to release new books too quickly ? Did he actually use a ghost writer as so many best-selling authors now do to increase output ? I don’t know and frankly, I don’t care, either way, the result is disappointing.
How come that so many authors get sloppy after a while ? How often can we say after the 10th, 15th, 20th title : « he’s still got it » ?
Not often enough.
Can you read? On the very first page it says that MIRACLE CURE is a reprint of an old book published more than twenty years ago.
I can, but you probably can’t read French, otherwise you’d know I read on Kindle for iPad, which jumps straight to the first page of the book, skipping any such notice.
Thanks for letting me know. So he was bad, got great, and then bad again (the Mickey Bolitar one).
Are you aware that the Mickey Bolitar book was written for teenagers?
Absolutely, the « young adult » thing was clear. I therefore understood that no Win-like situation (especially with Yu and Mee) was described, but not why the writing got so common, or the plot so thin…