The Innocent

As a matter of fact, my least of all his I’ve read, which has been a lot.

Sister Mary Rose, a nun in New Jersey dies. She had breast implants. Why? Was she not who she appeared to be? One of the last calls she made was to Matt Hunter's Sister-in-Law. Matt got in a fight in college and accidently killed a man. He spent four years in jail. Years ago he met a girl in Las Vegas, she's back in his life now, having been East on business and accidently (or not) running into Matt. They marry and she gets pregnant. Years ago in Vegas a stripper was murdered, now her daughter is trying to find her birth mother. An FBI agent thinks maybe the nun's last call might have been to Matt. Matt gets photos of his pregnant wife with another man. That other man seems to be taunting Matt. A childhood chum of Matt's, who is not a cop, seems to want to put Matt back in the slammer. Matt doesn't want to go. And from the above Harlan Coben weaves a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. How does he do it? It's simply beyond me. Every Coben book seems to be better, twister, faster, more fun than the last. I swear if the man wrote a book a day I'd die of sleep depravation.

A couple of years back, I read Harlan Coben's "Tell No One" in one sitting while on the beach for a day in Gloucester, MA. I had never been so riveted by a book, and had never even heard of this author before. I actively seek out his books now, and his latest, "The Innocent", does not disappoint. In his protagonist, Matt Hunter, Coben creates a main character who readers will immediately root for. The story continuously offers new twists and turns, that are impossible to figure out ahead of time. This is a fantastic summer read, and I truly, highly recommend it!

Those familiar with Harlan Coben's series featuring sports agent sometimes detective Myron Bolitar will delight in this gifted author's latest book, The Innocent. Joining other stand alone books of Mr. oben's like Tell No One and Gone for Good, this book takes its rightful place along with the above mentioned as being a hair raising roller coaster of a read. And one which I imagine most readers will love as I did when Mr. Coben's newest book around the asks the age old question, do we really and truly know the person we're married to. To day this is a really good suspsense book and will have yoru emotions going up and down as the suspsense mounts is an understatemnt. Matt Hunter is 20 years old when during a vacation from a college vacation, he is involved in a brawl and accidentally kills a college student. Although he ha dlittle do with instigating the fight and merely was trying to help a friend, Matt is found at the scene whiel others scurried away and stands trial for the death of another college student. While this most likely was an accident and he may be innocent he is found guilty by a jury and is sentenced to spend several years in prison. Needless to say, as a young suburban man, Matt is less than prepared for prison life but manages to stay alive. When he leaves prison four years later he is taken under the wing of his older brother,a laywer with a prestigious NJ firm which eventually hire Matt as a paralegal. But life for Matt as a convicted felon will never be the same. Now it is nine years later, Matt's brother is dead from a brain aneurysm and his father is also gone. Matt's mother and sister live far away but he still helps out his sister in law and his two nephews. Matt also continues to work for the same law firm as before but he is now mrried to a wonderful woman, Olivia and they are expecting their first child.He is also about to close on a home in his old neighborhhod and Matt cn't help but think that life is good. But when his wife convinces him to buy two cell phones which can send pictures, this sets in motion a series of events which have Matt wondering who Olivia really is and why is his life spiraling downwards. on one otherwise ordinary day Matt's phone rings and the sights he sees will once again change life as he knew it. And we as readers now embark alogn with Matt on a whirwind and well thought out plot stretching from New Jerey to Nevada with a cast of characters we come to know and enjoy. This was a real good read, much better than Coben's last two books, No Second Chance and Just One Look, in my opinion. The characters are fully developed and we are privy to not only what is happening now but what happened to them in the past as well. Readers are able to feel all of the emotions as this story takes off and doesn't let go. One slight change from Mr. Coben's other stand alone books and main characters is that, Matt Hunter isn't quite as sarcastic as other characters found in this author's oth

Harlan Coben is a total master of his craft. In "The Innocent" Coben weaves a very complex plot, populates with believable characters and, at the end, leaves you disappointed that the book has drawn to a close. You want more. More of Matt Hunter, who accidentally killed someone in a college brawl. More of Loren Muse, the intelligent, conflicted investigator who thinks Hunter is involved with current murders. More of Olivia Hunter, Matt's pregnant wife who wants nothing more than an ordinary life. And more of all the characters Coben creates. He is that good. The story is not simple. Coben's plotting reminds me of a gnarly tree: it starts at the bottom with a trunk and than branches off with some of the branches intertwining with others. Stories and characters overlap, but not to point of confusion. Coben is a master. In "The Innocent," he has written a superb mystery thriller. Ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances and doing what they must to survive --- if the bad folks don't kill them first. Superb. Jerry