The Innocent Hardback - 2005

by Coben, Harlan

Some mistakes can change your life forever.

The horror of one night is forever etched in Matt Hunter's memory: the night he innocently tried to break up a fight and ended up a killer. 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 home town, 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.

Includes the exclusive short story
Rise and Fall of SuperD
Featuring Myron Bolitar

Advanced Praise:

'Coben surpasses Jeffrey Deaver as the most generous plotter in the thriller racket'
Kirkus (starred review)

'Coben seems to delight in making bad things happen to good people, and he does it again in this, his best book to date.'
Publishers Weekly

For Just One Look

'Harlan Coben is the modern master of the hook-and-twist--luring you in on the first page, only to shock you on the last.'
--Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code

'Stocked with fascinatingly creepy characters, Coben's keeps-you-guessing mystery is terrifying. The tension doesn't build slowly; it snaps and crackles right from the get-goThe only plausible reason for setting down this book is to make sure your front door is locked and double-bolted.'
People

'[Just One Look] is so well-written and compelling. . . .It's only when the last page turns that the reader has a chance to breathe, say Wow!' and marvel at the impressively interconnected structure. . . . Just One Look opens up over many pages like an elegantly constructed puzzle box.'
San Jose Mercury News

'Just as Alfred Hitchcock carved out a niche with films about a seemingly innocent person caught in machinations beyond comprehension, Harlan Coben is earning a reputation for creating the literary equivalent. . . . Just One Look delivers more than its share of thrills and keeps us engrossed by the strong characters and fast-clipped plot. . . . Hitchcock would be envious.'
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

'What Hitchcock did for the shower, Coben does for the cell phone... As usual with Coben, an intriguing start, hinging on one out-of-whack technological trick, hurtles into a fast-paced hunter-and-hunted drama. First rate.'
--Booklist (starred review)