Caught

Written by Harlan Coben

Narrated by Tim Machin

Seventeen-year-old Haley McWaid never gave her parents a moment's worry. Until one morning her mother wakes to find that Haley didn't come home the night before. Three months quickly pass without a word, and everyone assumes the worst.

Wendy Tynes is a reporter on a mission: to identify and bring down sexual predators via televised sting operations. Her latest target is Dan Mercer, a social worker known as a friend to troubled teens. But his story soon becomes more complicated than Wendy could have imagined.

CAUGHT tells the story of a missing girl, the community stunned by her loss, the predator who may have taken her, and the reporter who suddenly realises she can't trust her own instincts about this story - or the motives of the people around her...

Read by Tim Machin

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette UK Audio
• Release date: Apr 15, 2010
• ISBN: 9781409114789

Harlan Coben

With more than seventy million books in print worldwide, Harlan Coben is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of numerous suspense novels, including Don't Let Go, Home, and Fool Me Once, as well as the multi-award-winning Myron Bolitar series. His books are published in forty-three languages around the globe and have been number one bestsellers in more than a dozen countries. He lives in New Jersey.

Reviews for Caught

[daftboy1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good standard Harlan Coben novel. Main character is Wendy Tynes a local newscaster who exposes peadophiles. She exposes someone called Dan who is accused of kidnapping a teenager called Haley. Dan is found not guilty, But the allegations stick, Hayley's phone is found in Dan's rented room. Dan is shot and body is taken away, Wendy feels guilty. She does her own investigation, Hayley's body is found. A few of Dan's old collage room mates are not in a good place. Wendy tries to piece this all together. Bit of back and forth with this book. It turns out when Dan and Pals were at Collage they caused a terrible accident to a young woman. Dan always felt guilty. One of his class mates decides to take the blame for it but then tries to frame them later in life for other things. Hayley died at a house party through to much alcohol. Dan's ex wife knew Dan was dead and tried to pin blame on him. Dan isnt dead he is hiding in Angola helping poor children. OK but silly and far fetched.

[lizme-336298 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very involved.The story had multiple stories on going at same time that connected with each other.Never dreamed that the killer that was being hunted would end up being who it was.Surprized.Enjoyeed this book.

[gpangel_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Caught by Harlan Coben is a 2010 Dutton publication.Remember those shows where pedophiles were lured into a sting operation, thinking they were meeting up with an underage girl, only to find themselves under arrest? Well, this is the story of Dan Mercer, who falls into that same kind of trap- and Wendy Tynes is the reporter who set him up. When things take an unexpected and shocking turn, it leaves Wendy with more questions than answers. Meanwhile, the case of missing teenager Hayley McWaid suddenly heats up when evidence surfaces that connects Dan Mercer to Hayley. While this stunning development seems to confirm that Dan was exactly the type of man Wendy thought he was, things just aren’t adding up and Wendy won’t stop until she gets the whole story. My 2021 reading resolution is to read more books from my TBR list and a significantly fewer number of ARCs. My TBR list was nearing the 4000 mark by the end of last year, so the first thing I did was start culling through the list, purging nearly a thousand books from the pile. Sad, but necessary. But, while I was going through all those books I was surprised to find this book had been languishing on my shelf for eight years!! I left a Harlan Coben novel on my TBR list all that time? Apparently so. How could that be? LOL- ( I'm sure there are plenty of his books I've never on my list for eight whole years.)Naturally, I had to dive into it immediately. I almost read the book in one sitting. Maybe it was the comfort of the familiar style, or the quality of the writing, or that it kept me engaged and challenged enough to loathe putting the book down. Whatever the reason it reminded me of why I became such big fan of this author. While I can’t say that compared to his other books, this was one of his very best- in fact, the plausibility meter was almost completely off the charts- but it was definitely a page-turner and kept me guessing from start to finish... Oh, and if you like the Myron Bolitar series, Win makes a very brief appearance in the book, which was the icing on the cake for me. Overall, finding this book tucked deep down on the TBR pile was a pleasant surprise and an entertaining diversion.4 stars

[librarycin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.75 starsDan is set up by a reporter who is out to catch a pedophile. The charges are later dropped, but Dan’s life is ruined. Meantime, a teenage girl has gone missing. Wendy, the reporter who set things up on Dan, thinks there is still something going on and won’t give up until she finds out what it is. It’s actually hard to summarize this one, as there are a few things going on. For the most part, though, as with most of Coben’s books, I was kept turning pages; I wanted to keep reading. As usual, there were plenty of twists and turns. Although I didn’t figure out any of the twists, for some reason (I have no idea why), I didn’t feel shocked at most of them. They were a surprise, but the twists didn’t blow me away, like they usually do. I’m just not sure why the end underwhelmed me.

[buffalogr · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A great mystery. Moves along at a great pace. tt's a crime mystery. From the Bolitar series, Win makes an appearance: "articulate". However, the main character is "Wendy" a single mom reporter who acts a bit like a crime detective. The plot has quite a few stories intertwining, which adds to the character quantity, making it a bit difficult to follow if taken in increments.

[adam.currey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A great mystery. Moves along at a great pace and has plenty of twists and turns that will keep you guessing right to the end.

[lauriegienapp · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I always enjoy Harlan Coben's writing, but he outdid himself this time, including a special little surprise for the reader. His writing is always so complete, without any loose ends, or anomalies... and there was something about the beginning of the story that.. just bugged me... it didn't fit, and it was not like Mr. Coben. Not until the very last 10 pages, did he finally explain.. at which point everything came together in a very delightful, entertaining, surprising way.
Definitely my favorite of his works.

