Harlan Coben's fictional alter ego, Myron Bolitar, gets the adventure -- but Coben got the girl

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - "Myron is me, but with wish fulfillment," Harlan Coben was saying on the phone from his Ridgewood, N.J., home, which he shares with his pediatrician wife, Anne, and their four children.

The mystery writer was explaining his signature character, the always-captivating Myron Bolitar, an "accidental" PI who relishes wisecracking but possesses a kind heart and generous nature. That is, until his back is against the wall. Then you'd best stand aside.

Coben's name seems to be everywhere these days, and he certainly holds the right credentials for his chosen genre _ an Edgar (for "Fade Away"), a Shamus ("Drop Shot") and an Anthony ("Deal Breaker").

In Coben's fictional world, the 6-foot-4 Myron was a basketball phenom at Duke University. The Boston Celtics made him a first-round draft pick, but an injury soon ended his career on the professional hardwood. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he opened MP Reps and became an agent for professional athletes, later adding artists and writers to the roster. His "cases" usually result from doing favors for his clients or friends, and have been recorded by Coben in nine outings since 1995.

Myron lives in the converted basement of his parents' New Jersey house, but spends a lot of "play time" in the sumptuous apartment of his best friend, Windsor Horne Lockwood III, better known as Win. Win _ a slightly psycho, woman-crazy billionaire and martial artist _ maintains quarters in the historic Dakota Apartments in Manhattan, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono once resided.

"Between the two (residences), Myron's got it pretty good right now," Coben said with a chuckle.

The newest Myron adventure, "Long Lost" (Dutton, $27.95, 384 pages), is out this week.

"I played Division III college basketball but wasn't nearly as good as Myron," Coben said. "He's faster and stronger, and he's certainly a better fighter.

"I do have him beaten in two areas, though. I'm a better dancer and I'm slightly wiser in the ways of women. His love life is something of a disaster (Myron is dumped by girlfriend Ali near the start of the novel), while I've been with (the woman who became) my wife since college.

"I have what Myron wants and Myron has what I want," Coben continued. "Myron's goal in life is to get married and move to the 'burbs and have kids and back-yard barbecues _ the kind of life his parents lived. He hasn't gotten that, and I have it.

"On the other hand, my parents died young, and Myron's relationship with his parents is what I imagined I would be having with my own parents, had they survived. Other private eyes have either terrible relationships with their parents or no relationship at all, but that's not the life most people live and my readers have responded to that. Myron's parents are two of the most popular characters in the series. Sometimes I get very sentimental writing their scenes."

Many of Coben's plots _ in and out of the Myron series _ play out in suburban settings, where the tragedies are comparatively small but can have devastating consequences.

"Long Lost" departs from such regionalism and moves readers to Paris and London for most of the action. Key to the plot are the pursuit of our heroes by terrorists and members of clandestine governmental agencies; the sciences of DNA and embryo transplant; and the cryogenic storage of stem cells and umbilical cord blood.

At the book's conclusion, Myron comes face to face with the answer to all the mystery _ "a hell-spawned monstrosity," he calls it.

"I'd always prided myself in writing about trouble in suburbia," Coben said. "I never did books on international conspiracies and terrorism. Then I said to myself, 'Why the heck not?' And I came up with the idea (for 'Long Lost') where I could do both. That is, play to my strength with the things I love _ (in this case) the gentle heart and soul of Myron and (love interest) Terese Collins _ and then have it explode in ways I don't think readers will expect."

For those who've never read a Myron book, Coben wisely weaves in enough back story to allow "Long Lost" to stand on its own.

"There's nothing you need to know (about Myron) before you come to this book. I'm hoping readers will want to go back (to previous books) and discover how Myron arrived at this stage in his life."

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There's a liberal peppering of humor in the Myron series _ "It's his defense mechanism, how he copes with life" _ but the lighter scenes can unexpectedly segue into violence. That's especially so in "Long Lost," which includes tense scenes of fistfights, gunfights, torture and murder. Myron is surrounded by mayhem.

"The crimes in all my books are quite serious," Coben said. "In 'Long Lost' (the drama) starts as a small but tremendous tragedy in the life of one woman, and then spreads into a global conspiracy."

One of Coben's trademarks is his many references to pop culture, mostly from the 1970s and '80s _ and sometimes from decades before and after those. Let's count a few in "Long Lost": The songs "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol, "Save a Prayer" by Duran Duran, "Venus" by Bananarama and "Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer. The films "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", "Lethal Weapon," "Mary Poppins" and "The Breakfast Club," and the TV series "The Golden Girls." Plus iconic figures Marilyn Monroe, Billy Idol and Peggy Lee.

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"I'm 47, so those are my references," Coben explained.

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There's even a clever reference to one of his own books, situated in a scene in Paris. Myron and Win are snacking on foie gras at Kong restaurant in the Louis Vuitton Building when Myron says, "This place looks familiar."

Win replies, "It was featured in a French film with Francois Cluzet and Kristin Scott Thomas. They sat at this very table."

Though Coben doesn't name the movie, it's "Tell No One," from his 2001 standalone novel of the same name. It's a thriller about a pediatrician whose wife is murdered by a serial killer _ or was she?

The novel became an award-winning, French-made movie in 2006, a box office hit. It was screened at more than 100 theaters in the United States last year and became the top-grossing foreign movie. The DVD was released Tuesday.

Any other movies coming up? "I'm working with Fox Television on the Myron series, and I'm writing the pilot for an original series for TNT," Coben said. "I want to tell stories in different venues, but with Hollywood I don't count on anything until I'm actually at the premiere."

Coben paused and added, "At the end of the day I'm still a novelist. I treat the writing of books as a job. I'm big on working and being productive or I don't feel right.

"One of my favorite quotes on the subject is from a Philip Roth novel, in which he was quoting somebody else, who said, 'Amateurs wait for the muse to arrive; the rest of us just get to work.'"

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Another of Coben's trademarks is the strange and fascinating characters who surround Myron. Win, for example. Will fans ever see a book in which Win is the lead character and Myron is secondary?

"I don't think so, though there's been a lot of talk about it. Win is the sidekick, if you will. He fits into that classic description of the buddy-buddy thing _ Batman and Robin, (novelist Robert B. Parker's) Spenser and Hawk, Holmes and Watson. I love that aspect, and I think Myron and Win give it a different spin."

One last thing: Yoo-hoo, a chocolate-flavored drink first introduced in the 1920s and now manufactured in New Jersey, is Myron's favorite. Yoo-hoo gets plenty of product placement in the Myron series.

"At almost every book-signing somebody brings me bottles of Yoo-hoo," Coben said, sounding a bit mystified. "Myron drinks Yoo-hoo _ not me _ but I don't have the heart to tell (the fans) I'm not Myron. Though there are worse people to be."

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BOLITAR BOOKS

Harlan Coben debuted the Myron Bolitar series in 1995. The titles are:

"Long Lost" (2009)

"Promise Me" (2006)

"Darkest Fear" (2000)

"The Final Detail" (1999)

"One False Move" (1998)

"Back Spin" (1997)

"Fade Away" (1996)

"Drop Shot" (1996)

"Deal Breaker" (1995)

Coben's standalone thrillers are:

"Hold Tight" (2008)

"The Woods" (2007)

"The Innocent" (2005)

"Just One Look" (2004)

"No Second Chance" (2003)

"Gone For Good" (2002)

"Tell No One" (2001)

"Miracle Cure" (1991)

"Play Dead" (1990)

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© 2009, The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.).