The Innocent

By: Harlan Coben

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Some mistakes can change your life forever. For Matt Hunter, that mistake came in one terrible moment when his attempt to help a friend and stop a fight resulted in an accidental death. Matt was convicted of manslaughter and sent to prison. Time that his peers spent in college, Matt endured behind bars.

Now, nine years after his release from prison, his innocence long forgotten, he's an ex-con who takes nothing for granted. With his wife Olivia pregnant, and the two of them closing on a house in his hometown, things are looking up. Until the day Matt gets a shocking, inexplicable video call from Olivia's phone. And in an instant, the unraveling begins.

A mysterious man who begins tailing Matt turns up dead. A beloved nun is murdered. And local and federal authorities, including homicide investigator Loren Muse, a childhood schoolmate of Matt's with a troubled past of her own, see all signs pointing to a former criminal with one murder already under his belt...Matt Hunter. Unwilling to lose everything for a second time, Matt and Olivia are forced outside the law in a desperate attempt to save their future together.

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 us.

©2005 Harlan Coben (P)2005 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"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)

“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)

Great crime book

I loved the story and the way it’s told. Great listen for a murder mystery lover!

Intense but Enjoyable

Scott Brick has a voice that is easy to listen to making the novel more enjoyable. Coben's writing is always complex anf the The Innocent is no exception with multiple threads running in parallel through out the story. You know they are all going to join up at the end and guessing correctly how they do is part of what Coben is about.

Does not disappoint!

Harlan Coben is a terrific, story teller! This is my second listen in his lengthy book list. I've become a real fan! He weaves a tale that is full of suspense and emotional risk and keeps you listening needing to find out what happens! His characters are very well developed. We empathize easily with their plights.

Scott Brick does an excellent job.

Yes, I'd recommend this book to anyone that enjoys white knuckles and compulsive listening!! It is a great suspense!

Good listen

I admit struggling to finish it but I think it was more me than the book.

great thriller

loved it
kept me interested on a long drive
can't wait to listen to another Harlan Coben

New to this writer

Ok story enjoyed ending kept me entertained
The narrator was Scott brick and Steven Weber should be used as narrators all the time

Excellent!

Great listen! This is my second Harlan Coben and am hooked on his style of writing. Story is great and narrator does a great job!

Tooooo Long

Listening to the endless “dot-com, @ animee, @ etc, etc is very tedious. The study was only interesting when I sped the audio through all the computer language.

Amazing how Coben joins all the loose ends!

As usual Scott Brick is flawless!

This one is ok for grannies, but should be avoided by teens. The story involves Sex; Sexual locals & sexual professions are very much an integral part of the story. Also, violence, federal/police corruption, gun usage, & suicide.

This is one of Corben’s Mystery Noir books. Life is grittingly real. No one is perfect.

Being 67, I did have to relisten to the last hour about 3 times to fully understand how all the loose ends wound up. He did an excellent job of finalizing all the integrated parts.

I will probably listen to this one again in a few years. It is definitely worth a credit.

My only complaint is that this book downloaded in only about 12 one hour segments. I prefer when the books down load with breaks at the chapter marks. It’s just easier to back track when each chapter is a track or segment.

Good overall

It was a little sf if ffg cult for me to keep track of so many characters but was a very good book oversll.