“The Stranger” by Harlan Coben – Desolating Truths

When we are presented with evil characters in literature that have clear, practical motivations, no matter how ridiculous they may be, there is a certain sense of comfort; after all, it means they could perhaps be bargained with, reasoned with, and broken down.

The truly terrifying villains, perhaps both inside and outside of a book, are the ones who seem to not only be morally-bankrupt, but causing evil for the mere sake of perpetuating it.

A review of their motives simply causes one to gaze into the abyss. There are those who take pleasure in dismantling people's lives and taking away all they fought so hard for, all the security they believed they had, and that's exactly the kind of villain we are dealing with in The Stranger by Harlan Coben.

Adam Price is a normal man with a normal life, being married to a loving wife, father to two sons, owner of a fantastic home and a promising future in terms of his career. Long-story short, he is living the American dream, but nothing stays perfect forever, especially not something so idyllic. And then comes the day when he meets the stranger.

What feels like a chance encounter turns into his worst nightmare, as the brief encounter is all the stranger needs to tell Adam devastating truth about his beloved wife.

From there on out, Adam gets played like the fiddle and is thrust deeper and deeper into chaos, loss and desolation, to the point where both him and his family may see their lives ruined, if not outright ended.

The premise behind The Stranger is certainly a very intriguing one and has the reader hooked by touching on some rather basic fears that we all have, namely being linked to the idea of losing all the security and stability we've been working so hard to achieve.

Or more precisely, the fear that one day, some external force that we cannot control will create a disturbance, one that will cause our entire world to collapse and make us realize how absolutely nothing can be taken for granted.

As a reader, it is hard to tear yourself away from the pages for the simple reason that you want to know who that stranger is, and whether or not Adam will actually be able to survive through this type of ordeal.

Perhaps he is not the most original of characters, but Adam is still likeable and interesting enough to breathe additional color into the story, as do most of the supporting characters.

All the added background characters and information do make this novel livelier as life in the city is described through stranger details that we seldom pay attention to, such as the intricacies of female bodybuilding competitions to eviction battles. If anything, it adds a healthy dose of realism to the book.

The only weak point, I'd have to argue, comes at the end of the book as the climax isn't exactly worthy of all the build-up. Some readers will probably find the solution to the whole conspiracy as being a tad obvious, especially considering that it spirals from a common crime into something grand and elaborate the more you reach the end.

Nevertheless, it is a bump thriller and mystery fans can certainly jump over considering the quality of all the other elements.

In the end, though The Stranger does have some weak points and doesn't stray all too far from the beaten path when it comes to suspense thrillers, it manages to deliver an enthralling experience, one that keeps you glued and actually succeeds in drawing emotions from you... in the end, it's certainly not the kind of book that will leave you bored and indifferent.

Highly recommended to all those who enjoy exciting thrillers that don't challenge you too much in intellectual terms.

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Harlan Coben Personal site Harlan Coben is an American author whose body of work mainly revolves around thrillers and mystery novels. In many cases he seems to want to explore unresolved events of the past, an approach which won him multiple awards, including the 1996 Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original.