Guest Post by Liz Goralewski

Caught, by Harlan Coban ($32.99, Orion)

Wendy Tynes is a reporter on a mission: weed out sex offender scum and bring ‘em down. When she comes across supposed paedophile Dan Mercer, her job becomes a lot more complicated and involved. The evidence against him isn’t as rock-solid as she’d like, and the case built against him gets thrown out, and all charges dropped. Add in the disappearance of overachieving teen Haley McWaid, and you’ve got yourself one pickle of a crime. 

Bestselling author Harlan Coben’s latest novel is Caught, a story of revenge, mistakes and life lessons. Before I make any judgements on this, I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of crime/thriller novels (that is to say, I’ve never read this genre before), so I began reading it in a very cautious state of mind. I wasn’t really looking forward to the story at all. But, Coben’s writing style can put ant literary critique at ease. He writes with such clarity of voice and intention, only using the words that are entirely necessary. We’re given the story and the all the details we need to follow it. Apart from that, he puts the right amount of emotion into scenes, not overdoing it to the point of nausea. My favourite way of saying this: no nonsense, no crap, no Selley’s No-More-Gap.  

Readers should be very thankful for this simplified style of story writing. If it were anymore complicated and cluttered, the numerous twists of the plot may have been lost in translation. This story is action-packed, for lack of a better term. Big hooks and revelations aplenty in every chapter, on every page, and with each chapter, the twists get more twisted, and the revelations increase in numbers. In fact, the revelations come right up until the epilogue of the story, the final one coming from an almost-forgotten plot point. Once again, readers should be thankful for the sweet simplicity of the writing. If not for that, I’d probably be too confused to write this review. I’d still be trying to  figure out what happened to who. 

The characters in this story were mostly straightforward. Again, nothing too multifaceted. But, I don’t think Coben knew exactly how to write some of the characters. Being a 40-something writer, he probably has to  go by his observations and what he sees in films and other literature. The teenagers, for example, came out extremely stereotyped. ’Nuf said.

Relationships between some of the characters played a major role in the uncovering of revelations. At the same time, the relationships that weren’t directly linked to the plot had little to no focus on them. Good. Less crap, more relevant story. 

Now, while it may seem that I’ve only praised Coben, I do have one pretty big problem with this book: it almost became a life lesson. At my age, I probably don’t have quite the appreciation of these as I should, but the lesson is so simple (there’s that word again) and preaching, that it does call for some annoyed eye-rolling. Contemplation and lack of confidence in their own choices showed up a lot in the main characters, echoing the need for a life lesson within the book. Cringe. 

Overall, this book is probably perfect for it’s target audience – the middle-aged family people. The themes that are brought up are mostly relevant only to them, and so for an early-20s reader, the novel may come across as admonishing. But, with Harlan Coben’s charmingly smooth writing style, it’s easy to get pulled into the story.

Liz Goralewski is a constant reader, half-time thinker, and writer in between. Currently studying English and History at Sydney University, she hopes one day that her young adult urban fantasy will be published and adored. She loves her husband and her cats more than any number of Reese’s Cups. And that’s saying something.