Headline: A Rewarding Must-Read!

Book Review: Nobody's Fool, Detective Sami Kierce #2, by Harlan Coben
Published by Grand Central Publishing, March 25, 2025

★★★★★ (5/5 Stars, Rave!)

I read both books in author Harlan Coben's "Detective Sami Kierce" series, - two thus far, "Fool Me Once" (2016), and this novel, nine years after the first, "Nobody's Fool" (2025).

"Fool Me Once" was subsequently adapted in a 2024 Netflix 8-Episode mini-series, to positive reviews (IMDB 6.8).

In "Fool Me Once" the novel, NYPD Homicide Detective Kierce is known by the name "Roger Kierce", not "Sami Kierce". Kierce, described as "short and hirsute" (hairy) of Pakistani origin, plays a supporting role to the book's compelling protagonist, Maya Stern Burkett, a former special operations UH-60 Blackhawk pilot married to the scion of a monied tri-state family.

In the Netflix adaptation, however, British actor Adeel Akhtar of Pakistani /Kenyan heritage, delivers an inspired performance and lends gravitas to the "Sami Kierce" Netflix character. Which in turn, quite probably inspired the author to rename the protagonist and write a sequel to his 2016 novel, further developing character "Kierce".

Objectively, if you've read both novels, the second book could be considered a "non-sequitur sequel", a study in contrasts. NYPD Homicide Detective Kierce, a supporting backbencher to the protagonist in the former, to Mr. Kierce, on top of the heap in the second iteration - a civilian, disgraced ex-cop, haunted by a vision in his past.

Crafted through disparate veins notwithstanding, both novels turn out to be five-star psychological thrillers!

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// Nobody's Fool, Detective Sami Kierce #2, by Harlan Coben (2025) //

Sami Kierce finds himself booted out of New York's Finest and lives in bare subsistence, working for free under a "barter agreement" for a high-end Manhattan law firm in exchange for legal representation against allegedly having caused the death of a high school kid. The very reason why he's no longer an NYPD homicide detective.

The former det. is assigned by the law firm to do menial PI work, i.e. reduced to shadowing and taking surreptitious photos of cheating husbands.

After dark, Kierce teaches a 2-hour class for wannabe sleuths at a dubiously legit "Academy Night Adult School" on the Lower East Side by the Williamsburg Bridge, one of those pay-as-you-go, cash in advance before the class starts deals, $16 per class which Kierce splits with the "headmaster", who also happens to be the custodian (or janitor) of the building, opened in 1901 as a public bathhouse, now more ruins than building.

// It is at this point that the reader realizes that this is altogether far removed from the theme and tenor of the first book of the series, "Fool Me Once" serialize on Netflix, and assumes a position, as I did, to read a bit more, just a little bit more. I found the wry humor amusing, if anything, so far. And for forging on, the reader is richly rewarded! //

It is during one of those night classes that Sami Kierce happens to glimpse at the classroom door and sees the face of girl he'd known years ago. The face was now hat of a woman in her forties. That girl was in her early twenties' when he'd met her. A girl named Anna he'd met during a college spring break vacation in Spain.

A girl whom he'd believed he'd killed...

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This book, second of the series, can be read as a stand-alone, although Book 1 is equally a gripping psychological thriller, both rewarding must-reads!

Review based on an advance reading copy courtesy of Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley.
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Sami Keirce is heading to medical school in the fall - so he decides to have a last fling with a group of friends in Europe. One day he wakes up next to his girlfriend of just a few days - she is covered in blood and he is holding a knife. He quickly flees - calls home - and is told by his father to get on the next plane back home - and don’t ever look back. Fast forward 20 years - Sami is now happily married with a baby son and a loving wife. He had lost his job as a police detective for some less than by the book investigations. He is now teaching a group of misfits and police wanabes how to investigate when a woman walks into his class - and just as quickly runs out - but Sami is sure that she is the same girl he killed so long ago. Thus begins an odyssey of trying to find her using a friend from his police days and the group of amateur detectives. Sami can’t walk away from the slim leads he has despite being pressured from several fronts to just go back to his normal day-to-day life. What ensues is a complex tale as he peels away layer after layer of clues ultimately resulting in a surprise (at least to me!) ending.

This is Coben’s second book featuring Sami Keirce - and it’s a good thing that I didn’t look at my review of the first or I might not have requested/read this one! This one grabbed me from the very beginning and never let go. A complex story with so many plot twists and turns that it kept my head spinning - just when you think you have think you know who is who and what is what, everything changes. Vintage Harlan Coben. Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

A very quick read that keeps you turning the pages from the beginning until the end. You follow Sami Kierce who is now a private investigator who believes he has seen a woman from twenty years ago that he believed was dead. That he may have also killed her. Now all of these years later he begins to put all of the pieces back together but at the same time is it worth risking his marriage and their child? A very, very good book that will keep you interested until the very last page.

My thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group for the ARC of 'Nobody's Fool' in exchange for an honest review.

What can I say about a Harlan Coben book that hasn't been said in a thousand other reviews he's received?

Another winner. Another page turner. More 'I-surely-didn't-see-that-coming' twists. More unforgettable characters you come to care about. And a certain guaranteed read that's only going to take you days to finish.

All of the above mentioned stuff is here in abundance, along with a familiar trope that's one of the author's favorite ways to kick a plot into motion.......the surprise reappearance of someone who's been dead and gone for years.......supposedly.

That's what's facing former (and now disgraced) police detective Sami Kierce, (who first appeared in "Fool Me Once')......a ghost from his youthful past has now returned to flesh and blood right in front of his startled eyes. Her name was Anna when college-age Sami became smitten by her while backpacking in Spain. Some glorious days and nights followed until he woke up one morning with her bloodied corpse on his bed. He rushes out to report this to an equally young policeman,, who finds no trace of Anna, alive or dead. Before the Spanish police can get around to suspect him of something other than nursing delusions, Sami rushes back to America, still haunted by what he thought was Anna's murder.

Years and misfortunes later, Sami's reduced to eking out a living in support of his beautiful wife Molly and his baby boy.. He dabbles with minor league private eye drudgery and teaching criminology to an oddball, eclectic mix of students. It's at this class, he sees an unannounced visitor - a woman who appears to be the mysterious, elusive Anna. And who promptly flees with Sami in pursuit.

Sami's relentless search for the truth of what's going on plunges him into not one but two tormenting episodes from his past......tracing the convoluted, tortuous backstory of Anna's return and dealing with the sudden, shocking release of the vicious killer who murdered Sami's fiance when he was still a police detective.

Here's what I truly enjoyed - that even with the Job-like trials and tribulations that Sami's endured, author Coben brings in liberal amounts of sharp wit and humor to both Sami and the cast of characters surrounding him. To help him unravel the ever twisting plotlines, Sami recruits his criminology students to become his own personal Scooby gang of crime solvers and it's a hoot to watch them in action. But I should also mention that when the dust finally clears and all is revealed, the book concludes with a deeply moving meditation on the sins of the past (and all the bad choices we make and live with).

As flawed as Sami is, he remains one of Haran Coben's most steadfast and righteous heroes and I'd look forward to whenever the author concocts another case for him.

4.25
"Nobody's Fool is the second book starring Sami Kierce as the main character. After college, Sami
takes a European vacation with some college friends before starting medical school. Sami meets a girl named Anna in a bar in Spain. Sami thinks he is in love and spends the next couple of days with Anna. One morning he wakes up to find Anna dead next to him and Sami is covered in her blood.
He has no memory of what happened. Sami's future plans are forever changed after that night in Spain. Twenty-five years later, Sami never attended medical school and was recently fired from his detective job. Sami now teaches a night course on investigating at a local community college. One night during class, a women walks in who looks exactly like the dead girl Anna from Spain.

Loved: The book pacing was fiercely fast, Sami doesn't make good choices but still want to root for his character. I loved the all the quirky students in his investigating class. The twists and turns were unpredictable. I highly recommend this book.

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for sharing this thrill ride of a book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Liike other Harlan Coben thrillers, this Nobody's Fool was difficult to put down. After meeting Sami Kierce in Fool Me Once, I was eager to learn more of his story, and Nobody's Fool fills in background from his college years as well as traces events in his life following his firing as a result of events in Fool Me Once.

Imagine waking up while on a camping trip bloodied and with a knife in your hand and then finding your girlfriend dead. Horrifying and mysterious, yes! Who wouldn't be haunted by such a past? Then fast forward more than two decades to see that dead woman walk into a class you are teaching! Sami Kierce is on another case.

Hopefully NetGalley will turn Nobody's Fool into yet another successful mini series so that non-readers learn more of Sami Kierce's life. While NetGalley is one way to enjoy some of Harlan Coben's hit novels, it's always better to read them for yourself.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for an advance reader egalley of yet another great read from master of thrillersHarlan Coben.

Harlan Coben has become an an author I've come to follow when it comes to thriller and suspense. This book is no exception and focues on Detective Sami Kierce from Fool Me Once.

In the story, the Detective has a flashback to his college days when he woke up one morning covered in blood next to his girlfriend.

The book takes a fast forward to twenty two years later where Kierce recognizes a familiar face one evening. It's his former girlfriend; the one he woke up next to covered in blood. But how could this be?

Kierce is on a mission to track his former girlfriend, Anna, down but she runs away from him. How did he just see Anna and why is she running away? This book is very suspensful and keeps the reader tunring the pages, just as all Harlan Coben novels do.

