Nobody’s Fool

• Author: Harlan Coben
• Genre: Mystery/Thriller
• Publication Date: March 25, 2025
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Series: Detective Sami Kierce #2

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for providing me with an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

A year after the devastating events that took place in Fool Me Once, Harlan Coben’s bestselling thriller and #1 Netflix series, a secret from former Detective Sami Kierce’s college days comes back to haunt him. Present day is hard enough for the disgraced Kierce, but his past isn’t through with him yet…

MALAGA – 2000

Sami Kierce, a young man backpacking in Spain with friends, wakes up one morning. He is covered in blood. There’s a knife in his hand. Beside him, the body of a woman. Anna. Dead. He doesn’t know what happened. He begins to scream.

NEW YORK CITY – 2025

Kierce, now a disgraced detective, is teaching night classes when he recognizes a familiar face in the crowd. Anna. It’s unmistakably her. As soon as Kierce makes eye contact with her, she runs. For Kierce there is no choice. He knows he must find this woman and solve the impossible mystery that has haunted his every waking moment since that day.

His investigation will bring him face-to-face with his past. Soon he discovers that some secrets should stay buried . . .

I had originally requested this book, and it wasn’t until I went to Goodreads that I discovered this was the second book in the series. I reviewed the first book, Fool Me Once, and still hadn’t made up my mind on what I think about Coben’s writing. There was one of his book adapted into a mini-series, and I was so impressed by it, but I had some conflicted thoughts about the previous book in this series.

This book is vastly different from the first. I never truly felt a connection to Sami Kierce before this book, and found myself wondering if I had missed something upon discovering that he is a Pakistani-American, because if there were any clues as to his ethnicity, maybe I just didn’t notice them. But even the basics about his appearance remained a blank in my usually-vivid imagination. 

I read this as an audiobook, narrated by Vikas Adam. The range of voices and tones that he was able to create believably is astounding. However, I didn’t like the way he narrated Kierce—the voice felt as though he was intentionally making it sound rougher than it was, and the speech came out as unnecessarily pressured to feel believable. It only happened when Adam voiced Kierce, and it made it hard for me to take his words seriously. I got ‘actor overplaying TV cop’ vibes from the narration.

Another thing that made it hard for me to connect with Kierce was his privileged upbringing. He attended prestigious schools and had his entire life mapped out for him, just like the other privileged guys that he was backpacking through Europe with after college. Upon returning from Europe, Kierce was set to start medical school and start working towards a prestigious career. And while he didn’t show the same degree of entitlement as his peers, when push comes to shove and he found himself waking up in a bed next to a body covered in blood, he is able to escape easily and avoid any legal consequences. However, there are other types of consequences, and Kierce has been walking around for quite some time with a heavy load of guilt. The events of that time altered the course of his life trajectory, as he continues to punish himself by sabotaging any chance of success he has.

The plot was another one that was so interesting, but didn’t translate well in action for me. Judging from the 4.37 star average rating on Goodreads, I’m in the minority. This is one of those times where the author’s writing just isn’t a good fit for me, and this is just my subjective opinion. I will say that I love how his writing translates to the big screen, and that maybe I’d like this more if I watched the show, in one of the very rare instances where I prefer the show or movie over the book. The only two other times I felt that way were with the writing of Tolkien and with the Dexter series, mainly because the books were too scary and the show wasn’t as scary.

While this wasn’t a standout read for me, it wasn’t a bad read either. I always feel bad saying this, but I think it has a lot more to do with my own personal preferences than the book or the writing itself. 

Overall, this was a fast-paced read packed full of twists and turns, even if I had my own issues with the story. 

This might be a better fit if you:

• Read this in print or ebook format.
• Love the work of Harlan Coben.
• Enjoy a fast-paced thriller.
• Seek out series that are full of twists and turns, even if some of those veer into over-the-top territory.

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