All that is about to change...because of a promise.

The school year is almost over. Anxious families await word of college acceptances. In these last pressure-cooker months of high school, some kids will make the all-too- common and all-too-dangerous mistake of drinking and driving. But Myron is determined to help keep his friends’ children safe, and so he makes two neighborhood girls promise him: If they are ever in a bind but are afraid to call their parents, they must call him.

Several nights later, the call comes at 2:00 am, and true to his word, Myron picks up one of the girls in midtown Manhattan and drives her to a quiet cul-de-sac in New Jersey where she says her friend lives.

The next day, the girl’s parents discover that their daughter is missing. And that Myron was the last person to see her. Desperate to fulfill a well-intentioned promise turned nightmarishly wrong, Myron races to find her before she’s gone forever. But his past will not be buried so easily - for trouble has always stalked him, and his loved ones often suffer. Now Myron must decide once and for all who he is and what he will stand up for if he is to have any hope of saving a young girl’s life.

Promise Me

FROM OUR EDITORS

For six years, Myron Bolitar has walked the straight and narrow. In his new Good Samaritan role, he asks neighborhood teens to call him if they're in a bind and afraid to contact their parents. When one local girl calls for help several nights later, Myron doesn't hesitate to comply. He picks up the girl in midtown Manhattan and leaves her off in a peaceful-looking cul-de-sac in New Jersey. The next day, the girl's parents realize that their daughter is missing and that the last person seen with her was Myron Bolitar....

FROM THE PUBLISHER

It has been six years since entertainment agent Myron Bolitar last played superhero. In six years he hasn't thrown a punch. He hasn't held, much less fired, a gun. He hasn't threatened or been threatened. He hasn't called his friend Win, still the scariest man he knows, to back him up or get him out of trouble. In the past six years, none of his clients have been murdered-a real positive for his business.

But all that is about to change. Because of the simple urge to protect two neighborhood high-school girls from the all-too-dangerous and all-too-common mistake of getting in a car with a drunk driver, Myron has them make him a promise: If they are ever in a bind but are afraid to call their parents, they should call him rather than get in a car with someone who's been drinking. Several nights later, the call comes at 2:00 am, and true to his word, Myron picks up one of the girls in midtown Manhattan and drives her to a quiet cul-de-sac in New Jersey where she says her friend lives.

The next day, the girl's parents discover that their daughter is missing. And that Myron was the last person to see her. Now, in a desperate attempt to fulfill a well-intentioned promise gone nightmarishly wrong, Myron must become a hero again to save a young girl's life.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Last seen in bestseller Coben's Darkest Fear (2000), Myron Bolitar, former basketball star (Boston Celtics) turned sports and entertainment agent and occasional knight in shining armor, is back in fighting form in his action-packed eighth thriller. For the past six years Myron has been leading a quiet life, much of it at his parents' old house in Livingston, N.J. A new girlfriend, Ali Wilder, a 9/11 widow, is helping to bring him out of his shell. Concerned that Ali's teenage daughter, Erin, and Erin's friend, Aimee Biel, might fall in with the wrong crowd, Myron gives them his contact information in case either of them feels she needs help. Aimee later calls him in the middle of the night for a lift to a friend's house, on condition that her request remain a secret. When Aimee turns up missing in circumstances mirroring those surrounding another vanished girl, Bolitar himself becomes a suspect in her disappearance and must use his wits and martial arts skills to uncover the truth. Coben fans will find much to enjoy in this well-crafted suspense novel, which has a startling final twist. (Apr. 25) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

After six years of spinning jaw-dropping stand-alone thrillers, Coben brings back his sports agent-make that everything agent-Myron Bolitar (Darkest Fear, 2000, etc.) for an encore. Overhearing high-school senior Erin Wilder, his current ladylove's daughter, sharing confidences with her friend Aimee Biel about getting driven by wasted friends, Myron Bolitar promises both girls that if they ever need a ride, they can call him and he'll pick them up, no questions asked. All too soon he gets a chance to deliver. Aimee phones him from midtown Manhattan, where he just happens to be staying, and asks him to drive her to suburban New Jersey. Myron obliges but pushes a bit too hard with the questions, and Aimee vanishes into a strange house. The next day she's still missing, and in jig time the police, armed with Myron's credit-card slips and EZ-Pass records, come calling. It turns out that Myron's not a credible suspect. But because everybody connects Aimee's disappearance to that of fellow student Katie Rochester three months ago, Myron's on the hook with some serious people, from Aimee's parents, who beg him to bring her home, to Katie's mobbed-up dad, who's too proud to beg but has other ways of getting him to cooperate. As usual, Coben piles on the plot twists, false leads, violent set pieces and climactic surprises with the unfocused intensity that have made his thrillers (The Innocent, 2005, etc.) such a hot ticket. Book-of-the-Month Club/Mystery Guild/Literary Guild/Doubleday Book Club main selection