Coben describes Adam's search for the truth…with masterly skill, springing surprises, raising stakes, seamlessly integrating other victims of the "stranger" into Adam's tale. He's also a smooth, funny writer…The book's denouement is enough to make you later to bed than you wanted.

02/09/2015
Bestseller Coben (Missing You) continues to turn out thrillers that put highly original spins on a current trend or problem, and while this standalone lacks the nail-biting suspense of his best, it's clever enough to be thoroughly entertaining. Adam Price, wife Corinne, and sons Ryan and Thomas are living the suburban dream in Cedarfield, N.J. Then, at a bar in Cedarfield's American Legion Hall, a man known only as the stranger reveals to Adam a secret of Corinne's that shatters the dream and causes Corinne to disappear. The stranger similarly imparts devastating secrets to Heidi Dann, a middle-aged woman with a family in Beachwood, Ohio, and Michaela Siegel, a medical student in New York City. Price shifts his search efforts from Corrine to the stranger, who is also being pursued by some extremely nasty characters. Lives and reputations are lost along the way. Even when not at his best, Coben is very good, and readers won't be disappointed. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest Literary Agency. (Mar.)

Praise for The Stranger

“Coben describes Adam’s search for the truth behind these allegations—and the identity of the person who made them—with masterly skill, springing surprises, raising stakes, seamlessly integrating other victims of the ‘stranger’ into Adam’s tale. He’s also a smooth, funny writer.”—New York Times Book Review

“This page-turner is one stranger that readers will want to meet.”—Associated Press

“Seamless storytelling at a breathtaking pace.”—Houston Chronicle 

“Coben’s latest stand-alone is a great story for people who like to examine the ephemeral nature of those strings that bind our dreams to our reality.”—Library Journal

“The Stranger isn’t just a great thriller, it’s a stunningly effective, probative novel about one man’s search, essentially, for his own identity...Flat-out great and not to be missed.”—Providence Journal

“Another suspenseful thriller whose gripping and intricate plot is completely plausible, and chilling.”—The Huffington Post

“Thoroughly entertaining.”—Publishers Weekly

“Coben can always be relied on to generate thrills from the simplest premises, but his finest tales maintain a core of logic throughout the twists. This 100-proof nightmare ranks among his most potent.”—Kirkus Reviews

“The startling climax reinforces the novel’s theme that the trappings of the American dream—affluence, fine home, family—don’t necessarily protect one from violence...[The Stranger] carries his trademark asset: a plot that pretty much defies readers to guess the outcome.”—The Columbus Dispatch

10/15/2014
Marriage is not bliss when Adam and Hannah confront the terrible secret on which their entire relationship is based, leaving Adam fearful that he's never really known his wife. With seven consecutive No. 1 New York Times best sellers, Coben looks rock-solid on this one. With a five-city tour.

What would you do if a stranger suddenly approached you and began telling intimate secrets a loved one had kept from you? If you’re attorney and family man Adam Price, you’ll investigate in your own way. Narrator George Newbern uses a variety of tones that work in sync with the emotional pull of this story. Newbern alters voices subtly but enough for listeners to keep track of the folks involved. Individual personalities come out of each character as he shapes the story. This well-paced thriller will keep listeners guessing. M.B. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

★ 2015-02-03
Another one of Coben's got-it-all New Jersey dads finds out that his wonderful wife has been hiding a whopper of a secret from him—a secret whose trail leads to even more monstrous revelations."We're living the dream," Tripp Evans assures Adam Price at their sons' sixth-grade lacrosse all-star team draft—lacrosse, for crying out loud. But the dream is already slipping from Adam's grasp as Tripp speaks. Minutes earlier, a young stranger who declined to give his name had sidled up to Adam and informed him that his wife had faked her first pregnancy, which had supposedly ended in a miscarriage. When an agonized Adam confronts Corinne with the story, she doesn't deny it. Instead, she pleads for more time and promises that she'll tell all over a restaurant dinner the following day. Adam, who's clearly never read anything by Coben (Missing You, 2014, etc.), agrees, and Corinne checks out of her high school teaching job and vanishes, pausing just long enough to text Adam: "YOU TAKE CARE OF THE KIDS. DON'T TRY TO CONTACT ME. IT WILL BE OKAY." Days pass, and it's not OK. Adam's two boys (are they really even his? should he run DNA tests?) keep asking where their mom is. There's no word from Corinne, who won't answer Adam's texts. Her cellphone places her somewhere near Pittsburgh. Rumors about her start to percolate through the lacrosse league. And, although it'll take Adam quite a while to find this out, a murder in far-off Ohio has implications for Corinne's disappearance even more disturbing than anything Adam's imagined. Coben can always be relied on to generate thrills from the simplest premises, but his finest tales maintain a core of logic throughout the twists. This 100-proof nightmare ranks among his most potent.