Caught

By: Harlan Coben

Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie, Danny Campbell

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)

Too many twists and turns!

I like Coben's style of twisting and turning the story, however, in this book, he over does it. The story would of been alot better had it simply ended 3/4 the way through. It seemed an excersize in shoving in as many (too many) twists as possible in one story. By the end, I was just glad to be done.

Too many twists and turns in the last 40 min

What did you like best about Caught? What did you like least?

It kept my interest until the end but far too many twist and turns at the end of the book - it really made it a bit unbelievable

What do you think your next listen will be?

Personal by Lee Childs

great story shaky narration

the narration wasn't horrible but I always have a problem with women reading men's lines. as usual with Harlan Coben books a ton of elements fell into place for the grand finale and as always I have to listen to those chapters at least a couple times.

Dead is Dead...

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would not recommend that anyone purchase this book. It is an ok read/listen but if I had to purchase it all over again, I would not. I would just check it out from the library. I am new to Harlen Coben having only read two books prior to this one. The other two were great listens. This one - not so much. I would love to blame it on the narrator (think Nancy Grace) but this story was just - for lack of a better word - cheesy. If I did not know better I would have thought Caught was Coben's first novel - the one where the storyline is not quite terrible but you can sense the potential of the writer.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The promise of the story was intriguing. It has the right elements to draw in the listener - a child gone missing, an individual you are just not sure is a predator, you name it - but it went no where. This book is almost the equivalent of a Saturday Night Live spoof of a Law and Order episode.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The primary narrator is better served doing light-hearted material, maybe chick-lit, not mystery. I would not say she was terrible but this is absolutely not her genre.

Was Caught worth the listening time?

Yes and no - maybe with a different narrator the book would have had the right tone. This is just not the level of writing I expected from what little I know about Coben.

Any additional comments?

Did anyone else notice that at least two of the characters in the story are also characters in John Grisham's Sycamore Row? This might be one of the most memorable parts of the story.

Amazingly Refreshing Story Line

If you could sum up Caught in three words, what would they be?

Well Written Story

What was one of the most memorable moments of Caught?

The Ending Was Not Expecting That At All

What about Carrington MacDuffie and Danny Campbell ’s performance did you like?

Unique

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Nothing Is Ever As It Seems-Caught

Any additional comments?

I Really Enjoyed This Book It Was The First Of The Authors Books I Have Read Plan On Reading Many More

Surprise!

It took me a second to get into the narrator, it all meshes around mid Chapter 3. I did not see the "who done it" till the big reveal, very good listen.

Classic twists & turns

Just when you think you have it figured out - a new twist. Enjoyable listen.

Another winner

Loved this book. I am never disappointed in Harlan Coben. His writing catches everything and all his characters are interconnected.

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.

You Know What You Think You Know

Harlan Coben is at his best when he writes about the seamy underbelly of suburbia, in his case most often suburban New Jersey. Caught is firmly within that oeuvre. But Coben also adds some other element to his stories, which in Caught is tabloid TV -- no longer the force it was just about a decade ago when this book was written, what with TV propaganda having made tabloid TV seem downright quaint, but still a nice focal point for a story about a missing girl and the pedophile who possibly killed her.

Wendy Tynes is the star reporter of the tabloid TV show that pins the missing girl on the pedophile. But then things start to get complicated, as they always do in Coben's thrillers. Red herrings, subplots, reveals, and twists continue right down to the closing minutes. This is one mystery that was not easy to guess. There are some credulity defying coincidences and actions, but they don't really take anything away from the overall fun.

But plot is not enough to get to 5 stars. The characters have to be good. What I especially liked in Caught is that just about all of the supporting characters are quite good, starting with familiar ones like Win Lockwood and Hester Crimstein, the former a mainstay of the Bolitar series and star of his own eponymous entry, the latter the ace lawyer, herself a tabloid TV star, who will figure heavily in future Coben novels.

If you're already a fan, what's not to like? If you're new to Harlan Coben, what's not to like?