Innocent - Softcover

Harlan Coben

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1407208152 ISBN 13: 9781407208152

Publisher: Columbia Marketing Ltd, 2007

Synopsis

Matt Hunter's life has already been blown away once. At the age of twenty, he got into a fight outside a party and accidentally killed someone. That momentary lapse of reason cost him four years in gaol, and a small sliver of his soul. But when he got out he set about rebuilding his life. He carved himself a job as a lawyer and married a beautiful woman. The break in the road seems to have only made him a stronger person. However, when he receives a strange video message on his mobile phone and he realises that a very bad man is following him, his new existence is suddenly under threat. Why is this ex-con on his tail, and who really is this woman he has married? Suddenly Matt can't trust anybody - least of all those he loves...

About this title

About the Author

Harlan Coben was the first ever author to win all three major crime awards in the US, and has established a best-selling series of crime novels starring his powerful creation, Myron Bolitar. He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and four children.

Reviews

Once listeners get past an awkward prologue told in second person, present tense ("Your name is Matt Hunter. You are 20 years old..."), this twisty thriller reverts to the more familiar objective point of view, and the combination of Coben's yarn spinning and Brick's crisp, thoughtful narration mesmerizes. Listeners are drawn into the nightmare world of Matt Hunter who, in that off-putting prologue, is attacked by a gang of drunken frat boys, accidentally kills one of them, is found guilty of murder, serves four years of hard time, picks up the pieces of his life, marries a loving woman and is on the cusp of fatherhood when he receives an ominous phone call. And that's just for openers. A master manipulator, Coben keeps the story in constant motion, shifting from Hunter's travails to those of homicide detective Loren Muse, a lapsed Catholic who's investigating the murder of a nun with breast implants. The pace is fast and furious as Hunter and Muse race along their collision course, but Brick's cool, calculated delivery helps listeners hang on through the hairpin turns. From an African-American hooker and an aging mother superior to a hard-boiled ex-con and a sexy private eye, Brick conjures a proper vocal match for every character. Indeed, the combined efforts of author and narrator make for such an electrifying listen that an epilogue reverting to that second-person point of view barely dilutes this overall satisfying experience. Simultaneous release with the Dutton hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 7).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

*Starred Review* Thriller writer Coben (who has won the Edgar, the Shamus, and the Anthony Awards, the trifecta of mystery writing) specializes in adapting technology to new and terrifying uses. What Hitchcock did for the shower, Coben does for the cell phone. In his latest, a newly pregnant wife convinces her husband, Matt Hunter, who has severe though irrational misgivings, that they should buy a camera phone so they don't miss a minute of parenthood. She leaves on a business trip, and quicker than you can think, "Photo incoming," the husband receives an image of his wife with another man in a hotel room. Someone starts tailing the husband. A nun is murdered. The suspect is the devastated husband, Matt Hunter, because he accidentally killed another college student in a street brawl nine years before. Coben's prologue, which traces young Matt Hunter from childhood through the moment on spring break when his life broke, sending him into prison for four years, succeeds in getting you to care deeply about his main character--and fast. The shadow of Matt's past lends richness to his desperation to clear himself and to his agony that his newly reconstructed life may be ripped away. As usual with Coben, an intriguing start, hinging on one out-of-whack technological trick, hurtles into a fast-paced hunter-and-hunted drama. First-rate. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Harlan Coben is a master at turning ordinary lives upside down. In THE INNOCENT, a man's life is coming apart---for the second time. Matt Hunter, an ex-con trying to live down his past, is jolted from his suburban life when he becomes the prime suspect in a murder. In the prologue, Scott Brick's narration introduces a guileless Matt, the innocent Maine college boy who tries to break up a fight and causes a death. Later, released from prison, Brick is appropriately cautious as Matt reenters society and beleaguered when Matt tries to find out the truth. Murder and menace color even the most improbable situations, and Brick makes it all believable. Coben's serpentine plot twists and Brick's intense performance make this choice listening. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Edition details

• Publisher: Columbia Marketing Ltd
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: French
• ISBN 10: 1407208152
• ISBN 13: 9781407208152
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 439