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!

Read if you like:
Mystery 🕵🏼‍♀️
Solving cold cases 🥶
Past and present time lines ⏰

Ratings:
⭐️: 4/5
📖: 352
📚: murder thriller
🍾pub date: 3/25/25

Thank you @harlancoben @netgalley @grandcentralpub

When your past won’t stay in the past…

Favorite author alert! Nobody’s Fool by Harlan Coben is out tomorrow, 3/25.
This is #2 in the Sami Kearce series and it is really great. I love Sami and I am so happy we are getting more of his life.
This is another great thriller of a story and i was genuinely surprised at the direction it took! I loved the characters in this story and can’t wait to “see” them again. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
#nobodysfool #books #bookreview

This was another good book by this author. This book was full of surprises. It was a bit of a twisted story.

I've always loved Harlan Coben and his books. But he's very quickly walking the Patterson road and I don't like that.

Nobody's Fool is about a man who is scammed into thinking the woman he's sleeping with died and could be at his hand. He runs because he's in another country and it looks bad. Twenty five years later, he's teaching a class and the woman walks in. He tracks her and finds out she is a woman who has a complicated past. Fourteen years ago, she went missing for eleven years. Complicated? Yes. Makes sense? Once the book is all put together it does. Oh and there is the man that killed the MC's fiancé getting out of prison and may or may not be on another killing spree. Or its something else all together. Somehow in the end it all makes sense and is a decently good book.

Kept me interested. I wanted to know what the heck was going on. Not Mr. Coben's best work though.

I'm slightly discomforted that Mr. Coben has chosen to write an American-Pakistani main character. I thought we had learned to do better but I guess not.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand central publishing for this ARC.

When I requested the ARC, I was unaware that it’s book two of series. However, I was able to read this story fine as a standalone. This book felt slower to me than previous ones I’ve read by author. The characters were complexed. I don’t want to spoil anything. Once the storyline picked up, it never stopped moving. I never saw that twist coming!

Harlan Coben‘s newest release had me hooked from page one. I picked this one up on a whim. I’m not a huge Coben reader, I’ve liked the few of his I’ve read but haven’t tried many of them— still, something about this blurb just caught my eye. This one was unputdownable, I had to understand what was going on, and the pages FLEW by. He had me guessing the whole way through. It took twist and turns that I never saw coming and I absolutely loved that — it was exactly what I needed at that moment. A lot of Coben‘s books are being turned into Netflix series, and this one very much feels like it was written with that in mind. To put it simply, this felt like a Netflix thriller series, put on paper, in the best of ways.

Now here’s where I have a confession to make: I am NOT usually an animal who reads series out of order. That’s not me. But… This time around, I was an animal when I picked this one up. I missed that this was a sequel and went in without reading the previous book, Fool Me Once. All this to say, I had no trouble keeping up, I never felt like I was missing something important, and while I now see how they’re connected, I don’t feel like book one has been spoiled at all for me. In fact, I will be going back to read it soon. If you really want to be an animal too and jump into this one first, I think you could safely do that.

Don't worry if you missed the first novel-Fool Me Once- or if you've forgotten all but the broadest details (it was 2016, after all), Coben pulls you right into this page turner and gives you all the background you need to be fully immerse. Sami fled Spain after finding Anna, the woman he's been romancing dead in bed next to him covered in blood and a knife in his hand. Only thing, when the police arrived, there was no body. Now, all these years later, he's lost his job with the NYPD, he's married, he's got a son, and he's cobbling together an income part of which comes from teaching a class. So when Anna appears in the back of the classroom, he's determined to find her and get answers. But Anna isn't Anna, she's Victoria Belmond, daughter of a wealthy family who went missing on New Years Eve 1999 and resurfaced 11 years later. Then the Belmond family hires him to find out what happened. Oh, and the man who killed Sami's fiancee has just been released from prison and he wants to prove he didn't do it. What a sleigh ride this is, with a lot of twists and turns (no spoilers). The characters, not just Sami but the rest of them starting with Sami's students, family, and friends, shine. And the storytelling is terrific. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is one that you might well find yourself reading in a day.

This was the second book about Sami Pierce which takes place a year after Fool Me Once. This definitely could be read as a stand alone though. It starts off fast and exciting. It captured my attention right away. As in all of Cohen's books there were twists and surprises and so much going on. I couldn't see how it was all going to intersect until it did. There was also some humor, even though there was alot of darkness. A great read for both fans of Harlan Coben and those new to him.

Harlan Coben is absolutely brilliant!! Sami Kierce is an outstanding character.. This book was filled with all these unexpected twists and turns and I just never saw it coming!!! Definitely a must read!!!

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Life isn't about the big mistakes...

...its about the little ones.

