As of most of Coben's books, this was a solid, fun read for me. I enjoyed the storyline and the pace, but some of the writing felt a little cheesy in a way that didn't quite hit as normally does. That said, I still really enjoyed it and I look forward to reading what Coben writes next! I also alternated with the audiobook and the narrator's voice was ok. It wasn't really my favorite, but I liked having the option to rotate between the book and the audio because I did want to keep the story going when I could!

Thank you NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and Grand Central Publishing for my advanced ebook/audio in exchange for an honest review.

4 1/2 stars

This book gives us a great deal of insight into Sami Kierce's history. We met his character in Fool Me Once but he wasn't the main character. In this book, he is a main player and we dig deep into his past.

Sami is married and has a child and has lost his position as a police officer due to some poor decisions. When he sees someone from his past, it pulls him back into some bad memories and events he has been haunted by for years. She happens to look just like the young woman he had a fling with years ago when he was backpacking through Spain. The same young woman who he thought was dead.

The mystery in this book takes many twists and turns and is cleverly done. I enjoy this author's writing a great deal.

Thank you to NetGalley for this early copy.

Sami and Anna met in Spain and had a drug-fueled vacation fling that ended when he woke up next to her dead body with a bloodied knife in his hand. He tries to report it to the police but they find no body so there are no charges. He hightailed it back to the U.D. This event changed the trajectory of his life and has haunted him for 22 years.

Twenty-two years later Sami is now a disgraced ex-NYPD cop working as a PI.
He also teaches a class, No Shit, Sherlock, to armchair sleuths. One night he looks up and sees Anna. 22 years older but unmistakably her. She runs but he follows her to an exclusive estate. Could it be Anna?

The same day, Sami finds out his former fiancée’s murderer will be released on a technicality, professing his innocence, and asking for his help to prove it.

As Sami and his star students from his class, investigates these two cases to discover the truth, he finds himself going down rabbit holes he never could have imagined. The action and revelations never let up.

What makes this story especially compelling are the characters. I love Sami’s wit & snark, his supportive, wise wife, and his colorful students.

There was a lot going on but the author expertly tied all the threads together with several shocking revelations. Well-done! Why not 5 stars? There were a few things the author inserted that made me go hmmm…. Why? When it did nothing to move the plot forward but made the author look oh so progressive.

But as a whole, a very enjoyable read that my reading buddy and I enjoyed.

I did not read book #1, which was made into a movie, and this one works as a standalone. I can only hope this one makes it to the screen as well. If so, I can’t wait to see who they cast as his students.

I don't know how I had never read anything by this author before. but what I do know now is that there is quite a backlog for me to read.
gripping, twisty, intense. once you get started, the book won't let you go until you turn the last page.

Nobody's Fool by Harlen Coben

Sami Kierce is many things. He is a frightened college boy, a drunk, a former cop, a grifter, husband, father, crusader and a teacher. Some of these roles are simultaneous. Down on his already questionable luck, Sami gets an ice cold blast of a frighteningly frigid encounter from his past. Someone Sami loved and someone who is dead fuel the mystery of this thriller.

Coben, once again, runs multiple intriguing plots to tantalize, tease, and torture you until you can reach the climaxes. This book has a plethora of bit players who add depth and color to the story. The Pink Panthers, Golf Gary, the Three Dead Hots, Wacky Raymond and more bring a wealth of mutability which is entertaining.

The idea of closure, secrets, vengeance and the settling issues whiffs through book. Integrity and wealthy seek a balance through Sami’s work. This had an intricate plot with wonderful characters and I highly recommend it.

Former Detective Sami Kierce, has led quite a life so far. His graduation from college and a backpack trip through Europe, with a stop in Spain opens him up to murder and mayhem. He meets the girl of his dreams goes off with her, and then one morning, a week into their whirlwind romance, he wakes up to find himself covered in blood and Anna dead. It's been a boozy drug filled week so the facts are certainly not clear but Sami knows he needs to hightail it out of there and he does returning to the US. As the years go by, the memories haunt him, derail his medical school plans, and he begins to question all he has been through.

Years later, a disgraced former NYPD detective, he turns to be a Private Investigator and teaching a group of people how to be investigators, when one night a woman enters his class, and he recognizes her. Then the chase is on, that leads Sami to many dark alleys, danger, and very wealthy people. Coupled in the mix is a man who was in prison for killing Sami's former finance is released on a technicality.

