Caught

Dan Mercer comes from an impoverished past, growing up in foster care after his parents die. He works with trouble kids, trying to keep them on the right path. Until the night, Chynna calls, and life has he knows it is over. Arriving at the house with the red door, Dan feels uneasy, but is here to make sure Chynna is okay. And then it happens, he is "Caught" on the tv and accused of being an internet predator...

The evidence quickly piles against him, as he denies the accusation. Wendy Tynes, the reporter on the case, thinks she's made it big, until her case quickly is torn apart by the defense team, and Dan is found not guilty. Wendy is fired from her job, and when she witnesses Dan's murder, she finds herself determined to find out the show more truth. Call it intuition, call it a hunch, but something isn't adding up, and Wendy finds herself wondering if she just helped an innocent man get murdered.

Twenty years worth of secrets begin to unravel as Wendy finds herself digging deeper not only into Dan's life and murder, but also into the murder of Haley McQuaid, a missing teen...that may or may not be linked to Dan Mercer.

As always, Harlan doesn't disappoint...but then again, I may just be his Annie Wilkes. :) show less

I love his writing & sense of humor! It was nice to see little cameos from Coben's other series on Myron Bolitar. The story is intense. I think I liked it so well because I've thought about the nature of American Justice & if those accused of especially henious crimes are really ever "innocent until proven guilty". How just the accusation can ruin a person's life. Coben handled it well, without settling for an easy answer to that moral question.

TV Tabloid reporter Wendy Tynes is on a mission to identify and bring down sexual predators via televised sting operations. Her latest target is a social worker known as a friend to troubled teens.
Meanwhile, a seventeen-year-old girl disappears. Her family hears nothing for three months and now everyone assumes the worst. As a community struggles to cope with the loss of the missing girl, and the predator who may have taken her, Wendy realizes she can’t trust her own instincts or the motives of the people around her.

The story also has a fascinating and realistically flawed heroine in Wendy Tynes. I started off really disliking her only to find myself sympathetic as the story progressed. Wendy’s determination to find out the real show more truth about what’s been going on, even to the point where it puts her own career in doubt, is admirable, and she certainly needs every ounce of that determination when faced with the twists and turns of the complex plot.

I don't often read Harlan Coben and I'm not sure why. I'll definitely make sure I read more in the future. show less

This thriller is beautifully made. It is about a journalist who makes a mistake, accusing an innocent man of pedophilia (or is he innocent?)
It is well writen, fascinating and well worth reading.
However, it is a very sad story, and what I like in thrillers is usually that the good guys win at the end. It is all chiaroscuro here, the twilight zone of ethics. When I want that, I rather read Sartre or Kafka. But I blame myself for being disappointed, not Harlan Coben: you cannot blame a writer for writing a good book.

Ok, I had vowed that if this book annoyed or bored me as badly as the last couple of Coben's books, this was the last of his that I was reading. Well, I'll be reading his next publication. Coben did an great job on this. He took two seemingly unrelated stories and managed to weave them intricately and beautifully together. The twists and turns at the end were completely plausible. One point of the ending I had actually guessed at, but at another point in the story, I figured I was wrong. It was nice to see brief flashes of old favorite characters from previous stories showing up plausibly in this new tale without feeling forced.

I highly recommend this book if you're a fan of Coben, or just well written thrillers.

From Amazon:

Reporter Wendy Tynes is making a name for herself, bringing down sexual offenders on nationally-televised sting operations. But when social worker Dan Mercer walks into her trap, and is tied to the disappearance of a seventeen-year-old New Jersey girl, the shocking consequences will have Wendy doubting her instincts about the motives of the people around her.

My Thoughts:

As with most of Harlan Coben's books, he never takes the obvious choice in his books. In Caught, just when you think you see where the stories are going, something gets thrown in the mix that changes your views. What could have been a book about sexual predators turns into something much more...an examination of the cost of holding grudges and modern show more parenting. He creates characters that we can easily identify with and come to care about. Each one is thrown into situations that could be easily ripped straight from today's local or national news. The storytelling is solid and the mystery keeps you guessing until the very end and I can almost guarantee your guesses will be wrong. But, hey...that's the fun in a good mystery and this one is one of the best. show less

My opinion: Harlan Coben definitely did not disappoint! I have loved all of his books and this is no exception. This story starts out centered around two major plots: Dan Mercer is accused of trying to have sex with a minor in one of those undercover stings (where the people pretend to be 14 year old girls in chat rooms to lure predators into getting caught), and the disappearance of a young girl, Haley McWaid. Dan goes from being an advocate for troubled teens to being the pariah of the town. Everyone is out to get him. Wendy, the reporter who helped trap Dan, goes to him to hear his side of the story, as he continues to proclaim his innocence. When she gets there however, she witnesses his murder...and as more and more of the story show more comes to light, she begins to wonder if maybe he was telling the truth and she instrumental in getting him killed. Haley McWaid is still missing, the parents sure that she has not run away because she is a good, happy girl with a lot going for her. They have no leads and no clues. Slowly these two stories begin to mesh together. There are so many twists and turns you won't know what to think. And the end will leave you speechless
I loved the characters, I think we can all relate. I myself have watched the show To Catch A Predator, and always think "Wow, those guys are sick. I'm so glad they caught them before they could do any harm!". But what if someone was falsely accused? It would certainly ruin their reputation and their lives. I liked Wendy because instead of just saying "Oh well he died, I guess we can all move on", she took her suspicions and ran with it, investigating what really happened even though no one else cared to look into it. And you know what made me super happy? Win makes an appearance in this book! He's always been my favorite in the Myron books, I just love how snobby he always sounds, but he's so lethal. Not to mention hilarious. I thought it was funny how Wendy was remembering the time she hooked up with him and still lusted after him; I kept thinking "Honey keep dreaming, Win will never settle down". I really enjoyed this book because it made it impossible to put down; so many mysteries and twists so that when I finally thought I had it all figured out, it threw me for a loop. Definitely read this one, you won't be disappointed!

My rating: 5/5 stars show less