Caught by Harlan Coben - book review

 I started this book at around 3 AM one night, unable to sleep and wrapped it up by 8AM same day. At that time, I was still in the second part of Silent Parade which i had started almost a month back!!! Netflix seems to've bought all of Coben's novels and have made them into web series. The catch being that, most of them are set in Baltic or Eastern European region. So right from character names to the lead actors almost everything is European about it!! Naama enamo Americala poranthu valantha pola, somehow the American setup, seems to have a sense of familiarity about it that is strictly lacking in Europe, especially Baltic or Scandinavia, based stories. While the book was much easy a quick read, having been based on America, seems like the series by the same name, is set in Poland. For the first time, i get to see a Coben series, after reading the book. And going by the first episode, seems they've tweaked the story majorly!!! Adhey kadhai thaanannu lighta doubt coming. Fulla paathutu will comment.

The story is about how a man, accused of being a pedo, is caught in the act by a reporter. He is shunned by everyone and manages to wriggle out of the case by a sharp shooter of an attorney, using every legal loop hole available. He asks for a private meeting with the reporter and while claiming his innocence is shot dead by a masked man who attacks the reporter as well. After escaping from that near death situation, the reporter lady, tries to dig around the past of the accused person and finds some contradicting information, that leads her to his college mates, five of whom where room mates with the deceased accused. Every one of them seem to have been hit by a sting operation, that had exposed their dirty deed in public, shaming them and destroying their professional and private lives. As she digs in more, it all points to one incident that happened during their college life that seems to have set things several years later in motion, resulting in each of them being exposed. Things begin to hit closer to home when the reporter finds herself to be on the target radar and gets caught in a scam. As she realizes the falsehood behind the purported scam, she manages to find the common factor behind all the exposes and eventually ends up meeting the real hand behind all those issues. There is a twist in the end that should've been visible right from the moment it was initiated, but kudos to the author for keeping the readers at bay, throwing their focus into different directions. 

It is not a groundbreaking novel nor it is a super exciting thriller. But even while reading it felt like a screen play written for the big screen rather than a pocket size pulp fiction novel. But it is super fast and quite pacy a read. Ardha raathiri owls like me can enjoy reading it to beat their insomnia.