39. Caught by Harlan Coben

listened on Chirp
388 pgs.

2010
Adult mystery
Finished 4/30/24
Goodreads rating: 4.01
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary NJ

My comments:   A TV journalist/reporter investigates an alleged pedophile's crimes after his murder.  She goes on to investigate him and his four Princeton college roommates, coming up with more and more information that doesn't add up.  And then it finally does.  There are a few places that I had to withhold belief, but 80% of the story is decent and believable. I guess.  Maybe.  I read this in bits and pieces whilst falling asleep over the last month. 

Goodreads synopsis:  17 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.

TV Show - Safe

Premiered: 5/10/2018
Season 1, Complete
Number of Episodes:  8
Length of Episode:
IMBd: 7.3
RT Critic's Consensus:  Safe boasts a superb cast -- albeit with some questionable accents -- who carry its soapy, mystery-laden drama just well enough to offer an entertaining diversion.
RT Audience Score:  71 / 76
cag:  5
Produced by: Netflix

Characters:
Father: Tom Delaney (Michael C. Hall)
His best friend & fellow doctor, Pete
His two daughters, one who disappears

My comments:  A Harlan Coben Movie!!!  Set in England with an American actor as the lead playing a British doctor.  Another of Coben's really cool mysteries that have all sorts of possibilities, twists and turns, with wonderful characters and actors  Totally enjoyable.

Storyline from IMBd: After his teenage daughter goes missing, a widowed surgeon begins uncovering dark secrets of the people closest to him.
Storyline from Rotten Tomatoes:  A widower maintains normalcy after the death of his wife until one day, his daughter goes missing, and he begins to uncover buried secrets of their seemingly secure gated community.

86. Run Away by Harlan Coben

listened to on Audible
read by Steven Webber (yes, THAT Steven Webber!)
Unabridged audio (10:20)
2019 Grand Central Publishing
385 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 9/8/2019
Goodreads rating: 4.09 - 21,689 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting:  Contemporary NYC

First line/s:  "Simon sat on a bench in Central Park - in Strawberry Fields to be more precise - and felt his heart shatter."

My comments:  This book was one heck of a roller coaster ride!  And I'm not even sure how I feel about it as I finish, because some of the relationships just seemed a little bit off.  Simon's love for his wife, Ingrid, was pure and would never waiver, but I still don't understand exactly why.  Because she was beautiful?  That part wasn't made clear at all, he just idolized and adored her.  In a way that was the crux of the whole story, which is what's leaving me a little off.  You're just supposed to understand this without any explanation.  Oh well.  It was a great whodunnit and Harlan Coben sure can spin a tale!  I LOVED listening to Steven Weber's flawless reading.  Of course, in my mind, Simon now looks exactly like Mr. Weber.   Yum.

Goodreads synopsis:  She's addicted to drugs and to an abusive boyfriend. And she's made it clear that she doesn't want to be found.
          Then, quite by chance, you see her busking in New York's Central Park.
          but she's not the girl you remember. This woman is wasted, frightened and clearly in trouble.
          You don't stop to think. You approach her, beg her to come home.
          She runs. 
          And you follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed. Where criminal gangs rule, where drugs are the main currency, and murder is commonplace.
          Now it's your life on the line. And nowhere and no one is safe.

TV Series - The Five

Premiered: 2016
Called a "tv mini series"
Number of Episodes: 10
Length of Episode:
IMBd: 7.7
RT Audience Score: 79
cag: 6
Produced by: Netflix

My comments:  Created by Harlan Coben and set in England, this mystery is so good!  Four friends come together to finally solve a mystery that has troubled them for twenty years - the disappearance of five-year-old Jess - the younger brother of one of them.  Now a lawyer, a cop, a doctor, and a

Storyline from IMBd: Childhood friends Mark, Danny, Slade, and Pru are reunited when DNA evidence left at a murder scene is revealed to be that of Jesse, Mark's younger brother, twenty years after he disappeared while playing in the park with the four friends.