Back Spin

Back Spin is a crime novel by the American writer Harlan Coben, published in 1997. It is the fourth in his series about Myron Bolitar, a sports agent who solves crimes on the side.

The book opens at the U.S. Open, where Jack Coldren, a veteran professional who has never won a major, is leading the tournament. His wife Linda is a golfer too, and it is she who asks Bolitar for help, because their son has been taken and the people holding him have not said what they want.

Bolitar starts looking into the family and finds that the present trouble is tied to the last time Coldren nearly won the same tournament, twenty-three years before. The investigation moves through the wealthy suburbs of the Main Line and into much less respectable places, and it becomes clear that a number of people connected to the golfer have reasons to lie to him. His friend and business partner, Win, declines to help at first, for family reasons of his own.