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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Apr 2005, 352 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2006, 528 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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A twisting, turning, emotionally charged story, and a compelling tale of the choices we make and the repercussions that never leave us.
Some mistakes can change your life forever. For
Matt Hunter, that mistake came in one terrible moment when his attempt to help a
friend and stop a fight resulted in an accidental death. Matt was convicted
of
manslaughter and sent to prison. Time that his peers spent in college, Matt
endured behind bars.
Now nine years after his release from prison, his innocence long forgotten,
he's an ex-con who takes nothing for granted. With his wife Olivia pregnant and
the two of them closing on a house in his home town, things are looking up.
Until the day Matt gets a shocking, inexplicable video call from Olivia's phone.
And in an instant, the unraveling begins.
A mysterious man who begins tailing Matt turns up dead. A beloved nun is
murdered. And local and federal authorities—including homicide investigator,
Loren Muse, a childhood schoolmate of Matt's with a troubled past of her own—see
all signs pointing to a former criminal with one murder already under his
belt...Matt Hunter. Unwilling to lose everything for a second time, Matt and
Olivia are forced outside the law in a desperate attempt to save their future
together.
An electrifying thrill-ride of a novel that peeks behind the white picket
fences of suburbia, The Innocent is at once a twisting, turning,
emotionally charged story, and a compelling tale of the choices we make and the
repercussions that never leave us.
Prologue
You never meant to kill him.
Your name is Matt Hunter. You are twenty years old. You grew up
in an upper-middle-class suburb in northern New Jersey, not far
from Manhattan. You live on the poorer side of town, but it's a
pretty wealthy town. Your parents work hard and love you
unconditionally. You are a middle child. You have an older brother
whom you worship, and a younger sister whom you tolerate.
Like every kid in your town, you grow up worrying about your
future and what college you will get into. You work hard enough and
get good, if not spectacular, grades. Your average is an A minus.
You don't make the top ten percent but you're close. You have decent
extracurricular activities, including a stint as treasurer of the
school. You are a letterman for both ...
There's a direct correlation between the quality of meals in our house and how much I'm enjoying the audio book that I happen to be listening to. Suffice to say that for the two to three days it took me to listen to The Innocent the family sat down to three-course meals each night in a kitchen that positively gleamed with polishing - instead of the usual all hands on deck scramble to get something on the table!
Coben had me hooked from the first chapter with an all too credible scenario. By the time the plot reached its denouement, and the credibility had long since stretched to the point of improbability I couldn't have cared less - I'd signed on for the ride and was enjoying every minute rooting for the good guys- right up to the somewhat too tidy but eminently satisfying ending!..continued
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Harlan Coben was born in Newark, New Jersey. After graduating
from Amherst College as a political science major, he
worked in the travel industry. He has won each of the
three big mystery awards - the Edgar, the Agatha, and the Shamus. He now lives in New
Jersey with his wife, Anne Armstrong-Coben MD, medical
director of Covenant House in Newark, and their four
children.
He is the author of 8 mystery/thrillers about sports
agent Myron Bolitar, and a number of standalone novels:
Myron Bolitar Thrillers
Deal Breakerer (1995)
Drop Shot (1996)
Fade Away (1996)...
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