Twenty two years ago Sami Kierce had just graduated from college and was backpacking through Europe with friends before starting medical school in the fall. He met a beautiful girl named Anna at a disco on the Costa del Sol, someone way out of his league, but they hit it off and quickly became involved. His friends left to continue the itinerary and Sami stayed behind with Anna, spending days on the beach and nights partying until the morning he woke up to find his hands covered in blood and Anna in the bed next to him - dead. He ran from the scene and after calling his father in a panic headed back to the US. But he couldn't run from the guilt and the horror of that scene; he never made it to medical school, instead becoming a cop, and used ever increasing amounts of alcohol to ease the pain. It wouldn't be his last tragic loss, and he would eventually get thrown off the force as well. These days he's sober and married to Molly, a fantastic woman whom he knows is far too good for him, and they have an infant son Henry. He's eking out an existence (barely) as a PI, doing surveillance work for an uptown law firm and teaching a night class at a shady institution for would-be amateur sleuths/true crime podcasters. Then two events happen that upturn his life. First the man convicted of killing Sami's fiancėe years ago, Tad Grayson, has been released from prison, mostly because of Sami's improper actions on another case during his time on the force (and which have by extension tainted every case with which he had contact), and a woman walks into the class he's teaching and he swears its Anna. Now, with the reluctant help of his former partner Marty and the enthusiastic assistance of his oddball students, Sami is both trying to find new evidence that will put Grayson back in prison and to track down the mysterious Maybe Anna. In doing so, he gets caught up in the never-solved kidnapping of a wealthy teenaged girl over twenty years ago and realizes that someone is putting his family in the crosshairs. Is there a connection between the two cases, or is it just the worst kind of coincidence that both things resurfaced at the same time? Who is stalking his family? And can he get the answers he needs to keep his loved ones safe and put the past behind him once and for all?
Harlan Coben has a way with twisty thrillers, and Nobody's Fool is another addictive read in that tradition. With its main character dealing with his fall from grace and haunted by something from his past that he hasn't shared with anyone other than his father, not even with his wife, Sami is a likable guy who owns his (many) mess-ups. He realizes that, financial woes aside, he's extraordinarily lucky to have his wife and son and is doing his best to carve out a way back to life on solid ground. Having two triggering events, the release of Grayson (who swears he's innocent and wants Sami to help him find the real killer of Sami's fiancée) and the reappearance of the girl he loved for a brief time who was murdered right next to him (he has never been able to remember what happened that night), is enough to unmoor anyone. With the quirky group of amateur sleuths (and boy are they quirky) and a plot that has more than a few plot twists, red herrings, and possible villains, this is a story that grabs the reader from the beginning and maintains its hold on their attention till the very end. Coben fans (including those who have watched the streaming series "Fool Me Once", which introduces some of the characters in Nobody's Fool) as well as readers of David Baldacci, Dennis Lehane and Thomas Perry, will likely enjoy this latest offering. My thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for allowing me access to a copy of this tale of mistakes that haunt a person and secrets that refuse to stay buried in return for my honest review.

Harlan Coben spins another impossibly twisty yarn in Nobody's Fool. Sami Kierce is a former detective, moonlighting as a PI and teaching a criminology course at a New York City night school. If Kierce sounds familiar, it's because he was the detective in Coben's Netflix series Fool Me Once. [Full disclosure: I did not read that book but apparently there was a name change from Roger to Sami and an expanded role in the TV series (which I did watch)]. Yes, I went down a Coben rabbit hole, and it was satisfying to remember what led to Kierce's exit from the force.

Ok back to Nobody's Fool. There are multiple mysteries at play. A woman pops into class and Kierce recognizes her before she bolts. He last saw in Spain over twenty years ago. Dead.

His former fiancé's killer is released from prison on a technicality caused by one of Kierce's indiscretions. He's got a bone to pick with Kierce.

And a wealthy family wants to hire Kierce to investigate a case from the family's past.

Sami Kierce is busy. How is it all connected? Coben will keep you in suspense until that last page.

My thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the Advance Reader Copy. (pub date 3/25/2025)

As always, Harlan Coben writes a story that is fast paced and completely engaging. Kierce is a character that is easy to care about and I found myself rooting for him. This is the second book in a series but completely works as a standalone.

𐙚 Dual Timelines
𐙚 Haunted Past
𐙚 Twisty Ending

Harlan Coben stays true to his style with Nobody’s Fool. The novel is packed with twists, tension, and well-developed characters that keep the pages turning. Sami, a former cop-turned-teacher, becomes entangled in a dual mystery: a cold case from his youth in Spain and a fresh investigation aided by his quirky criminology students. Coben masterfully weaves humor, suspense, and family drama into the narrative. I appreciated the mix of mystery and human emotion that drove the story.

Rating: ✰✰✰.5/5

Thank you for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own. ・❥・