7.8 /10 1 Votes
Language English Pages 304 OCLC 751790408 Genre Thriller Country United States of America | 3.9/5 Goodreads Series Mickey Bolitar series ISBN 978-1-4091-2445-0 Originally published 15 September 2011 Followed by Seconds Away Page count 304 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Media type Print (Hardback, Paperback) Similar Harlan Coben books, Thriller books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shelter is the first novel of the "Mickey Bolitar" young adult series by American crime writer Harlan Coben. The novel was first published on September 15, 2011 through Orion Books.
Contents
Plot
Mickey Bolitar moves in with his uncle Myron after his dad had died in a car crash and his mom was in rehab for drugs. On Mickey's first day of school, he met Ashley. Soon afterward, Ashley disappears, and Mickey gets the help of two unpopular kids, Ema and Spoon, to try to find Ashley. Mickey Bolitar has a lot on his mind. His father is dead, his mom is a recovering drug addict and his kinda-sorta girlfriend is nowhere to be found. Then the Bat Lady, an old women living in a dilapidated house on the corner of Hobart Gap Road and Pine – named as such by the local children who use her as a myth to scare each other – opens her front door, points at Mickey and tells him that his father is still alive.
This kick-starts an investigation by Mickey that eventually sees him breaking and entering into the Bat Lady’s house out of sheer desperation, which then puts him on the radar of a mysterious man who drives a black car with tinted windows and always wear aviator sunglasses… Running parallel to this mystery is yet another: the sudden disappearance of Mickey’s girlfriend Ashley, who joined school at the same time and has now disappeared without a trace. Bizarrely, the house she registered with is occupied by a childless couple. Perhaps even more odd, the two mysteries – Mickey’s dad’s death and his girlfriend’s disappearance – seem to be frequently overlapping…
Reception
Geoff Adams, for the Otago Daily Times, found that the novel provided "mystery, suspense and thrills enough" and concluded that "you will enjoy reading it to find out more. And it is not too grisly." The Irish Independent stated that, while it is a series aimed at teenagers, "older folk will love this cracking new series, too." Kirkus Reviews stated that the novel "benefits greatly from [Coben's] trademark crackerjack pace and multi-layered plotting." They found that the short attention span of the protagonist was "both age appropriate and believable" and that Mickey Bolitar's "mother's struggle with drug addiction adds poignancy" to the novel. In conclusion, they found it to be "a not-bad-at-all entry into the teen market for this adult author."