Review: The Stranger by Harlan Coben

The Stranger by Harlan Coben

Dutton (est. 1852), Published by the Penguin Group, A Penguin Random House Company, 2015

My Review (3 Stars: Liked It!)

Author, Harlan Coben writes many catchy observations or short commentaries about mundane upper middle-class living and not so mundane events throughout The Stranger.  His writing is filled with one interesting sentence after the next.

The story is basically a mystery.  A stranger reveals a secret to Adam Price about his wife.  Soon after being confronted by Adam, his wife Corrine disappears leaving a text message, saying that she needs some time apart…just a few days.

Coben raises the question, How far will anyone go to protect their family?

This book was my first selection for 2016.  It was a good choice, an easy read, not too complicated and enjoyable.  Was it a page turner type mystery for me? No.  Maybe that was due more to my being distracted over the holidays and saving it to read on New Year’s Day.

On the 1st, I picked it up at about half-way through and quickly completed it that day (in-between visiting other blogs).  As I found in a previous novel, Six Years, by Coben, I was compelled by his easy-going writing style.

It was my turn to present books for my book club to choose from.  I’m glad they chose this one.  I hope they found it as good of a choice for a busy time of year as I did.

First Paragraph (or two)

Chapter 1

The stranger didn’t shatter Adam’s world all at once.

That was what Adam Price would tell himself later, but that was a lie.  Adam somehow knew right away, right from the very first sentence, that the life he had known as a content suburban married father of two was forever gone.  It was a simple sentence on the face of it, but there was something in the tone , something knowing and even caring, that let Adam know that nothing would ever be the same.

My Other Review

Review: Six Years by Harlan Coben

I enjoyed Six Years by Harlan Coben. I found the book to be, not too serious, emotional or complicated. The main character, Jake Fisher (a college professor), speaks to the reader in a pleasant, kind of funny, engaging conversational tone which drew me right into the story. I was compelled, either by the author’s writing style, the contemporary setting or the plot, to turn the pages.  I quickly read this book in two days.  So, I would recommend it as a light summer read.

About The Author (from the jacket cover)

HARLAN COBEN is the internationally bestselling author of more than twenty previous novels, including the #1 New York Times bestselling Missing You, Six Years, Stay Close, Live Wire, Caught, Long Last, and Hold Tight, as well as the Myron Brother series and, more recently, a series aimed at young adults, featuring Myron’s nephew, Mickey Bolivar.  The winner of the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards, he lives in New Jersey.