Book review: The Stranger by Harlan Coben - How would you react if a mysterious stranger revealed a loved ones life changing secret?

 Harlan Coben doesn’t just deal us the dirt in this one, he deals us the consequences , the emotions, the arguments for and against and a damn good story to boot.  His skill is in taking the little things and making them big, in seeing simplicity and making it complex, in telling a story and then building up the tension...  This is The Stranger 

It’s a routine meeting at his son’s lacrosse club, nothing unusual, nothing notable until … The Stranger reveals the secret his wife has kept from him for two years.  Adam is thrown into an emotional maelstrom which, as events unfold reveal the wider impact of the stranger‘s revelations, leading Adam and his family into dangerous waters that will change their lives forever.

What  I love about Harlan Coben's stories is the fact that they deal with ordinary lives made extra ordinary by a chance event… in this case the delivery of a secret by ‘The Stranger’ that impacts the characters’ lives in many different ways.   

Coben’s books have soul and The Stranger is no exception.  The life and heart he injects into the characters pulls at our guts and has us hooked from the start.  The fact that we, as readers, can see ourselves so clearly in some of the characters makes his writing real and relevant.  It makes us question the characters actions and their motives and, if we’re honest, Coben prompts us to wonder what we would do in these situations.

The Stranger packs a punch, keeps you guessing and has a brilliant twist at the end that, I think, was the perfect ending for a perfect book.  

Release Date 26th March 2015 Available in kindle £7.47 HB £9.99

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Stranger-Harlan-Coben/dp/1409144631/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1426513586&sr=1-1