The long wait for Myron is over

May 23, 10.11am

The Tesco in our town is very small and pretty crap, so I very rarely visit it. But this morning I needed to get some coriander (for a pesto to go with some haddock I bought in the fishmonger across the road). It is one of the secrets of the success of Tesco that customers end up buying stuff they hadn't gone into because it is skilfully merchandised in key areas of the store. And it worked this morning as I ended up spending £8.97 on a Promise Me by Harlan Coben, the long-awaited (by me anyway) return of Myron Bolitar, wise-cracking, mystery-solving agent of sporting superstars.

This is the first time (I can recall) that I have bought a book from a supermarket. Although you read a lot about how independent bookstores are struggling to compete with discounting supermarkets, I have always wondered if it was really true. I buy more books than just about anyone I know and I don't buy from them (although I do buy from Amazon - although rarely on price, just convenience) so I started speculating about whether this might just be a myth that's become accepted as a truth. The supermarket I do frequent more regularly doesn't sell books at all, except during Harry Potter season.( There was a fabulous article in yesterday's Guardian on the future of independent book retailers which started me thinking on this.)

But having bought Promise Me without even really thinking about it, I think I can see the point. Although I didn't look at the price until I'd finished buying, at £8.97 it is cheaper than Amazon, if only by 2p (plus the postage, I suppose) and is probably only a couple of quid more than back catalogue paperbacks would be in the town's independent store, and probably five less than this book. Bizarrely, the book came packaged with a free torch. I'm not sure  if this is to facilitate reading after my wife has ordered lights out or because it will help me solve some clue later in the book, and I don't suppose I'll ever find out.

But, even without the torch, I can see that this is a bit of a bargain, and that those shoppers who are more sensible with their money than I am would see Tesco as a good destination for them.

The question now is when can I start reading it. I'm getting close to the end of Pelagia - having finally cracked the name game, and am really enjoying The March which offers a fascinating insight into one of the more controversial issue of the American Civil War: Sherman's destruction of the south.

But I have been waiting for this book since 2002, when during the same visit to Murder One in which I complained to Harlan Coben that Tell No One had kept me up all night, I also complained that he hadn't written any new Myron lately. He didn't appreciate it. One of the others may well have to wait.