Currently reading: SHELTER by Harlan Coben

Last night I started the upcoming crime novel from popular bestseller Harlan Coben, who is of course the author of the Myron Bolitar series, along with some award-winning standalones. This upcoming book (released in early September) is a little different though - it's Coben's first young adult thriller.

Here's the backcover blurb:

Mickey Bolitar’s year can’t get much worse. After witnessing his father’s death and sending his mom to rehab, he’s forced to live with his estranged Uncle Myron and switch high schools.

A new school comes with new friends and new enemies, and lucky for Mickey, it also comes with a great new girlfriend, Ashley. For awhile, it seems like Mickey’s train-wreck of a life is finally improving—until Ashley vanishes without a trace. Unwilling to let another person walk out of his life, Mickey follows Ashley’s trail into a seedy underworld that reveals that this seemingly sweet, shy girl isn’t who she claimed to be. And neither was Mickey’s father.

Soon, Mickey learns about a conspiracy so shocking that it makes high school drama seem like a luxury – and leaves him questioning everything about the life he thought he knew.

First introduced to readers in Harlan Coben’s latest adult novel, Live Wire, Mickey Bolitar is as quick-witted and clever as his Uncle Myron, and eager to go to any length to save the people he cares about. With this new series, Coben introduces an entirely new generation of fans to the masterful plotting and wry humor that have made him an award-winning, internationally best-selling, and beloved author.

I am about 3/4 through, and quite enjoying it. The plot is interesting, there is plenty of Coben's classic humour, and the character of Mickey - who as an adult reader, starts as a little bit of a whiny brat - is really growing on me. It's also really interesting seeing Myron through the eyes of a teenager who doesn't exactly love him, and getting a different perspective on some of the things that happened in Coben's latest Myron tale, LIVE WIRE (released earlier this year) - though I wonder what some teen readers will think of Myron (if they haven't read Coben's adult books). He's more an an annoying uncle than a heroic leading man in this one.

Do you like reading teen fiction? What do you think of the increasing number of adult crime fiction writers turning their hands to the teen fiction market (eg Coben, Reichs, Grisham, Patterson, etc)? Which other adult authors would you like to see write teen fiction? Comments welcome.