This is one of those fast action, could not put the book down type stories that had me dragging my kindle along everywhere. Truly a masterpiece of intrigue, persistence, and freedom from a world of worrying and regret.

There's a reason Harlan Coben is best-selling author and "Nobody's Fool" is the perfect example to showcase his masterful abilities.

"Nobody's Fool" creates a world that is both shocking and thrilling making for an absolute page turner. While this book is book 2 in the Detective Sami Kierce series, it feels that it would be possible to enjoy as a stand-alone.

From disgraced detective to night school teacher, Sami Kierce has had plenty of chaos in his life. When a mysterious woman walks into his classroom and then abruptly rushes back out, Kierce is forced to confront his past while solving a mystery in the present.

Thank you Grand Central Publishing for selecting me for this ARC. I enjoyed it.

A compelling thriller with true emotional resonance. Nobody’s Fool cements Sami Kierce as a memorable addition to Coben’s gallery of troubled yet heroic protagonists—nicely paced and satisfying, even as it nudges toward sequel setup.

If you've been craving a thriller that bites—and then lingers—grab this one.

I read this not knowing there was a Sami Kierce #1, but even still I enjoyed the characters and the story. What you think you know and what is real, becomes a big part of this book. I will watch for Sami Kierce #3.

Harlan Coben's Nobody's Fool delivers a quintessential Coben experience, packed with the signature plot twists that fans have come to expect and love. The story is undeniably intriguing, pulling you into a web of secrets and unexpected turns that keep you guessing.

While the narrative occasionally felt like it meandered, taking a few detours from the main path, these moments didn't detract significantly from the overall enjoyment. In fact, they often added layers of complexity that ultimately contributed to the surprising reveals. This is a genuinely fun and fast-paced read, perfect for those looking for a thrilling escape that will keep them on the edge of their seat until the very last page.

I have to admit this was my first Harlan Coben thriller read, not watched and I was thoroughly impressed. This book was indeed thrilling and a complete page turner. Special thanks to Harlan Coben's team, Random House UK, and Netgalley for allowing me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Following Sami Kierce's mission to the truth is so attention-gripping and astonishingly frustrating as he discovers the truth of a former lover's murder.... or disappearance? Is it also involving his former fiance's murder? And why are they now stalking his now wife?

Sami's determination, sarcasm, and wit in addition to his class full of misfit armchair sleuths make this book an incredibly funny, down to earth, and addictive read that is hard to put down.

You can always count on Harlan Coben to serve up a good mystery, and Nobody's Fool is no exception. If you've been craving a twisty story with a flawed lead, this one's worth your time.

Coben puts the reader back in the chaotic world of Sami Kierce, a private investigator juggling fatherhood, financial messes, and night school crime junkies. But don't let the domestic front fool you - Sami's still haunted by the morning that derailed his life in Spain two decades ago. One second, he was a carefree college backpacker; the next, he was covered in blood with a dead girlfriend, Anna, at his side. And a knife in his hand.

But it's the present-day hook that really hooked me in - Sami thinks he's finally out from under the weight of that trauma, and Anna walks into his classroom. Alive.

Coben does what he does best: slow-burn suspense mixed with short chapters that make it hard to put the book down. He drops just enough breadcrumbs to keep you guessing, and by the time you reach the end, everything clicks together in a way that's both satisfying and smart.

Nobody's Fool is a solid entry in the Kierce series. If you're looking for a reliable, well-crafted mystery with a compelling premise, this one's for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for an advanced reader's copy; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

In Nobody’s Fool, Harlan Coben returns with a taut, emotionally charged thriller that doubles as a meditation on guilt, identity, and the corrosive power of buried secrets. The novel follows disgraced former detective Sami Kierce, now a private investigator and night school instructor, whose past resurfaces in the most jarring way: a woman he believed dead—Anna—appears in his classroom. Twenty-two years earlier, Kierce awoke in Spain beside her lifeless body, blood on his hands and no memory of what happened. Her reappearance triggers a desperate quest for truth that threatens to unravel everything he’s built since.

Coben’s thrillers are often praised for their breakneck pacing and twisty plots, but Nobody’s Fool distinguishes itself by leaning into psychological complexity and moral ambiguity. This isn’t just a whodunit—it’s a “who-am-I-if-I-did-it?” The dual timelines (Spain in 2000 and present-day New York) are masterfully interwoven, each revelation in the past casting new shadows on the present.

