Home

Home (2016), by Harlan Coben, is a mystery-thriller and the 11th novel in the Myron Bolitar series. Myron is a former sports agent who solves crimes, and in this novel, Myron and his friend Win investigate a 10-year-old mystery. Two wealthy boys, one of whom was Win’s cousin, were abducted 10 years ago and never found. Win believes that he has found one of the boys in London, and the pair must work together to uncover the truth. Coben is known for his fast-paced thrillers and mysteries, and several of his books have been adapted for film and television, most notably Netflix’s The Stranger. This novel and the Myron Bolitar series deal with themes that include The Impact of Trauma on Individuals and Families, The Moral Dilemma Faced by Those Seeking Justice, and The Power of Childhood Bonds.

This guide uses the Kindle e-book edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide depict abduction, suicide and suicidal ideation, domestic violence, and the exploitation of minors.

Plot Summary

Win Lockwood, a wealthy investigator, approaches a young man in a seedy part of London. He is determined to locate—and verify the welfare of—Rhys Baldwin, Win’s cousin’s son, and Patrick Moore, two boys who disappeared 10 years ago at the age of six. Two strangers threaten him, and Win kills one of them with a straight razor.

Myron Bolitar is discussing the future with his fiancée, Terese, when Myron receives a phone call from Win, his best friend who went off the grid over a year ago. Win asks Myron to join him in London to find the boys, and Myron immediately agrees. Win gives Myron background on the case: During a playdate, 18-year-old au pair Vada Linna was tied up by armed men who abducted the boys. The families received a ransom note and paid the ransom of $2 million, but the money was never collected, and the boys never returned. 

Myron travels to London and meets up with Win. In Hampstead Heath, he locates a boy who leads him to Adventure Land, a run-down arcade. There, Myron is taken to a high-tech backroom where he meets a man known as “Fat Gandhi,” who knows the boys’ location and will exchange them for £200,000. At the drop-off, however, Fat Gandhi reveals that he actually just planned to kill Myron and take the money. Win detonates a bomb that deters Myron’s would-be assailants. Myron finds a group of trafficked teenagers hiding in a basement. He finds Patrick and thinks that he might have seen Rhys.

Patrick is admitted to the hospital, and his parents, Nancy and Hunter Moore, and Rhys’s parents, Brook and Chick Baldwin, fly to England. After the police finish interviewing Myron, he runs into Nancy. She is evasive, and Myron finds it odd that she and Hunter, her ex-husband, leave in a van together. He returns to the hospital and finds that Patrick has already left.

Myron and Win return to the US. Myron spends time with his nephew Mickey, who, along with his girlfriend, Ema, agrees to help Myron learn more about Patrick. Myron visits the Baldwins’ house, the scene of the kidnapping, and finds it difficult to believe that the kidnappers could’ve gone undetected. He meets the older siblings of Rhys and Patrick, Clark Baldwin and Francesca Moore, who are roommates at Columbia. Myron and Win also attempt to speak to Patrick but are blocked by his parents and a psychiatrist named Lionel.

Win flies to Rome, where he meets two men who play video games online with Fat Gandhi. He hires them to hack Fat Gandhi and discovers that he is in the Netherlands. When Win finds Fat Ghandi, the man tells him that he only recently met Patrick, and Patrick told him that Rhys is dead.

Meanwhile, Myron learns that the officer in charge of Patrick’s case, Neil Huber, is a former basketball coach. Neil agrees to speak to him, and Myron learns that Chick and Nancy were exchanging texts at the time of the boys’ disappearance. Myron begins to suspect that the boy who returned is not Patrick, and he enlists a forensic anthropologist and someone who can compare DNA samples. 

Myron goes to the Moores’ house, and Ema and Mickey meet him there with pizza. They spend time with Patrick to determine if he’s been connected to the world for the last 10 years. They conclude that he seems like a normal teenager and does not seem like he was kidnapped.

Myron and Esperanza, Myron’s former business partner, track Patrick through New York’s Times Square, where he meets a girl who kisses him. They follow her and learn that she is a wealthy student at a Swiss boarding school. Win learns that Vada Linna now lives under a new name in Finland; she is flying back to the US.

Win returns to the US, and he and Myron drive to Hunter’s lake house, where he is drinking with a rifle on his lap. He does not sound surprised to learn that Rhys is dead. They then meet Nancy and Patrick at Brooke’s house. Patrick tells Brooke that Rhys has been dead for years. He hits Myron.

Myron meets with Mr. Dixon, the fifth-grade teacher of Francesca and Clark, to learn more about their behavior when their siblings were abducted. Mr. Dixon tells him that Francesca was very upset because her parents were constantly fighting. Myron returns to Columbia to speak to Francesca. Win and Brooke drive to Hunter’s lake house, where they see Vada Linna. Win shoots Hunter in the leg.

Myron confronts Nancy with the truth: Francesca hid her father’s gun after she saw him drunkenly pointing it at her mother. Patrick found the gun and took it to a playdate, where he accidentally shot and killed Rhys. Now, Patrick calls Nancy and says he wants to die by suicide in the ravine where she buried Rhys. They immediately drive there and fear that they will not be able to talk him down, but Brooke arrives and succeeds in doing so. She takes the gun from Patrick.

Later, Myron realizes that Brooke still has the gun, even though Win told him that the police confiscated it. Win reveals to the reader that Brooke killed Nancy, and he helped dispose of her body. At Myron’s wedding, Win dances with Ema and reveals to the reader that he is her father.