The Innocent

In my humble opinion, Harlan Coben is one of today's best mystery and thriller writers and stands above all of the rest. I agree with another reviewer who said that Harlan on a bad day is still better than many on their best days.Having said that, The Innocent, wasn't Mr. Coben's greatest endeavor to date. While still a page turner, his novels are becoming formulaic and you just expect twists and turns.This is a story of a guy(Matt)who was convicted of murder, spending 4 years in jail when, in actuality, it was an accidental killing and "our hero" was just trying to stop a barroom brawl. Usually I can go with Mr Coben's flights of fantasy, but he lost me right here, in the beginning. Matt's family could afford a good lawyer and in today's world, Matt would be a lawyer himself "with a past." Matt's wife has a past of her own unknown to Matt. Using the old picture in a cell phone trick, Coben is off to the races and doesn't stop until the last page. The pace is fast, there are some surprising twists (although I had many of them figured out), but I never did "warm up" to the characters. The truth of the matter is that while I certainly wanted to see what happened, I really didn't care enough about the characters for it to matter if the ending was happy or not.From another author, this would be a very good story. From Harlan Coben, it is only good.

Coben spins a complex tail as only he can with memorable characters, surprising plot twists and more questions than answers that keep you spellbound until the last paragraph.

I probably say this in every review. The best !Yes, the best I’ve read my Harlan Coben . Thank you

Great read! I loved the twists and turns and the unexpected. I also loved the spell-binding journey to get to the final resolution filled with mystery and intrigue.

I enjoyed his book - as usual. Always has enough complications and twists to keep it interesting. Looking forward to my next Coben read.