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) 

Duped

It's hard for me to say 100% how I feel about this book due to the bait and switch with the narrator. I pick my audiobooks extremely carefully, just as often due to the narrator or quality of narration. This particular reader, Carrington MacDuffie I had never heard of so... I played the sample. After hearing a male narrator with a pleasant enough sounding voice, I purchased the book.
Due to the fact that the actual narrators name could be either male or female, I naturally assumed it was male because of the sample provided. Wrong. As far as I can tell the sample reader only reads the lead-in, although I can't be positive he does not appear anywhere else due to the fact it is unlistenable. There are certain genres and titles where a female narrator is just fine, but in my opinion they tend to caricaturize male voices, making them sound ridiculous. Picture your mom talking to you sternly as a child. This one is no different. Women characters sound just fine, but the males to a man sound like a bad noir film. I am disappointed Mr Coben did not choose Scott Brick, but at least he did not attempt to read it himself again. The story seems interesting, but the misleading sample really left a bad taste in my mouth. So, members beware: The sample is not the narrator!

Couldn't finish it

I have several hundred books in my Audible library and this may be the worst. Don't know how much of it is the narrator, though. All the male characters sound like Mae West. Just awful. Had to delete it without finishing, and I usually slog through it no matter how bad it is.

disappointed

I always order Harlan Coben this is one of few I have gotten thru audible. The narration is very difficult to listen to. I am only on chapter 5 and I only hope it improves! The narration I mean! Coben writes books that are amazing.

It's Coben at his best!!

The narration was a bit off-putting at first, Scott Brick or Harlan Coben himself might have been better, but by about the third chapter I didn't care who was reading it. It was the story and the story was really great. Twists and turns are Coben's style and this stand alone novel does not disappoint. It was especially nice to see Win again along with a few others from the Bolitar series. If you're a Coben fan, you'll love it. If you just like a good story, this works.

Agree and Disagree with other reviewers

Yes the narration was pretty bad, ok, really bad. The story however, I liked for the following reasons: the premise of someone being accused of molestation and the what if they are innocent conflict is interesting, the realistic portrayal of the relationship between the mother and her teen son was very dear really, and because I recently saw on J. Seinfeld's reality TV show featuring married couples, a bit about a middle-aged white guy as wanna-be rapper, I found this bit of the story very funny actually.
I also agree with the other reviewers that some parts of the story are not very realistic, but hey it kept my interest and I enjoyed the book overall, you might too.

Great stand alone for Coben

Coben fans will enjoy another of his twisty mysteries. This is not a Myron Bolitar novel but it does feature a few crossover scenes with Win and brief mentions of other Cobenverse regulars.

For non Coben fans it's a quick read/listen mystery filled with twists and turns and unique characters. It's a good listen.

Narrator the least of the problems

I agree that the narrator is bad, but, beyond, that this book is worse. There is very little, if anything, thrilling or suspenseful about it, especially when compared with Tell No One and No Second Chance. It is hard to care about any of the characters. Their internal dialogue is repetitive and not true to character (or what should have been character, if there had been any). I was annoyed by all the references to current technology. In fact, that seemed to be the whole point to the book. Many of the scenes seemed ridiculous to me - the whole rapper thing - I could barely listen to that - the parents tramping through the woods searching for their daughter - would they really be allowed to do that? - the reporter escaping from the trailer - how did she manage that? I kept waiting for something interesting to happen but gave up 3/4 of the way through the book. Most every other Harlan Coben book has been tightly written and suspenseful, or, at least interesting and plot-driven, but this one is a huge disappointment.

Latest and Last

I have listened to and greatly enjoyed several Harlan Coben books but his latest will be my last. What a disappointment! The plot is ridiculously fantastic. The big catch phrase is "Dead is dead." How enlightening. I couldn't work up an interest in let alone empathy for any of the characters, all of whom said and did odd things. If you happen to be in AA, this might be a good gift for the rest of your group - anti-alcohol and pro-forgiveness are two themes, which actually might not have been bad had they not been handled in such a heavy handed manner.

This was a real contrast to the last three books I listened to, Lion by Nelson DeMille, Innocent by Scott Turow and Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes, all of which were excellent. I should add that the narrator of this book - while I don't envy what she had to work with - did nothing to improve on the written word.

Overall, a waste of several hours of listening time.

Narrator "Over the Top"

Starts out alright, but the narrator gets carried away with overplaying the characters. Finally deleted the book, and requested a credit, before I finished the first segment. We both love Harlan Coban, but this book would be better read old style. Gave it one star because "How do you rate this?" requires at least one. Too bad, because that tilts the average higher than it might be...

Who Wrote This?

I look forward to Harlan Coben's books. Caught was a big disappointment. It seemed to me like someone else wrote it. It rambled on and on with no focus or direction. Hester Krimstine and Ten-a-fly were irritating charters.