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6th out of 20 books
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The Innocent
by
Harlan Coben
A gripping new novel from international bestseller Harlan Coben, author of the New York Times bestsellers Just One Look, No Second Chance, Gone for Good, and Tell No One.
Mass Market Paperbound, 503 pages
Published
April 25th 2006
by Signet Book
(first published January 1st 2000)
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This was my first Harlan Coben thriller and one of my two favourites. (I have now read them all except one of the out-of-print ones). I won't rehash the plot, you can get that elsewhere. What I will say is that I love the way in which Coben keeps up the momentum.
Unlike some authors, he doesn't save up his twists for the end, he scatters them liberally throughout the book. Nearly every chapter ends with a surprise, keeping the reader waiting until he returns to it later. He uses t...more
Unlike some authors, he doesn't save up his twists for the end, he scatters them liberally throughout the book. Nearly every chapter ends with a surprise, keeping the reader waiting until he returns to it later. He uses t...more
Harlan Coben confuses me, and not in necessarily a good way. I was concurrently reading two of his books Drop Shot, one of a series of books revolving around sports agent Myron Bolitar and The Innocent one of his random books of violence and mayhem. I personally am having a hard time finishing The Innocent,I keep putting it aside for other books. It's not that it's bad it's just that once the big secrets were revealed the book ceased to be interesting to me. I guess I'm glad I only paid 75 c...more
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I bought this book by Harlan Coben after spotting it in a used bookstore and literally not being able to put it down during the ten minutes I was in there. I was with someone who clearly wanted to leave, and I didn't want to leave the book, so I bought it. I usually hate adult books and this really wasn't much of an exception.
It has a really gripping opening and Coben maintains that pace for the entirety of the book, so it's truly a page-turner and I never really wanted to stop re...more
It has a really gripping opening and Coben maintains that pace for the entirety of the book, so it's truly a page-turner and I never really wanted to stop re...more
Coben is my new summer love. I've been reading everything I can get as my brain-candy whilst getting ready for a temporary move to the west coast. This particular book does what the best of Coben's do: create a sympathetic, sometimes stupid, good-hearted, slightly damaged hero who only survives because he has some seriously smart, devoted, interesting friends! Will rate it when I finish.
Okay, I'm done. And I'm disappointed! I just hate it when white guys write these decent thri...more
Okay, I'm done. And I'm disappointed! I just hate it when white guys write these decent thri...more
*spoilers* Read this in one day, which I wouldn't recommend. I had to finish it for book club! My head is still spinning trying to untangle the web and keep all the characters straight. Obviously written by a guy, with the storyline being about a hooker in Vegas, a macho frat house fight, and the clue to the unravelling is the serial number on the deceased woman's breast implants. I was on board with the whole story, until the end when you find out who Olivia's daughter is that she gave up for a...more
Enjoyed this book, Matt Hunter is travelling back to Uni with a friend they decide to stop off to see a friend then end up having a drink and staying A fight breaks out with Matt's friend and another guy Matt steps in and the outcome is the death of another youth. Matt goes to prison serves his time and joins a law firm on release, falls in love gets married and 'lives happily ever after' of course not it's a thriller after all. Some things were pretty predictable but not everything. All in ...more
Those who like Harlan Coben, seem to like him a lot. The Innocent was my first Coben book and while I didn’t love it, it did deliver enough curious twists and sympathetic characters to keep my interest.
The difficulty in writing about a suspense thriller is trying to avoid giving away too many important plot points. Briefly, he Innocent concerns Matt Hunter an ex-con (but only marginally because his crime was more accident than premeditated) who has returned to his home town( after se...more
The difficulty in writing about a suspense thriller is trying to avoid giving away too many important plot points. Briefly, he Innocent concerns Matt Hunter an ex-con (but only marginally because his crime was more accident than premeditated) who has returned to his home town( after se...more
As a long time fan of mystery and thriller novels this book completely satisfied my appetite for a good mystery. While I would not call this type of book quality literature, it was definitely a lot of fun. I must confess that curling up with these types of works at night along with a fistful of chocolate candies are a guilty pleasure of mine.
