Customer Reviews

The Innocent

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One squeeze too hard on the throat of another college student, was all it took to ruin the life of Matt Hunter, a 20 year old student, who was involved in a fatal bar room brawl. Matt was sent to jail for 4 years, completely altering his life, his prospects and his plans to become a lawyer. After meeting and marrying his lovely wife, Olivia, everything seemed to go wrong:just as they discover that Olivia is pregnant, vile photos, seemingly picturing Olivia with another man, appear on Matt's cell phone. Olivia reveals her rather sordid past to Matt and then their world collapses with murders, beatings and threats to involve Matt with other crimes, because of his past record and involvement with a pair of crooked FBI men. A major part of the story takes place in Reno and is connected with a team of erotic dancers with whom Olivia was formerly entangled. The ending became a tad too busy for my taste, but I still give the book 4 stars for an entertaining read.

I would have to say that Harlan Coben did and even better job in this book than he had in Tell no one, which I absolutely loved. This book targets every different kind of plot that people love to read; murder, suspense, and humor, and mystery, romance. It hits all of them. The story is focused on a married couple, Matt and Olivia Hunter who both individually have guilty pasts. Matt kills a man on accident while breaking up a fight. Olivia changing her name to cover up her history which she also keeps from her husband. Many years after their separate lives, they meet each other and fall in love. Their story is typical five years after marriage they are having a baby. But one by one horrible things happen in their town. A nun is killed, and a few other connected people. Their pasts start haunting them through these events. It's page turning. Something happens where at the end of the chapter you are only told so much, and then something new in the next chapter, I couldn't stop reading this book until every question was answered. Trust from Olivia is question when she goes away for a business "conference" and then Matt receives a picture while at work of a smirk man from Olivia's phone, then minutes after a video of his wife and the man. All of the searching for answers about where his wife is and what she is doing lead Matt Hunter in doubt. The cops then think he is a suspect in the murders that had been going on because of a phone call made from his sister-in-laws to the nun that was killed. The end is absolutely crazy. You are just excited about how it is all going to end and when you think that the questions were in fact answered even when they weren't the ones you wanted.Then,bam! The real finale happens which to me was a very pleasing ending. I would recommend this to book lovers and non-book lovers.

Let me get this off my chest. I really, really want to like Harlen Coben's books. Really. He's got an easy style of writing and his set-ups are some of the best in the business; they can just suck you into the story after a page or two, as is the case here. The story concerns Matt Hunter, is prosecuted and endures four long years of prison time after accidentally(?) choking and killing another young man during a drunken brawl at a frat party.

Morality, faith, family, life, death - murder. Juicy topics beautifully set up and ready for the reader to delve into.

Unfortunately, this isn't a novel that explores the big questions. No, this is a Harlan Coben thriller, and Harlan writes thrillers with preposterous, outrageously complicated plots involving whacked-out supporting characters that are so unbelievable...

Well.

A few years down the road, we find Matt, now married to the beautiful, pregnant Olivia Hunter; working as a grunt in his dead brothers law firm and trying to come to peace with his past. Olivia insists that they buy a pair of new, matching camera phones, so Matt won't miss a second of the soon-to-come Precious Moments.

Then Olivia goes off on a 'business trip'. The next day, Matt gets a call from Olivia on his new camera phone. Just a picture of a mysterious man. Crazy enough. And then seconds later, another call, this time with a short, tantalizing video feed featuring that mysterious man and a woman.

A woman who looks suspiciously like Olivia, disguised in a blonde wig, lying on a bed...

From here the whole thing just gets absurd, with zany characters all around, and crazy plot twist piling on crazy plot twist so fast your head'll spin. Matt hires Cingle, an Amazon/Playboy playmate/private detective, to help him track down the guy in the video. A con game featuring a mysteriously murdered nun and a dead hermaphrodite stripper from Olivia's past goes horribly wrong. Loren Muse - a New Jersey county investigator and an old acquaintance of Matt's - investigates the nun's seemingly innocent death, only to run into a pair of murderous, rogue FBI agents. And on and on. After the ball gets rolling, you'll need a list to keep track of everything going on.

The big payoff is just plain silly, and Harlan, as usual, leaves no plot thread ragged. After the series of unbelievable 'surprise' conclusions, Coben works really hard to make the whole thing entertaining and to tie everything up with a nice, fuzzy bow.

I really believe Coben has a solid, creepy thriller in him somewhere, bubbling around in the dark corners of his imagination. Unfortunately, he keeps pandering to the masses, throwing everything into his books but the kitchen sink.

So another best seller or no, I finished with The Innocent a little disappointed. At least I finished, which may be the biggest praise I can give this novel. Maybe next time...

i always like harlan coben's books, especially the myron bolitar series, where the main guy is this average joe with not much skills in anything excpet being a bit atheletic and have a big social circle for being a nice guy.

the innocent is ctually a fast paced story. simple to read but with a complicated and interesting plot. harlan coben will keep you in suspense, with a general plot that is intriguing with twista nad surprises to the last page. the story is also laced with mini plots,keeping you hooked on the whole story. a new problem or headache appearing just as the previous one is settled. making this story very fast moving.

with twists and surprises until the last page, you will be entertianed right after the introduction of all the characters. it starts with a prolougues, and the story begins from 2 very different and seemingly unrelated tales. they later merge beautifully just as you wonder how something so different can be related.

brilliant!

"The Innocent" is the first book I've read by Harlan Coben, and it will not be the last! Coben has a gift..the gift of getting a reader hooked from the first sentence and never letting them go. For me, reading about Matt Hunter, excon, the supposed "innocent" and his adventure in trying to clear his name was like being on a roller coaster that has many twists and turns. Everyone in his life and path all fit into his search into help solving a string of murders. This is brilliantly written! Coben is a new author for me and i will be reading more of his work.

'The Innocent' seems to classic Harlan Coben material. That is, it is a well crafted thriller with many plot twists and an almost incomprehensible ending. Yes, lots of murder and mayhem. Fine characterizations and silky smooth prose. But after gobbling down these 500 pages in no time I sense it was nothing more than empty calories. Although better written than most, it's a beach/travel sort of read. The book also feels like a derivative of almost every other paperback mystery found on supermarket shelves. After all, how many ways can you spin the "wife has a secret" shtick without it appearing contrived?


Bottom line: the words go down easy but you'll forget all about 'The Innocent' in no time. Enjoyable mystery without taxing the brain.

My preference from Harlan Coben are his Myron Bolitar books. This one, although interesting, is not as fun filled as the "Myron" series.

A Harlan Coben novel that I didn't read cover to cover without hating to put it down. Not sure why, but this one didn't "GRAB" me like all of his others have to date. Still, a good read, just not one of my favs of his!

This was the first of Harlan Coben's books that I read. I truly enjoyed reading the book from beginning to end. This is one of those books that I wish didn't end.

I love coben, his writing is superb, but there were some serious holes in this one and how everything impossibly fell into place at the end. but I agree, anything by him is better that a lot of stuff out there, so I will read anything that appears by him.