The Innocent

By: Harlan Coben

Narrated by: Scott Brick

You never meant to kill him….

One night, Matt Hunter innocently tried to break up a fight—and ended up a killer. Now, nine years later, he’s an ex-con who takes nothing for granted. His wife, Olivia, is pregnant, and the two of them are closing on their dream house. But all it will take is one shocking, inexplicable call from Olivia’s phone to shatter Matt’s life a second time….

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.

Critic reviews

Praise for The Innocent

“What Coben does best is take readers into his characters’ hearts and minds. His protagonists are just common folks, minding their own business when—bam!—they are drawn into a terrifying world of sordid crimes and mayhem.”—USA Today

“A twist-filled triumph.”—Life

“Intriguing right up to the final chapter.”—Associated Press

“Coben does for thrillers what Hitchcock did for the movies.”—South Florida Sun-Sentinel

“Ranks as one of his most exciting.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Modern suburbia unravels in this latest puzzler from Coben...Don’t make the mistake of not reading it!”—Library Journal

“Jaw-dropping plot twists...Fans of rose-tinted nightmares [will] gasp their way through Matt’s free fall, scared and happy as kids on a roller coaster.”—Kirkus Reviews

Solid as a Brick

This book is filled with well developed characters whose arrays of virtues and flaws makes you both cheer them and scold them. The story evolves at a pace that is never too hurried or too slow. I mostly listen while commuting. I was so enthralled on one commute that I truly did not remember driving home. Please also note that Scott Brick's narration is often flawless. This performance does not disappoint. His juggling of so many voices often makes me think he must be afflicted (or blessed) with a multiple personality disorder. He is that good.

I'm Guilty!

Guilty of being sucked in from the start and seldom turning off my ipod. This grabbed my attention and never let go, despite its length. Scott Brick now feels like an old friend and it is a pleasure listening to anything that he narrates. There were a couple of scenes that were emotional by themselves, but with his added compassion and understanding of the characters, I was actually almost moved to tears, which makes me feel quite silly, but also is a testament to how deeply the characters are developed and how we get to know them and feel for them.
In addition, I am most certainly not good at predicting what will happen or who the "bad guy" is, but the ending made my mouth drop and a little gasp escaped me. All this while at the gym.

Most definitely and very highly recommended!!

Starts strong, finishes weak

Coben is one of my favorite authors. I've read and re-read most because I enjoyed them so much, getting lost in his wonderful stories and captivated by his characters. This started out like so many other Coben gems, strong and riveting right out of the gate. But it all started getting convoluted mid-way and by the end, the bad guys (and there were many of them) were ensnared in a complicated web that I no longer cared very much about. You see, most of the baddies were people we either never got to know at all, or were only vague shadows hanging out in the outer peripheries of the plot. Unlike most Coben villains, they didn't make the flesh crawl because they were strangers to the reader. And that was the fatal flaw in this story. I cared about a few of the characters but only slightly.

If you're a Coben fan, as I am, probably nothing I say will dissuade you from spending a credit or even real money on this book. Heck, Scott Brick is narrating so it's worth the price of admission, right?. But I thought it only right to prepare you for the inevitable disappointment. Even Coben, master of the thriller genre, is entitled to an occasional blunder, right? Well, this is it.

The Innocent

This has plot twist that will keep the you guessing until the end.

Intricate fun

The first half is slow, meticulous development leading to a non-stop second-half roller coaster ride. Definitely worth the buildup. After I finished it, I relistened to it immediately to better appreciate the skill of the author and the detail of the story.