The Innocent by Harlan Coben Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Innocent
Book Review: Good, but convoluted
Summary: 3 Stars
I am a big fan of Harlan Coben and anxiously awaited this book. Like most of his books, this one requires a healthy dose of suspended disbelief. However, I found I could only suspend it so far. About three quarters of the way through, it just got too crazy. And, unlike any Coben book before, I figured out the ending before I got there (I won't reveal it and be a spoiler). However, I liked the characters and the story and anything by Coben is better then most of the stuff out thereBook Review: Worth the time and money...
Summary: 5 Stars
I am the lone holdout in a family of people who read thrillers and mysteries at an astonishing level. They get passed from hand to hand until they end up with me, unread, collecting dust on my bookshelves. There have been a few exceptions to my indifference to the genres over the years, and Harlan Coben is one of them. His books are amazingly well written, like well crafted suspence movies that keep you glued to the screen. His characters have more depth than I have come to expect in this genre. And he weaves in a lot of topical and fascinating details (like black market identity theft) that make the books at times feel like investigative journalism.
I read an advance copy of "The Innocent" a few weeks ago and was hooked from the opening pages. There are a few Coben trademarks that make it a little easier to predict twists once you've read a few of them. I won't give away what they are, I will just say that this story is clearly from the same person who wrote "Gone For Good" and "Tell No One." This book, like the others I've read, goes on a little bit too long (maybe one too many subplots) and ties up a little too neatly, but it is worth the money.
Book Review: The past comes back to haunt a young couple.
Summary: 4 Stars
In Harlen Coben's latest novel, "The Innocent," Matt Hunter is a man looking for redemption. He is an ex-con, having spent four years in prison for accidentally killing a fellow college student during a fight. Now, he has a beautiful wife, Olivia, and they are expecting their first child. Against all odds, Matt is looking forward to a bright future. However, everything changes when Matt receives a picture on his camera phone that shows his wife in a hotel room with another man. Matt wonders if Olivia is really the loyal and loving wife that she appears to be.
In a seemingly unrelated matter, a sixty-two year old nun is murdered in a Catholic convent, and Essex County, New Jersey homicide investigator Loren Muse is on the case. It turns out that the nun was hiding a shocking secret, and Muse's investigation into her death may shed light on Olivia Hunter's past. "The Innocent" is a dark tale of blackmail, greed, corruption, and vengeance. Coben ends his story with a host of startling revelations and lengthy explanations that attempt to clarify the plot's twists and turns.
Matt and Olivia Hunter are likeable characters and much of the dialogue in "The Innocent" is clever, lively, and funny. I especially liked a story line about Matt's talks with the mother of the man he killed. Their conversations are haunting and poignant. The problem with this novel is that as it progresses, it becomes ridiculously complicated, with an ending so preposterous that it had me scratching my head in disbelief. Coben is a talented writer, but he tends to create overly convoluted stories that are akin to Rube Goldberg contraptions with dozens of moving parts. When the creaky plot machinery gets in the way of character development and realism, the story loses steam. If Coben had streamlined his story and constructed it with more care, "The Innocent" might have been a more effective, exciting, and suspenseful thriller.
Book Review: Thank you, Harlan.
Summary: 5 Stars
I made the mistake of starting this on a Tuesday morning, read until I had to leave for work, read at lunch, and stayed up way too late to finish it. As always with Coben, it was suspenseful, exciting and full of twists and turns. But one of the things I like best about his work is that he never loses the dimensionality and strength of his characters in the action. You know who they are and what motivates them, which gives the book a bit more depth than your basic thriller. The story includes the themes of love, trust, loyalty, friendship, forgiveness, commitment and family. In the U.S. edition, you even receive a special treat in the form of a Myron/Win short story at the end of the book. Highly recommended.Book Review: fabulous thriller
Summary: 4 Stars
Nine years ago Matt Hunter tried to break up a fight between two college cronies when he accidentally killed one of the combatants. Matt spent four years in prison for involuntary manslaughter. Over the next five years, Matt rehabilitated his life, becoming a paralegal and getting married to Olivia, who loves him and is pregnant with his child.
Olivia calls on her video phone to enable Matt to see her wearing a blonde wig in a strange hotel room with an unknown man. Not long afterward that male stranger begins calling Matt, mocking him about his inability to keep his loving wife and snidely asking who is the father of the unborn Olivia carries is . While Matt struggles in disbelief that his treasured Olivia could have been playing a game of affection to abet in destroying him other seemingly unrelated incidents happen. Matt tries to become the predator rather than a scurrying rodent in a dangerous cat and mouse game.
Harlan Coben's aficionados always appreciate his hairpin twists, but this time might need more than JUST ONE LOOK at this fabulous thriller as the plot takes turns and detours that will shock everyone at the cost of believability but no one will care. The story line moves forward at a frantic pace with a beleaguered Matt wondering if he has NO SECOND CHANCE for what seemingly was a wonderful life that now seems so illus- ional. Readers will feel for the shell-shocked Matt, but enjoy every traumatic twirl that happens to him while rooting for him to successfully fight back. Wild and weaving all over the place, fans will take immense delight with this out of control serpentine plot.