Myron Bolitar was an All-American basketball star at Duke and a first-round draft pick for the Boston Celtics, destined for NBA stardom. A freak accident in a preseason scrimmage blew out his knee and ended his pro career before it began . . . so he worked as an undercover agent for the FBI, got a law degree from Harvard, and settled down as a sports agent in a one-man office on Park Avenue, New York City. His secretary/assistant is a slight, gorgeous Latina who's studying law but had a successful career as a pro wrestler under the name "Little Pocahontas." His girlfriend is a tall, more-than-gorgeous Anglo who's also a best-selling author. His best friend and quasi-partner is an independently wealthy bond trader who's also an expert marksman and an nth-degree master of taekwon-do. Myron--being a tough guy with a soft spot for clients, friends, or virtually anybody else with a problem--often functions as a latter-day Travis McGee: part private investigator and part freelance avenger.

You get the idea . . . we're not in Dennis Lehane territory here. This is slick, escapist mystery fiction at its best.

Fans of Robert Crais and Robert B. Parker will see echoes of Elvis Cole and Spenser in Myron and (perhaps more to the point) of Joe Pike and Hawk (or maybe Vinnie Morris) in his sidekick Win (who's amusingly, and not inaccurately, dubbed "psycho-yuppie" by one of the minor characters in this book). Coben's books offer some of the same pleasures as Crais's and Parker's--serviceable plots, vivid characters, and crackling smartass dialogue. For my money, though, Coben has a slightly lighter touch than either. If you find yourself wishing that Parker had never discovered psychology, you'll probably find Coben particularly refreshing.

The plot of "Drop Shot" is satisfyingly complex without being byzantine: A washed-up former women's tennis star is shot dead outside the stadium during the U. S. Open, and a client of Myron's--a talented young black player who came up from the streets--is a suspect. It quickly becomes apparent that there's *way* more to the murder than meets the eye, and that nobody (including Myron's client) is telling everything they know. The detection is well-handled throughout (with one glaring exception when a key witness goes, at the drop of a hat, from stonewalling Myron to giving him great slabs of information) and the revelations that wrap up the mystery are credible enough to be satisfying. The humor is sometimes a little broader than it needs to be, and Win's skills sometimes a little more perfect than they ought to be, but not enough to upset the balance of the story.

"Drop Shot" won't teach you anything profound about the human condition, but it's a well-told story with characters who I'm actively looking forward to meeting again.