Caught

By: Harlan Coben

Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie, Danny Campbell

Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

From the number-one New York Times best-selling master of suspense comes a fast-paced, emotion-packed novel about guilt, grief, and our capacity to forgive.

Seventeen-year-old Haley McWaid is a good girl, the pride of her suburban New Jersey family, captain of the lacrosse team, headed off to college next year with all the hopes and dreams her doting parents can pin on her. Which is why, when her mother wakes one morning to find that Haley never came home the night before, and three months quickly pass without word from the girl, the community assumes the worst.

Wendy Tynes is a reporter on a mission, to identify and bring down sexual predators via elaborate and nationally televised sting operations. Working with local police on her news program Caught in the Act, Wendy and her team have publicly shamed dozens of men by the time she encounters her latest target. Dan Mercer is a social worker known as a friend to troubled teens, but his story soon becomes more complicated than Wendy could have imagined.

In a novel that challenges as much as it thrills, filled with the astonishing tension and unseen suburban machinations that have become Coben's trademark, Caught tells the story of a missing girl, the community stunned by her loss, the predator who may have taken her, and the reporter who suddenly realizes she can't trust her own instincts about this story - or the motives of the people around her.

©2010 Harlan Coben (P)2010 Random House

Critic reviews

“The thrill-a-minute action zooms on sharp, slippery twists and turns in a white-knuckle race from start to finish.” (Number-one New York Times best-selling author Nora Roberts)

“With Caught, Harlan Coben knocked another one out of the park!” (Number-one New York Times best-selling author Lisa Jackson)

“A Tilt-a-Whirl of a story....Buckle up and prepare for whiplash.” (Number-one New York Times best-selling author Sandra Brown)

Decent Thriller - Needed to be Streamlined?

The audible version was interesting and pleasant enough to consume while driving around town for a week. The woman's voice who reads 95% of the novel is okay enough, but at times her voice sounded petulant when I didn't think the text called for it. I got used to her though.

I have read several Coben books (stand alone and Bolitar novels) over the years, and if you like Coben novels, you know what to expect with his latest effort. This is not as good as TELL NO ONE (a high water mark for Coben in my opinion), but it is better than HOLD TIGHT (which I found kind of unbelievable and overall less enjoyable). Granted, the plot of this novel strains credulity here and there, but generally the story moves and the conclusion makes sense in the larger aspects of the story.

I just wish some character motivations had been made clearer (without going into too much detail, a character's boss does a set of things in the novel that I don't quite understand and seemed to provide the character motivation as opposed to really making sense in what would happen in the "real world") - and some of the descriptions of character behavior (and technology) seem a bit off and outdated. For example, Tenafly was rapping about Charisma Carpenter? I'm a Buffy fan from way back, but would he really be rapping about someone whose acting heydey was nearly 10 years ago? I get this was supposed to be humorous and all, but it was lost on me and repeated a bit too often.

The plot has several twists and turns and while I think some events in the conclusion are predictable, not all of them are, so this should keep most readers guessing and interested throughout.

Pedophile, Murder, Salacious Reporting . . .More??

Now I will admit, this book sat on my iPod for more than 6 months. But once I got into it, wow! I could kid that it has everything people seem to want, should you watch the entertainment media (while cynical I believe an evening viewing would prove me true). But this has so many twists that you can't help but start to reflect on your own values and presumptions. And if a book of fiction can provoke that, what more can be asked of a novel.

If you believe that there has been a dangerous turn over the years away from news and toward the scandalous, but still love mysteries, this book is, or should be, a prime choice for you.

Great story line.

Loved it. Mystery right to the end. Lots of twists and a surprise ending. Couldn't stop listening.

Right or Wrong?

Made me ask, “What would you do?” Honestly I haven’t come up with the answer. Whether one keeps quiet or not, you still won’t have a day go by without knowing the truth which is punishment in itself.

A good read

Well written (as expected from Harlan Coben) though the plot seemed a bit 'stretched' at times.
Well performed.

Pretty good push through the middle

I’m glad this was recommended by a friend because it made me stick it out when things got a little slow in the middle. Over all absolutely worth the credit

Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book...

I normally savor my Harlan Cohen books, but this I listened to withing 3 days and I was completely into the story. You think you know....

Great story

The story was great! The narration not so much; it wasn’t so horrible that I couldn’t finish listening, but I definitely would not buy a book with these narrators by choice. They were not as bad as a lot of reviewers are making out though. The book is well worth a credit.

Kept me interested

Great for when I’m cleaning house doing dishes or running errands this story kept me interested and tuning in till the end

Good story too many characters

I am a big fan of Harlan Coben. I think he is an astonishingly creative writer with great stories. This story was hard for me to follow because I could not keep track of all the characters.

It was a complex group of interesting individuals, but too many to keep straight.