Enjoy Harlan Coben ? Meet Scott Allen.
If friendship, humour and a deeply personal reason to get involved keep you turning the pages, Scott Allen might be someone you would like to meet.
One Mistake by Andrew J Meehan is the first novel in the Scott Allen crime thriller series.
What makes a thriller a good read?
Sometimes it is the puzzle. Sometimes it is the danger. But often it is the people: a character whose company you enjoy, a friendship you believe in, and the feeling that the next person asking for help could change everything.
If that is what draws you to Harlan Coben, the closest point of comparison here is his Myron Bolitar series. Myron is a sports agent drawn into trouble through the people around him. Scott has a different past and a different world, but his involvement also begins with people.
Neither a badge nor a job description explains why Scott gets involved. Someone needs help. He finds it difficult to leave that alone.
A different kind of leading man
Scott Allen is twenty-four, an ex-prisoner and a billionaire. Those facts might suggest someone very different from the man you meet.
He notices the person others overlook. He asks questions, listens to the answers and sometimes needs his friend Luke Russo to explain the complicated parts. Their friendship brings quiet humour to a story with serious consequences.
Scott does not carry a weapon. His instincts are to understand people and help them. Money gives him choices, but it does not tell him whom to trust.
Start with One Mistake
When a frightened financial executive asks for help, Scott is drawn into a sophisticated international fraud built to hide in plain sight. Following the trail means working out who can be trusted, what has been erased, and how far the people behind it will go to protect what they have built.
This is a financial crime thriller with an interest in the people caught in the damage. Observation, trust and consequences matter as much as following the money.
If you want another story with friendship, understated humour and a civilian who cannot quite leave other people's troubles alone, try One Mistake.
An independent reading suggestion from Andrew J Meehan. No affiliation with or endorsement by Harlan Coben is implied.