Nobody's Fool
(Detective Sami Kierce, #2)
by Harlan Coben
4 out of 5 stars
Expected publication date: March 25, 2025

Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for a free copy of this audio book in exchange for my honest review.

When Sami was in college, he woke up covered in blood, had a knife in his hand, and was lying next to a woman. Twenty-two years later, Sami sees the same woman standing at the back of his classroom. He chases her and begins to solve the mystery of how this woman could be there.

This book is classic Harlan Coben! The story is twisty, but it doesn't drag on. It keeps the reader engaged and interested throughout the book. As always, the ending was surprising, but the reader is left knowing that all the clues had been dropped along the way.

I didn't realize that this was the second book in a series. I'll have to go back now and read the first book.

I was recently asked if Harlan Coben books are graphic, and it's interesting that I said no, based on the description of the book. However, Coben writes in such a way that the reader gets the point, but he doesn't linger on the gory details. The picture is painted in such a way that the reader can fill in any details that are needed.

This book is recommended to anyone who enjoys a good thriller that will keep you on your toes.

Excellent mystery, kept me guessing and very interested to find out what would happen.

This is the second book featuring Sami Kearce, who was a police detective when we first met him in Fool Me Once. Although the mysteries in both books stand alone, I think that readers should start with Fool Me Once in order to get the character's background and to know what happened with Sami on the job to lead him to where he is now, and why some of the events of this book are occurring.

In this installment, we have two mysteries--one features a woman from Sami's past who shows up when he is teaching a class. The problem? Sami has thought she was dead for twenty-two years. And when he follows after her, what he discovers is astonishing. The second is that the man who was convicted of Sami's fiancee's murder is released from prison on a technicality. Can Sami find new evidence to prove the man's guilt?

This book went in a direction I was absolutely not expecting. Just when I thought I had everything pieced together in my mind as to what occurred, I discovered I was totally wrong. I like Sami as a character. He's not perfect, but he is committed and really tries to do the right thing (or what he thinks is the right thing) no matter what. I loved the inclusion of the members of his class in the investigation, it added some humor to the tale.

I listened to this as an audiobook, and Vikas Adam does a great job with the narration. I'm really used to Steven Weber doing the narration for Coben's audiobooks, but Adam is able to give Sami the right tone and I hope he will continue to narrate these books if Coben writes more featuring Sami.

If you're looking for a solid mystery thriller, then look no further than Harlan Coben's latest.

This is book two in the Detective Sami Kierce Series. Sami Kierse's college days come back to haunt him in the latest book by Harlan Coben.

We are following Sami Kerce as he puts the pieces together of a mystery that is connected to his college trip to Spain twenty years ago about a night he woke up next to a bloody knife and a bloody girl. Is she still alive all these years later? Possibly…you will have to read to find out!

I liked this book, but I thought sometimes it dragged just a bit for me. It was fast-paced, but also slow if that makes sense. I liked his class of amateur sleuths that he taught, they were a fun group. You find yourself rooting for Sami even though I don’t find him that likeable of a character. I found his wife to be supportive and I liked her. The ending really ramps up with some twists you won’t see coming. This was my first book by this author and I would read from him again.

Thank you to Hachette Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this early audio copy. Meet Sami Kierce your typical dad, so you think until you realize he’s been living with built-up trauma for the past 25 years, still trying to discover what happened in the hotel room that one night in Spain that changed his life. This fast paste suspenseful mystery that will have you guessing the entire time. You will be entirely surprised at the twist and turns throughout the entire story.

Coben returned with yet another thriller, I absulotely love everything this authot puts out, SO twisty, edge of your seat kind of read.

I absolutely love investigations. The suspense of finding out what is happening and who is guilty always keeps me engaged and wanting to know more.

Former Detective, Sami Kierce, has been confronted with a secret that he long thought he buried. When Sami was in college, he went on a trip to Spain with his former roommates. Everything seemed to be going really well, they went to clubs and partied. While standing against a wall at a popular night club, he sees Anna. He is truly captivated by this woman while she dances with her friends. Everything is going really well....until one morning he wakes up and Anna has a knife plunged in her chest. Sami is convinced he's responsible for her murder and is quickly instructed by his father to leave Spain and return to America on his next flight. This secret has haunted him, until he's convinced he sees Anna while he's teaching a class.

"Hallucinations" are no stranger to Sami. He experienced them before while taking medication and saw visions of his former fiance whom was murdered. So now Sami must chase this girl and determine if she is really who he thinks she is.

While Sami is chasing "Anna", he is also dealing with the potential release of his former fiancees murderer. How much can Sami really hold it together and will he receive all the answers to the questions he's currently chasing?

I absolutely love Harlan Coben books. They are paced nicely, engaging and constantly keep me on my toes. I would absolutely recommend reading this one. But maybe after you've read Fool Me Once since the characters and some scenerios filter into this book!

