Win was published by Grand Central Publishing in 2021, and it gives center stage to one of Coben’s most compelling creations: Windsor Horne Lockwood III, known as Win, who has been Myron Bolitar’s best friend, bodyguard, and moral dark side for eleven novels. Win is immensely wealthy (old-money Philadelphia aristocracy), extraordinarily dangerous (trained in multiple martial arts, willing to kill without hesitation), and morally untroubled by violence in a way that both fascinates and disturbs.
The novel begins when the FBI asks Win to identify a suitcase found in the apartment of a murdered man. The suitcase bears the Lockwood family crest, and it contains a Vermeer painting that was stolen from Win’s family twenty years ago — during a kidnapping that was never solved. Win’s niece Patricia was taken and held for months before being released; the painting disappeared; no one was ever charged. Now the case is reopened, and Win must confront the possibility that the kidnapping was connected to crimes within his own family.
Coben uses the first-person narration to give the reader direct access to Win’s consciousness — a consciousness that is brilliant, cultured, and utterly lacking in the empathy that most thriller protagonists use to justify their violence. Win kills because it is efficient, not because it is just; he protects because he chooses to, not because he feels obligated. The novel asks whether a man without moral feeling can nevertheless produce moral outcomes.
Collecting Win
First edition (Grand Central Publishing, New York, 2021): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $8–$20
- Signed copies: $15–$30