The Innocent was a fast paced book and this novel was comprised of several little mysteries that were interwoven into one large mystery. Clues a...more
The Innocent was a fast paced book and this novel was comprised of several little mysteries that were interwoven into one large mystery. Clues a...more
Hmmm. Not a bad book by any means, but having got to the end I'm still not one hundred percent clear on what happened. There were an awful lot of people, an awful lot of interwoven motives, and the result was like a seriously bad knot on my six year old's shoelaces that I can't seem to unpick. Also, I had difficulty swallowing the central change-of-identity...the complete personality and life change felt unlikely, somehow. On the other hand, Coben writes extremely well - the book is easy to read...more
The Innocent was a 'I'm at the beach with nothing else available but need something to read' book. meh. This is the second Coben I've read and it reminds me of the first. The first half of the story was enjoyable but then... whoosh! Coben just takes the story too far and makes too many twists. All plausibility goes flying out the window. I realize this is fiction. But fiction is more enjoyable when it could maybe/possibly/conceivably happen in real life. Coben's stories are just a little too far...more
A thriller by numbers that diminished in momentum and credibility the further it went on. Why is it that the hero in most of these best sellers is always one dimensional, while his wife/girlfriend is always this incredibly nice girl-next-door, but also brave, educated and who, it goes without saying, is a whore in the bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, hall stairs, garage, car and so on (but only with the hero, chaste with everyone else who lusts after her, which they all do.) Why is it that Elmore Leo...more
The Innocent by Harlan Coben
Harlan Coben is one of my favourite authors, but this book isn't one of his best. It started off, like all brilliant Coben books with several starts, all to be revealed at the end. I enjoyed the chapters in second person ('you do this...'), it made it much easier to see it from the main character, Matt Hunter's, point of view. I liked Matt and sympathised with him, but the story wasn't really about him, it was about his wife Olivia and all her secrets. I fel...more
Harlan Coben is one of my favourite authors, but this book isn't one of his best. It started off, like all brilliant Coben books with several starts, all to be revealed at the end. I enjoyed the chapters in second person ('you do this...'), it made it much easier to see it from the main character, Matt Hunter's, point of view. I liked Matt and sympathised with him, but the story wasn't really about him, it was about his wife Olivia and all her secrets. I fel...more
The owner of the Paperback Reader recommended this mystery to me because she likes Harlan Coben. If I had not been concerned with having to admit to her that I couldn't stand this book and couldn't finish reading it, I would have shelved it early. I did finish it so I will have something to talk to her about next trip---if she asks. This book taught me nothing new. No personal lessons, no new knowledge. In fact, I partially figured out the ending long before the ending. The story of a youn...more
Not only is Coben clever and entertaining, I think he understands and utilizes two concepts really well. People like familiarity, and good characters are worth bringing back. My favorite books of his are the Myron Bolitar books, but this is not one of them. He does, however, use characters he's used elsewhere, such as Loren Muse. This one is a page-turner just like all his others, with a strange balance of plot twists and predictability but he makes it work. Unlike the Bolitar books, I can'...more
Catherine Woodman
added it
I like the Myron Bolitar series, but these one-off books that Caben has done are in a lot of ways more rich in characters and details--they invovle people who he doesn't need to save for a follow up book, or have scenarios that set up the next, and somehow that is a better venue for his writing style. in this one we are introduced to an ex-con who got the short end of the justice stick, and his wife, who is not all that she appears--or at least it becomes clear why his being an ex-con is not su...more
Harlan Coben is a master storyteller. He has the extraordinary ability to take a number of seemingless unrelated threads and weave them together to create an intriguing tale.
Matt Hunter, a man with a new life since being released from prison, suddenly finds his idyllic existence with his pregnant wife, Olivia, threatened when he is thrown into the middle of a triple-murder investigation. Who were these victims and how do they tie to Matt? Then there's the small matter of Matt receiving...more
Matt Hunter, a man with a new life since being released from prison, suddenly finds his idyllic existence with his pregnant wife, Olivia, threatened when he is thrown into the middle of a triple-murder investigation. Who were these victims and how do they tie to Matt? Then there's the small matter of Matt receiving...more
I have never read anything by Harlan Coben before and to be truthful was not that interested in this one. I had accidentally forgotten to send my response to a book club and the book got sent to me. Overall I actually found this book pretty interesting. I don't like the way he starts and ends the stories trying to get you to imagine yourself as the character, but there were enough plot twists to keep me interested. He does jump around from character to character so if you don't like that sty...more
This is my first Coben book, without Myron Bolitar. It is certainly different, yet I enjoyed it, with all the twists and turns I expect. Matt Hunter is an ex-con trying to start a new life with his wife Olivia. Olivia is pregnant with their first child. Then a risque picture is sent to Matt, with Olivia in a compromising position with another man. Then a nun is murdered, and a detective also, and Matt is the prime suspect. This ignites a series of events that changes the lives of all invol...more
I didn't like this nearly as much as Gone For Good which is a little strange since in some ways it's almost the same book. I've read two Coben books now and seen one movie based on one and all three of them use the same basic plot device. It's gotten old. Also, this one took a lot more time for me to sort out the plot twists - the moments that were supposed to blow your mind didn't do it for me because I kept having to think back about what character did what. I think the problem is there were t...more
Mike Tueros
added it
Really can't go wrong with any of the Coben books - this is another of his "stand-alone" mystery/thrillers. Not my favorite of his - but still entertaining. Matt Hunter grows up in the perfect environment, but accidentally kills someone breaking up a fight while in college. After serving 10 years - he returns to society and starts anew. The mystery develops when his wife sends pictures via cell phone of a mystery man - and questions of her fidelity begin. A years old murder, and H...more
Another enjoyable Harlan Coben thriller. The story brought three different main character plots to a climactic end. A guy who'd had a reasonably priviledged upbringing but ended up in prison, some strippers down in Vegas and Reno and a female cop who has to contend with the FBI. To be fair, even if you haven't worked out who the bad guy is, by the time he is revealed it has been so well signposted you can feel goos about yourself in "beating the book to the conclusion". All the same, i...more
This was one of his earlier books. It didn't move as smoothly as the others I have read. There were a lot of twists and turns that made no sense to me. You had to read half of the book to get any connections.