Vikas Adam did a fantastic job portraying Sami. He was pleasant to listen to and easy to understand.

Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for this advanced audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Sami Kierse is a former detective who fell from grace, losing his job in the meantime. His wife Molly is supportive and they are getting by with his work finding evidence for a lawyer and teaching a criminology class.

He has a dark event in his past that he ran from and has never got over followed by the murder of his fiance years later. His past and present collide when a face he thought he would never see again shows up out of the blue and some of the people he has help convict walk out of jail.

As expected with Harlan Coben books there are lots of twists and surprises culminating in an ending that is difficult to predict.

A very enjoyable listen, the narrator was perfect for the male voices, a little less so for the females but not enough to spoil the enjoyment of the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the DRC.

3.5 ⭐️

Sami Kierce is thrown back into the past when a women walks into his class one evening, a women that he thought he murdered 25 years earlier. As he pursues her, he has to revisit his past to figure out the mystery of what happened all those years ago.

I'll start by saying that the narrator for this audiobook was pretty good. I think he did a good job of bringing Sami's character to life, all of his nuances, and sarcastic, subtly comedic personality. I enjoyed the relationship between the MC and his wife. There was a lot going on in this mystery. The story had subplots that until the very end of the book I wasn't sure if it was connected to the main mystery. I guess that was purposeful on the authors end to keep the reader guessing until the end. I think I was expecting more from the ending, it was a little anticlimactic.


Thank you to Netgalley and Hatchette Audio for the opportunity to listen to and ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed Detective Sami Kierce's character in Fool Me Once, so I just had to read this book. It didn't disappoint at all, and the way it ended hints at another book that I'm praying Harlan will write. I liked how this story brushes on the events of the first and shows us what happened to Sami after that case ended. And I loved all the new secondary characters, especially Sami's wife Molly and his students who assist in unravelling two different and intriguing mysteries. The pacing was great, and I found myself unable to stop listening to the audiobook once I started.

I have read so many of Harlan Coben’s books over the years and have always been a really big fan of his gripping, twisty plots. I was so excited to get approval to listen to this audiobook. Listening to his novel as an audiobook was a first for me and whilst the story was great as usual I wasn’t a great fan of the narrator - maybe it’s because I’m English, but his pronunciations of the Spanish words really grated. I’m still not sure if he spoke the female roles as well, but again I found them a bit condescending. Overall, as usual it was a great story with brilliant twists right to the end. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me access to an early copy of this audio book.

Thank you Hachette Audio for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review!

4.25 Stars

This story follows detective Sami Kierce who, as a young college grad backpacking in Spain with friends, woke up one day holding a bloody knife and his girlfriend Anna dead beside him. Twenty-two years later as a private detective, things begin to resurface. Seeing Anna's face in the back of a crime class he is teaching, things begin to spiral until he is wrapped up in an impossible mystery that he cannot turn away from.

So, mild confession, I did not realize that this was sequel, but it did not matter at all. Coben does such an amazing job of creating dynamic characters and twisty stories. Even besides that, the cadence and the story telling made this such an engaging read from start to finish. This was a book that I planned extra walks to be able to keep listening. This book also gave such fun vibes by having such a varied cast of characters to help Detective Kierce solve this new crime.

Nobody's Fool follows several different plot points at the same time, but they always seem to be connected in some way, even when you can't see the full picture. His final moment of weaving the clues and plots together into a cohesive "aha!" moment was thoroughly satisfying.

Additionally, Vikas Adam's narration of this story was very well done. Every character had a unique and distinguishable voice, and he made the story very easy to follow for someone who does not listen to many audiobooks. Just his way of telling the story makes this an entertaining book to listen to.

One of the few criticisms I would have for Coben is his portrayal of girls in their late teens/early twenties. To me, the characters who fit this description (of which there were six or seven, I think) all seemed to be somewhat vapid, if not an airhead. For instance, at one point Kierce approaches a group of these girls with some fairly strange questions, and they are just like "oh ok! here's what you want to know!" despite the strange circumstances. Personally, that felt both too easy and a bit of a strange characterization for 18-ish year old girls who are being approach with strange questions from a middle aged man. The other criticism for his portrayal of this group is the extreme overuse of internet slang in their conversations. It was RAPID FIRE Gen-Z slang every other word that these girls said. Which, okay, that's not a huge deal, but it does date the books pretty fast (some of the terms used by these girls are no longer relevant and would be strange to hear).

Overall, I really liked the book and would recommend it!

Harlan Coben's latest thriller, Nobody's Fool, marks the second installment in the Detective Sami Kierce series. While I enjoyed Fool Me Once, Kierce's role in the first book was minimal—he was portrayed as a well-intentioned and trustworthy figure, but little beyond that.

I'll be honest: the first 3/4 of this book are solidly "OK." But the final act? Absolutely phenomenal! When all the threads come together, it’s another Harlan Coben hit.