🌟 Strengths
Sami Kierce as Protagonist: Kierce is one of Coben’s most layered characters to date. He’s not a slick hero but a man haunted by trauma, trying to be a good husband, father, and teacher while grappling with the possibility that he may have once been a killer. His vulnerability is palpable, and his moral compass is constantly tested.

The dual timelines are not just a gimmick—they serve as a mirror, reflecting how trauma distorts memory and how the past refuses to stay buried.

From Kierce’s loyal wife Molly to his ragtag group of criminology students (nicknamed the “Pink Panthers”), the ensemble adds texture and warmth to the otherwise grim narrative.

The novel explores the cost of redemption, the slipperiness of truth, and the way privilege can warp justice—especially through the subplot involving the wealthy Belmond family and their missing daughter, Victoria.

⚖️ Minor Quibbles

- Coincidence Overload: Some plot turns rely heavily on serendipity, which may test the suspension of disbelief for more grounded readers.

- Pacing Dips: The middle third slows down as it delves into character backstory, but the final act more than compensates with a series of gut-punch revelations.

Nobody’s Fool is a standout in Coben’s oeuvre—less about the thrill of the twist and more about the ache of unresolved guilt. It’s a story that asks: what if the worst thing you ever did wasn’t what you remember, but what you chose to forget?

★★★★½☆
Recommended for: Fans of The Silent Patient, Gone for Good, and anyone who enjoys thrillers with emotional depth and ethical gray zones.

I love the character Sami Keirce! Keirce, disgraced cop turned PI was a wise guy with true cop skills. He gets entangled in an investigation that is more than personal. Good mystery with ample action and intrigue.

In a follow up to Nobody’s Fool, Coben continues the mystery world of the richest families in which the law, logic, and reality in general do not follow the same rules the rest of us live by daily. Kierce is not that likeable nor relatable. He uses crowdsourcing to info dump while quoting Sherlock. I don’t plan on hanging around for a book 3. I was joy a fan of the pace, but made it through because I wanted to see the twist at the end.

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

We all remember our youthful indiscretions but sometimes those memories aren't accurate. This mystery hinges on a post-college European vacation, when a romantic tryst goes bad and ends in the death of a young woman. The principle character at this novel's core is the woman's lover. We move on to modern times when the man is now a private detective and recent ex-cop. He thinks he sees the woman in one of his adult night-school classes, and gets involved in her life. There are too many plot twists and turns to recount here, and the timeline of the European trip and the modern era are woven back and forth expertly. Of course, by the end of the novel you finally have what appears to have happened, how various characters made various mistakes, and what their motivations were at the time. Coben still can tell a tale and for mystery fans will enjoy this book.

According to the old saying: “Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me twice; shame on me.” Judging by that standard, most of Harlan Coben’s devoted readers are fools many times over. And judging by his book sales, they enjoy that status. Coben’s latest thriller, “Nobody’s Fool,” brings back a protagonist from an earlier novel, former New York City police detective Sami Kierce. (That earlier book is aptly named “Fool Me Once.”) In his latest adventure, Kierce must solve three interrelated mysteries, two of them from his own past. The result is a fascinating thriller that will keep readers guessing until the last page.

“Nobody’s Fool” begins with a prologue set some 20 years earlier when college student Kierce and some friends spent a holiday in Spain. Kierce had a whirlwind fling with a young woman he met, leaving his pals behind. The romance didn’t end well when he woke up one morning holding a bloody knife next to the woman’s dead body. Kierce followed his father’s advice and fled the country, never revealing what happened to anyone else. In the present day, Kierce’s life isn’t much better. He’s been kicked out of the police force because of a lawsuit filed by the family of a high school student who died from a fall while being chased by Kierce. His primary source of income is teaching a night school criminology course.

Kierce’s life changes when he recognizes one of his new students as the supposedly dead girlfriend from two decades ago. He follows her and learns that she is Victoria Belmond, a woman from a very wealthy family who mysteriously disappeared as a teenager on December 31, 1999 (the eve of Y2K). She then, just as mysteriously, reappeared in a Maine diner a decade later. Victoria claims to have amnesia regarding the missing decade, and there is no external evidence about her activities or whereabouts during that time. Kierce’s financial situation improves tremendously when Victoria’s father hires him to investigate what happened to his daughter during the missing decade.
I mentioned Kierce must solve three interrelated mysteries in “Nobody’s Fool.” This third mystery involves the death of his fiancée soon after he joined the police. The woman’s abusive ex-boyfriend was convicted of her murder, but his conviction has just been vacated because of Kierce’s problems with the law. The ex-boyfriend insists he’s innocent, and he and his lawyer persuade Kierce to look into the murder again.

