THE STRANGER by Harlan Coben

Finished Th 11/2/18

This was a paperback that Cindy gave me from Chris's collection in late September.

OVERALL PREMISE-

A small group of people is traveling the country revealing people's deepest and darkest equipment. They have an almost religious intensity because they believe that only when the secret is revealed, can healing begin. Usually it's a man and a woman, and the man identifies himself as 'the stranger'.

Adam Price learns that his wife faked a pregnancy. 'The stranger' contacts Adam at his son's lacrosse practice (sons; Tom- 16 yrs. old, Ryan- 12 yrs. old). Corine is Adam's wife.

Later we find that the reason that Corine 'faked' the pregnancy several years before was that she had tracking device on all of her family's phones. One day she noticed that Adam had visited the home of one of his female legal assistants- Adam's a lawyer. She thought that he was having an affair- he wasn't, but the pregnancy angle was Corine's way of bringing Adam and her back together.

Adam confronts Corine.  'The stranger' told him to check out an online website and he learned that this site specialized in selling things so that a woman could fake a pregnancy. Adam receives a text from Corine and it tells him that 'it's not what you think, and I need a few days; take care of the kids'.

SUBPLOT-

Two other women have been murdered and seem to be linked to Corine's disappearance. A middle aged woman in Ohio, Heidi, is shot in the knee and shot in the head.

Heidi's daughter was going to college in NYC and has become involved in an online escort service to make extra money. This is 'the secret' that 'the stranger' told Heidi.


 Police chief Johanna Griffin was friends with Heidi and she becomes involved in the case. The county authorities focus on Heidi's husband, but Johanna knows that isn't possible. She teams up with Adam and they share all their info.

Corine is the treasurer of the lacrosse league and it's learned that when Corine leaves there is also thousands of dollars missing from the lacrosse league.

Tripp Evans was also an officer of the lacrosse league and he's the one who has stolen the money and murdered Corine. In the end he shows Adam where he buried Corine and sets it up so that Adam will shot and kill him. He wants his family to get the insurance money because he's lost all of his money. He used to be a high powered lawyer, but no longer.

Tripp hired an outside security agency to find info on Corine so that she could be framed for the money that he had stolen.

When Adam shots and kills Tripp Johanna is there (but Adam didn't know) and she arranges the murder scene to look like self defense. 

This novel is similar to the writing style of David Baldacci- simple style with a dynamite story-line.

After this book I'm beginning Greg Iles's Mississippi Trilogy, and the writing is miles above Coben or Baldacci and also has a dynamite story-line. It ain't Either/ Or, it can be both.