Reviews

Caught by Harlan Coben

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sianw1992's review against another edition

3.0

The first Harlan Coben book I read took me less than twenty four hours. I read it solid, couldn't put it down. Since then I have been a massive fan of his. I prefer the stand alone novels to the Myron Bolitar series and one or two of the books I found a little predictable or I guessed the ending, (which I don't like to do!) but this wasn't one of them.
We first meet Dan Mercer, the coach for a hockey team of foster and orphan children. He's going to see a girl named Chynna who needs his help. As soon as he arrives he gets jumped on by a camera crew led by reporter Wendy Tynes, who picks up the narrative from then on.
I like the way Coben writes Dan Mercer, you feel like you're in his head and that you understand the man. From the off I got a judgement of him and I never doubted him. I won't say too much because I'll give away the story.
Wendy Tynes is a decent female lead, and strong, which I particularly admire, but can be a little annoying at times. Her sense of humour is great, and she gets sarcastic quickly which I relate to. Her faith in the other characters is also interesting.
The only thing that I didn't really like about this story is the American High School stuff, and I know, seeing as it's set in America and about a missing school girl, it has to be, but I find it all a bit cringey. The couples are all high school sweethearts and I doubt that's the case in real life.
The ending also fell a bit flat for me. I had my sneaking suspicions all along that it had to be one of a few people, so I wasn't shocked at the ending, not as much as I like to be at the end of a Harlan Coben thriller!

johnny92m's review against another edition

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4.0

I’ve said it before, but no one manages to build a world like Harlan Coben. In just a few hundred pages he’s creates so many fleshed out characters, expounding on rich histories and even tapping into some folks from his most popular continual series. This entry is no different.

Some dialogue didn’t flow as easily/truthfully as previous works, but it’s still an incredible work of fiction that further cements Mr. Coben as one of my favorite authors!

newt90's review

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slow-paced

3.0

Ok. I’m not sure about this one. This book kind of threw me because I thought I was used to the style of the author and then I read this. I gave it a low ish score because I got a bit bored of it. Paedophilia accusations and a man is murdered? Then you get a reporter who becomes a detective. The police don’t seem interested and everyone solves the murders . It’s a bit dry for me but that’s just my opinion. The only saving grace was the cameo role by the character Win. The super rich blonde bombshell multi billionaire friend of Myron Bolitar. That character cheered me up because I know him from the Bolitar series but the rest of the characters ? I still need convincing

chippywatts's review

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No

3.25

Too many implausible twists at the end spoiled it a bit. Good author though but maybe trying too hard on this one

rina58's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

ronathereader's review

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3.0

Took me a while to get through this, because of various things happening in my life, otherwise I would have read this book a lot quicker.

While the premise was good, the story started becoming pretty unbelievable towards the end, and there were just too many characters and mini plots, obscuring the main story. It was OK, nothing special.