#1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense Harlan Coben delivers his most shocking thriller yet, proving that a well-placed lie can help build a wonderful life - and a secret has the same explosive power to destroy it.

The Stranger appears out of nowhere, perhaps in a bar or a parking lot or at the grocery store. His identity is unknown. His motives are unclear. His information is undeniable. Then he whispers a few words in your ear and disappears, leaving you picking up the pieces of your shattered world.

Adam Price has a lot to lose: a comfortable marriage to a beautiful woman, two wonderful sons, and all the trappings of the American dream: a big house, a good job, a seemingly perfect life.

Then he runs into the Stranger. When he learns a devastating secret about his wife, Corinne, he confronts her, and the mirage of perfection disappears as if it never existed at all. Soon Adam finds himself tangled in something far darker than even Corinne's deception and realizes that if he doesn't make exactly the right moves, the conspiracy he's stumbled into will not only ruin lives - it will end them.

Listening Length

9 hours and 43 minutes
Author

Harlan Coben
Narrator

George Newbern
Audible release date

March 24 2015
Language

English
Publisher

Brilliance Audio
ASIN

B071ZR5N1N
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	9 hours and 43 minutes
Author	Harlan Coben
Narrator	George Newbern
Audible.ca Release Date	March 24 2015
Publisher	Brilliance Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B071ZR5N1N
Best Sellers Rank	#37,399 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #799 in Crime Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals) #906 in Psychological Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals) #2,349 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

41,818 global ratings

5 star		41%
4 star		37%
3 star		15%
2 star		5%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from Canada

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ladykit

It's an interesting read.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 19, 2023

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Complicated plot but interesting.

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marsha l. reid

Harlan Coben fans will not be disappointed

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 3, 2015

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I"m a big Harlan Coben fan and was not dissappointed by his latest, The Stranger. A very ingenious plot, fast paced, held my interest to the very end. Adam and his wife are living the American dream, with two young boys in an affluent New Jersey community. He is a successful lawyer, she's a school teacher active in the local school's lacrosse team. One day a stranger comes up to Adam and tells Adam that his wife lied about a pregnancy. This hits a nerve with Adam and unsettles him, as his wife did lose a baby a few years ago or so she claims. When he confronts her, she is evasive and then suddenly disappears leaving only a text message saying she needs some time to sort things out. Adam can't let go. He needs to track down the Stranger who told him this very personal piece of information and find out how he knew this and find his wife. In doing so, he sets off a chain of events that can't be predicted. How far will he go to protect his family?

10 people found this helpful

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Robert P. Brown

Far From His Best

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 23, 2016

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Having read all of his books, I, along with other reviewers, am a big Coben fan, but unlike many of their four and five star raves, I have to say, this is far from his best.

To begin with, there is the unlikely premise that a group of amateurs can gain access through the internet to uncover secrets in a person`s life in order to blackmail them. Then the killings that take place in the book are off the charts, the motivations unrealistic. There is a lot of filler. As each character is introduced, and there`s a lot of them, we get their entire life history and a detailed description of the environment in which they appear.

The good news is, the 450 odd pages can be skimmed in a couple of hours and none of the story will be lost. Time for Coben to get back to Myron Bolitar and Win and give the thrillers a rest.

3 people found this helpful

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Robert Johnson

Just as good as the original.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 28, 2021

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Great instructions on YouTube for removing and replacing the pads. And as I mentioned above they are just as good, if not better than the original pads.

Helpful

Edmund

typical coben

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 21, 2020

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interesting story

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lyntrom

So many twists to this mystery!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 28, 2020

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The author pulls you into this story very quickly in an unexpected way and the mystery begins. Every time you suspect that you know where it may go, there is another twist. It's easy to see why this was chosen for a Netflix series.

Helpful

jaycee 2

Great read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 20, 2020

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Book was rather deep but a good book. Book better than movie.

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Carolyn

Harlan Coben has been one of my favorite mystery writers

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 4, 2015

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Harlan Coben has been one of my favorite mystery writers , but I was disappointed with this book. I understand I am in the minority here as most readers have rated it highly. I found the many supporting characters lacked sufficient development to make them interesting to me. Coben is the master of suspense and surprising twists, but thought it lacked character development. You may guess the direction it is going from the Gone Girl story, and you may be wrong.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

A. Linton

Starts out well but soon comes a cropper

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 10, 2015

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I have to be honest that the main thing which attracted me to this book was the kindle price of £1.99. I feel sorry for anyone who paid the full price - they really didn't get a lot for their money. The book started out ok, in fact I felt Coben was writing better than ever - his characters seemed flawed and believable rather than the black and white certainties of other books of his that I've read. The idea is a good one and if fleshed out properly, this might have been an ok read. Corrine is rather an unusual Coben heroine - her secret is a rather petty mean deception on her own husband rather some exotic secret involving gangsters/spies. ( I had to say I felt that didn't bode well for her, especially as there is younger hottie waiting in the background). Sadly after this promising start the writing speedily goes downhill- too many characters, too many improbabilities. For one thing, how likely is it that an intelligent and extremely organised woman would pay for incriminating goods on a bank account she shares with her husband? Or that someone who has worked in internet startups and presumably would be well up on cybersecurity has a facebook page with contacts which can be accessed by all? (IME people like that often don't use social media at all). Or that the fact that a cop would perjure herself to save a man she hardly knows from a murder charge ...

