ONE FALSE MOVE

Fast-talking sports agent Myron Bolitar won’t win any awards for baseball (since his Little League brushback) or basketball (thanks to his bum knee), but his paperback detective work has already won him an Anthony, a Shamus, and an Edgar. His hardcover debut dangles an appealing potential client in front of him—Brenda Slaughter, basketball star of the New York Dolphins—but there’s a catch: Before he can sign her, he has to protect her from the threats she’s been getting, and maybe even track down her missing parents (Dad’s been gone a week, Mom 20 years). What could anybody have against Brenda—unless it’s the mobsters who want to press her into defecting to a rival women’s league, or the wealthy and well-connected Arthur Bradford, the gubernatorial candidate determined to keep the truth about his wife’s ancient suicide under wraps, or all the New Jersey cops who are either on Bradford’s payroll or would like to be? Undaunted, Myron and his Spenser-inspired entourage—his bisexual assistant Esperanza Diaz, his financial-planning associate Windsor Horne Lockwood III (who, despite his blond complexion, probably shaves in front of a photo of Spenser’s buddy Hawk), and his ex-wrestler temp Big Cyndi, who doesn’t like to be called just Cyndi—take on every soul in New Jersey with a gun, a bank account, and a bad attitude, and uncover a satisfyingly complex tangle of skullduggery. Could Myron, who pushes his wisecracking charm hard, be any more tough and adorable? It’ll be a pleasure waiting for the next installment to find out.