I always thought that Ross MacDonald, creator of Lew Archer, wrote the best complex mysteries of any hardboiled author. MacDonald’s plots often involved years-old crimes that had remained buried until Archer began poking around. The plot of “Nobody’s Fool” could have come straight from an Archer novel, with the added complication that Sami Kierce is a primary character in the mysteries he’s trying to solve. He must reevaluate his own memories about his college fling and what happened afterward. The novel’s storyline becomes increasingly complex, but mostly, it is easy for readers to follow. Harlan Coben surpasses Ross MacDonald by introducing multiple twists and surprises that lead readers to reassess their opinions about past events. Fans of whodunit mysteries will enjoy “Nobody’s Fool” although the question isn’t “whodunit” but “what really happened.”

Much of what Kierce discovers is depressing, but the author lightens the book’s mood with a healthy dose of humor. Kierce can dispense wisecracks with the best of them. Part of the fun lies in the nicknames he gives some of the book’s characters, such as Scraggly Dude, Golf Shirt Gary, and the Pink Panthers. Those last two nicknames refer to students in Kierce’s criminology class that he recruits to help with some of the background research on the case. The Panthers are septuagenarians who find solving actual crimes a hoot. Gary always wears a golf shirt for class as a reminder of the incident that changed his life for the worse. His tale of woe is one of the best and saddest anecdotes in the book. The author maintains an appropriate tone throughout the novel. As the storyline becomes less pleasant, the author drops most of the humorous asides to preserve the proper mood.

I had some minor problems with the plotting in the book. The ultimate resolution depends on a couple of huge coincidences of the sort that never occur in real life but are common in crime fiction, helping authors and protagonists out of trouble. More important for me was the author’s reference to the earlier book in this series. Authors don’t have to recap everything that happened earlier in a series. However, if events in a previous book affect what happens in the current story, the author should give readers enough of the backstory to avoid confusion. Here, events in the earlier volume, “Fool Me Once,” impact “Nobody’s Fool.” However, unless readers are familiar with the earlier story or (like me) do some internet research, the author’s vague references will be more confusing than informative. Harlan Coben is too good a writer to have such sloppiness, even in a small part of the novel.

Despite these minor annoyances, “Nobody’s Fool” is one of the best Harlan Coben novels I’ve read. Sami Kierce is a likable character with a complex, realistic life story. The book also features entertaining secondary characters, some of whom appear only for a chapter or two. Above all, this is one tricky puzzler of a novel whose twists caught me entirely by surprise more than once. “Nobody’s Fool” is Harlan Coben at the top of his game.

NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.

While Harlan Coben is definitely one of my favorite suspense authors, Nobody’s Fool missed the mark for me. The plot (an old murder, a shocking reappearance, and a haunted ex-detective) had serious potential, but I found the execution of this story a bit flat.

I struggled to get into the book from the first pages, and while I did start enjoying it more as I got further into the story, the plot twists felt more convoluted than clever. There were some glimmers of intrigue, but overall, this one felt more like a recycled story with new names. Not terrible, just not on par with previous books from one of my favorite authors.

Nobody's Fool by Harlan Coben is a gripping, fast-paced thriller packed with sharp twists and emotional depth. Coben delivers his signature blend of suspense and heart, keeping readers hooked from the first page to the last. A must-read for fans of smart, character-driven mysteries.

This is another winner from Harlan Coben.

What would you do if the woman you thought you might have killed twenty years ago showed up at your night class?

Sami Kierce is an ex-cop who is a private investigator and teaches a class in night school about criminology called "No Sh*t, Sherlock." He has a loving wife and a baby, but it still haunted by an incident years ago when he met Anna, spent a heady week with her, and thought she died when in bed with him. He ran to the police, but when they went back there was no body and no evidence of a crime. He also lost a fiancee to murder, and her killer has just been released due to evidence being overturned. Despite all of this, he's happy with his life.

Now, twenty or so years later, a woman walks into his class, then runs away. He's sure it is Anna. He follows her, and gets involved in solving who she really was, what happened to her those many years ago, and how (or if) this connects to his fiancee's killer's release.

What I love about Coben's books are the twists. There are several that completely change the direction of the story, some of which you might see coming, but others will shock you! His books also have a little light in them. There may not be complete justice, but you know that give things are going to happen in the story. I also love how he created several minor characters who make a huge impact on what happens and what he learns.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves a good thriller and a good love story. Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.