However that pales into significance with the main problem - structure. I noticed that some reviewers thought the book was too slow paced, others thought it was too fast. They are both right. It starts out slow, with detailed descriptions of irrelevant happenings such as a bodybuilding class given by Corrine's friend and just meanders on getting nowhere fast. I started to worry when I reached a point where my kindle was showing that the book was nearly 80% complete at a point where the plot is just starting to kick in - at that point I started feared he would end up rushing to a half baked conclusion andI was right. After a very slow start he starts to race through the chapters at a breakneck speed as if he had a deadline to met and a word count he must not exceed. We don't learn nearly enough about Heidi, Kimberley, Kuntz and his family etc, the company he works for. and in the end only the Adam and Corrine story is resolved properly. (Coben has played the mean author trick of introducing us to characters and situations we are supposed to care about then promptly forgetting them and leaving those plotlines high and dry). The actual ending holds no real surprises - the real villain in Adam's life is highlighted right from the start and his motive can easily be guessed. (Though TBH the blackmail plot makes little sense in the context of this storyline). The writing becomes incredibly simplistic as the book progresses and it starts to feel like something we are being told rather than experiencing at second hand. The writing also becomes incredibly simplistic and I started to feel like I was reading a book aimed at primary school kids.

I won't return it as the price was fair but I would caution anyone not to pay anymore than 1.99. The plot is confusing and ultimately Coben fails to deliver a satisfactory conclusion.

88 people found this helpful

The Paragon

Wanted to like it more

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 30, 2019

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This was my first time reading Harlan Coben, and I really enjoyed his storytelling. I found The Stranger fast-paced, intricate and engaging, a real page-turner. There was a lot of tension and it was exciting, right from the off.

In the story, Adam Price is pretty comfortable. He’s married to Corinne and they have two sons and a nice life in New Jersey. One day, Adam is approached by a stranger, at the American Legion Hall, who tells him a shocking secret about Corinne.

There are a great number of well-drawn characters and the storytelling is excellent. If the plot hadn’t been so strong, I’ll admit, I would have given fewer stars.

Here’s the thing: I didn’t enjoy the pop culture references.

For example: “He flipped through the music stations as he drove, searching for some nonexistent perfect song that would be, as Stevie Nicks might sing, “hauntingly familiar”.”
The Stranger, Harlan Coben, page 132.

Now, I’m sorry, but this is annoying on two levels.
1. I can’t hear any reference to Stevie Nicks, or Edge of Seventeen, without feeling the absolute compulsion to dig out the CD and start dancing round the living room in my socks. Once exhausted, I will (of course) go back to the story, but I will resent it for making me think of Stevie Nicks who, almost certainly, didn’t write the book.
2. There’s no question that Harlan Coben is a master of the written word, so a reference to an outside source feels disconnected and - kind of sluggish.

“To paraphrase that movie with Jack Nicholson, some people can’t handle the truth.”
The Stranger, Harlan Coben, page 294.

As this is my first experience of Harlan Coben’s writing, I have no idea whether this is just a stylistic choice that crops up in all his works, however, I didn’t care for it. It felt (I’m sorry) lazy.

12 people found this helpful

Lynda Kelly

Back To His Old Standard

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 1, 2019

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Wow !! I just looked back over prior reviews and I've not given this author a 5* review in 5 years and that has mostly been because the presentation has been so appalling !! It seems he's possibly got hold of a better editor or proofreader as at last this story is back up to his proper standard. I think this was it for me.....I bought 4 of his books all on sale and 3 were full of mistakes and if this one had been as well, we were finished !! So I'm happy he redeemed himself this time and our relationship prevails.
I've seen reviews slating this book but I greatly enjoyed the story and flew through it. It was pacy and puzzling and I just needed to know what was going to happen next. In the odd place I did get a little confused till it all started to be revealed towards the end. So I flicked back a couple of times to get it all right in my head. Though I am admittedly still a tad baffled about Johanna's ending.......I can't really get that right in my head.
I liked Rinsky a great deal and would really like to have learned more about what him and his cronies are doing with their cold cases now they're retired. That would be a great story in itself.
It has some amusing lines that are usual in his stories but I REALLY liked the Butterface mention. However, my reaction upon reading this line was "Just.....why ?"........he wrote "Pure hyperbole. But if hyper-bole couldn't feel free......" then I spotted a few apostrophe mistakes here and there, NewYork needed a space, he added another needless hyphen to Beach-wood (but only once) then we had, "Adam opened the car door behind him and slid him into the backseat" which was fine English but he didn't slide anyone into the backseat, he climbed in himself !!
That was all of the errors, though, so a massive improvement making it so much more of a pleasure to read him again at last !

6 people found this helpful

John M

Loose connections and non-credible plotting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 24, 2021

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This is a thriller in the distinctive Coben style eg. characters with secrets, hidden pasts etc. It starts rather slowly and the first third of the book is quite repetitive with the story not really moving on much; Adam's wife Corinne is missing, the boys are worried in between playing lacrosse....
However the pace picks up and the story develops two different threads, Corinne's disappearance and internet blackmail. The main problem with the story is that trying to weave these two threads together requires some rather unbelievable actions on the part of Corinne and Adam's community around him. Not to mention the homicidal ex-cop. None of this really worked for me. The connection was too flimsy and the plotting too unbelievable. Not one of Coben's better books.

One person found this helpful

Michelle

Loved it!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 19, 2020

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Theres no denying it, I am a Harlan Coben groupie, you would think by book 18 I would be getting tired of him. Nope, in fact I have to ration out his remaining books so I always have some in reserve.

I was rushed into reading this as far too many people were talking about the Netflix show and I was avoiding spoilers but it was no hardship. I enjoyed this, its follows the usual formula, plot driven, everything constantly being thrown on it head and you're in a daze until the reveal and you cant believe you didnt spot the signs.

Basically if Lewis Carroll wrote thrillers, it would be a Harlan Coben novel.

A solid 4 star read.

Once my head settles I shall dive into the show.

5 people found this helpful

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