Sami has a much more fleshed-out character arc (thankfully!) this time around. He's flawed but committed to becoming a better man. And while Sami is fantastic, the ensemble cast truly elevates the story. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.

Molly, Sami's fiercely loyal wife, deserves her own spotlight in this series. Despite the couple’s challenges, her unwavering support for Sami provides depth and warmth to the narrative.

The heart of the story, though, lies with Sami's quirky team of junior PIs. I absolutely loved the Pink Panthers and would love to see a spin-off series of cozy mysteries centered on their solo case(s) and the shenanigans that ensue (think The Golden Girls meets a Miss Marple story)."

Narrator Vikas Adams delivers a wonderful performance in this audiobook. I’ll admit, though—every so often, when I closed my eyes, his rendition of Sami reminded me of H. Jon Benjamin's Bob Belcher. Not a bad thing, but it was hard to unhear!

Overall Rating: 4 ⭐️
Story: 4.5 ⭐️
Narration: 3.5 ⭐️

Harlan Coben can do no wrong in my book!
His stories are always so well constructed and thought out. Never a plot hole to be found!
This was no different and I loved experience this on on audio!

I might be a bit biased towards HC, but this book was gripping, interesting, smooth with twists and turns enough for two books.
I liked Sami and he seamed less of a loser than we are usually accustomed in those kind of series.
Specifically the relationship between Sami and his wife was impressive, their trust was remarkable an I liked it.
ı believe this series might be nice to follow, but first I need to go back and read the first book :)

I usually don’t jump into the middle of a series, but I wasn’t aware that this was the second book. With that being said, I want to start with the caveat that this book can absolutely be read as a standalone. I genuinely had no idea something came before it. I think the reason it worked so well for me is because it’s an entirely different cast of characters based on the description of the first book.

This book was fantastic and so incredibly sad! I mean, poor Kierce has gone through so much and still continues to be tortured by the start of this book. Not only does he discover his old love may not be dead, but his former fiancée’s murderer has been set free and now his wife is in danger. I knew within the first couple of chapters what happened, but I still really enjoyed watching it play out. There were a lot of twists and turns that kept me turning the pages, despite that I knew what was going to happen. Honestly, I’m a cynic, so I just assumed the worst. I was so bummed to learn that I was right because, wow, people are horrible! I kept catching myself shaking my head at every new reveal, and there were a lot. This was a genuinely great story. Yet again, Harlan Coben proves himself a master at his craft!

Huge thanks to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

Thank you NetGalley for this Audiobook.
Wow that was thrilling. I loved Fool Me Once and was so excited to see this new release in the same series and it definitely didn’t disappoint. Full of twists and turns, this book kept me hanging on until the very end. Amazing 5⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this audiobook ARC opportunity!

I found this book to be interesting from the start, and the narrator was great at keeping pace and displaying emotion.

I found the main characters to be likeable- and there were so many twists- it was almost hard to keep up! Continuously interesting and well paced- I will definitely read a book from this author again!

Nobody's Fool by Harlan Coben

When I read Fool Me Once by this author, I was immediately hooked with his books. So when I saw on Net Galley that this one was up for an early read, I knew I wanted to read it.

Nobody's Fool follows former detective, Sami Kierce and his journey through his past and present. Kierce went backpacking with his friend in Spain prior to becoming a detective ( he also wanted to be a doctor). Kierce meets a girl, Anna, and it is sparks at first sight. They spend the night together only to wake up covered in blood and a knife in his hand. He panics, calls his dad, and takes the first plane back to the states. Never knowing what happened that night he continues on with life. He becomes a detective and meets his fiance, Nicole, only for Nicole to be shot dead cold. Flash forward to years later, he is married to the love of his life, Molly, and has a wonderful son Henry. He gets put on a cold case with his class, the Victoria Belmond case. Only for him to realize... Victoria is Anna from Spain and Nicole's killer is being set free. Sami must solve both the cases or risk never knowing what happened to Anna and letting his second loves killer walk free.

I really enjoyed this book. I always like how there is some sort of mystery from a past that needs solving also in Harlan's book. The characters were well developed through out the story and it was not confusing with the flash backs or time lines. I also enjoyed seeing the Burkett family and their drama in this book. This book was very well done and I am already looking forward to the next one!

Disgraced former  police detective,  Sami Kierce is struggling to get by. He has resorted to teach a "pay by the class" course on how to be a detective. When a person from his past appears or rather reappears in this classroom,  he uses his students in the search. Each answer he uncovers, leads to more questions. This one is full of twist and turns you won't see coming.

5 STARS

Thank you to Hachetten audio for the ALC. The narrator, Vikas Adams, was great!

I listened to this one. It is a very good, fast paced audio book. This is one that has lots of twist and turns that you will not see coming. It is also one that makes you think a little bit about your own morals which I always think is a good thing. The pacing was great, it kept my full attention.

I did not realize this was the second in a series until now. It can be read as a stand alone.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my review.