I had read about three quarters of the book and dreamed about the ending as it was moving so slowly.
I dreamnt the the Innocent Man was in my bedroom asleep on the floor and just outside the door which was open, were two policemen asking questions of a young gi...more
Really liked this one... it's one of his earlier books, and it was interesting to see the differences between those books I've already listened to and this one.
One thing about this author - he has this quirk of making repeated mention of some new technology and technology is often a theme in his books. I'm OK with that, but I wish he would be a little more subtle about it. ALso, he tends to repeat phrases throughout his books a lot. I don't know if that's intentional (I hope so) but it bugs...more
One thing about this author - he has this quirk of making repeated mention of some new technology and technology is often a theme in his books. I'm OK with that, but I wish he would be a little more subtle about it. ALso, he tends to repeat phrases throughout his books a lot. I don't know if that's intentional (I hope so) but it bugs...more
This is the first Coben book that I have read and I really REALLY wanted to like it (thrillers are my guilty pleasure).. but it missed the mark for me. My main problem with the book was that there were just way too many characters to keep track of their individual story lines.. It seemed like a new important character was added in every chapter and then dropped and not mentioned again until multiple chapters later. I might have read the book too fast.. but this definitely did not make me excited...more
Well, this was certainly a good mystery, and I praise Harlan Coben for his ability to hide all the important details until the end when he unfolds the secrets and motives. I did not enjoy this book as much as I did "The Woods." I quickly became annoyed with Coben's writing style, the way our first two encounters with the main character Matt Hunter were written in second person (which is just weird), while the whole rest of the book is in third person, and the way that his dialog does ...more
Matt Hunter managed to become a normal person again after he did hard time for manslaughter. Nine years after his release, he gets a picture on his wife’s phone that leads him on a chase to find out more and save his future with his wife.
Although not as good as Harlan Coben’s previous standalone thrillers, Tell No One, No Second Chance, and Gone for Good, he manages to stay far above the average writer in this book, The Innocent. Coben always manages to fit more than enough excitement ...more
Although not as good as Harlan Coben’s previous standalone thrillers, Tell No One, No Second Chance, and Gone for Good, he manages to stay far above the average writer in this book, The Innocent. Coben always manages to fit more than enough excitement ...more
Although my friends Pierce Watters and Dave Gross recommended Harlan Coben to me years ago, they positioned his work as so raw and disturbing that I wasn’t sure I wanted any part of his work. I recently found a copy of The Innocent and decided that I shouldn’t let my squeamishness keep me away from one who was described as an extremely gifted writer. There was another reason I kept my distance from Coben. The New York Times Bestseller label is often as much of a hurdle to me as the skull and cro...more
Some mistakes can change your life forever. In "The Innocent" the past comes back with a vengence to haunt the lives of ex-convict Matt Hunter and his pregnant wife Olivia.
Nine years ago Matt went to prison for manslaughter, convicted for an accidental death that occurred when he attempted to help a friend. While his friends were in college, Matt was serving his time in prison. Now a free man and happily married, Matt will do anything to protect and maintain his new life. ...more
Nine years ago Matt went to prison for manslaughter, convicted for an accidental death that occurred when he attempted to help a friend. While his friends were in college, Matt was serving his time in prison. Now a free man and happily married, Matt will do anything to protect and maintain his new life. ...more
I really needed a change of pace and picked up this book that I inherited from a friend (thereby getting one book off my 'books I own and have never read shelf :) I have read one other Harlan Coben book. He writes a good suspense story. I had a really hard time putting it down. Formulaic? Maybe - I haven't read him enough to know if his books are 'all the same.' All I know is that he built up the suspense and maintained it pretty well throughout. It was a somewhat complicated plot, so reading it...more
This was a really good book. It was interesting and constantly Harlan Coben threw in new twists into the story. It is a book that makes you question whether you should regret the decisions you make, and the decisions you make will eventually haunt you years later. It also makes you question whether the people you know and love are telling the truth or a lie. What if all you knew about them was a lie? Matt Hunter, the main character in the book, had gotten into a fight as a college student t...more
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| the Innocent | 6 | 23 | Oct 24, 2011 05:58pm |
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International bestselling author Harlan Coben's last seven novels, The Woods, Promise Me, The Innocent, Just One Look, No Second Chance, Gone for Good, and Tell No One have appeared at the top of all the major bestseller lists, including The New York Times, Book Sense, The Times (London), Le Monde, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as many others throughout the Uni...more
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