[carolee888 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I am a Harlan Cohen fan but this audio book really let me down. The narrator did not do males voices convincingly and that tripped me up when listening to the story and trying to understand what was going on. The male voices were annoying. The female voices were not much better.I liked the beginning of the story when Dan Mercer said that he knew before he did it that opening the red door would mean the ending of his life. But then the story switched to reporter named Wendy Tynes. Her goal was to bring down sexual predators of children. But I could not feel good about her or any of the other characters in this mystery. Also too many character were introduced at once in the opening of the book. I tried to take notes but the narrator went so fast that it was hard for me to keep up. There were some twists and turns to the story towards the middle but at the end, there were so many additional twists that I was confused and felt that the author had broken my trust with me!I am not giving up on Harlan Coben's books but I may not be buying any more audio books with his stories.

[nautilus-11 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Like crack. Can't get enough of Harlan Coban's books.

[shannon.dolgos · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dan Mercer comes from an impoverished past, growing up in foster care after his parents die. He works with trouble kids, trying to keep them on the right path. Until the night, Chynna calls, and life has he knows it is over. Arriving at the house with the red door, Dan feels uneasy, but is here to make sure Chynna is okay. And then it happens, he is "Caught" on the tv and accused of being an internet predator...

The evidence quickly piles against him, as he denies the accusation. Wendy Tynes, the reporter on the case, thinks she's made it big, until her case quickly is torn apart by the defense team, and Dan is found not guilty. Wendy is fired from her job, and when she witnesses Dan's murder, she finds herself determined to find out the truth. Call it intuition, call it a hunch, but something isn't adding up, and Wendy finds herself wondering if she just helped an innocent man get murdered.

Twenty years worth of secrets begin to unravel as Wendy finds herself digging deeper not only into Dan's life and murder, but also into the murder of Haley McQuaid, a missing teen...that may or may not be linked to Dan Mercer.

As always, Harlan doesn't disappoint...but then again, I may just be his Annie Wilkes. :)

[kitchenwitch04 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wow!! This one kept me guessing until the very end! Everytime I thought I knew the answer - I was wrong. Awesome twists and turns! Another great one by Harlan Coben.

[librarylord99 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I had to read this for a Reader's Advisory seminar, and I must say that these cookie cutter, gimmick filled, cornball "thrillers" are really about as close to literature as an earthworm is to a fresh Maine lobster.Hard working single mother, NRA right winger with a heart of gold, rumpled detective, all the cliches are here...some call it literature, I guess.

[dcarlin-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

'Caught' was only my second Harlan Coban novel but I am sure it will not be my last. What appeared to commence as a story revolving around pedophiles turned into an enthralling mystery story with the usual twist.

[sushicat-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wendy's TV show is all about outing pedophiles. But when she outa Dan her gut feelings tell her she's made a mistake. Though the evidence convinces the police, the information she unearths leads her in another direction. The police meanwhile are busy searching for a teenage girl that disappears without a trace. And when Dan is supposedly killed by a vigilante father the case appear clear cut. But all is not as it seems of course.

There is a varied cast of interesting characters introduced throughout the book and many seemingly disparate facts are unobtrusively introduced along the line and when things start to clarify everything comes together neatly. In hindsight the clues are there plain to see and the characters all ring true. My first Harlan Coben will certainly not be my last.

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Exactly the kind of improbable thriller Coben writes. A TV reporter thinks she’s caught a pedophile, but when the case against him unravels—and then she witnesses his execution in front of her eyes—she begins to suspect that something more complicated is at work. The solution involves his history as well as the disappearance of a teenaged girl from the same town. The plot requires the Internet to be at a very particular point in its evolution, when blog comments mattered a lot to grownups. The Cheetos of literature: goes down fast, not much nutritional value, fine when you really have a craving.

[jayne_charles_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

You know what you're getting with a Harlan Coben novel. It's going to be fast moving, quite witty, and have lots of twists and turns. On the other hand, there's a samey-ness about all his novels, even the stand-alone ones, which resolve in similar - very very complicated - ways. It's been a while since I read one, but this took me by surprise, being a lot more rounded and more believable, and featuring multiple mysteries. The resolution - though it depended to a degree on the police missing things that ordinary folk can spot - was capable of being understood without multiple readings and a mind map. It's a book with a storm cloud of tears hovering over it - it really is a heart wrenching read at times with its cast of the bereaved, though this is well balanced with some well placed humour, mostly provided by the 'Fathers' Club' which features a would-be rapper. As noted, he "...looked like Jay-Z if Jay-J suddenly aged ten years and never worked out and was a pasty white guy trying to look like Jay-Z". Great line, and a great read.

[feleciak-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great plot, twists and turns. I didn't see that ending coming. Great ending.

[jenzbaker · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Teenage girl goes missing, media set-up of Ted a suspected pedophile. Secrets of all concerned cloud the waters. Lives are ruined. What could have been a standard plot is jazzed up with twists of psychology, interesting characters and a surprise ending.

[judithrs · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Caught. Harlan Coben. 2010. Wendy Tynes, a local news anchor has made a name for herself by using social media to catch sexual predators. She is shocked and surprised when Dan Mercer a local social worker and compassionate friend to trouble children is caught in her trap. She had met him before had believed he was sincere in his desire to help troubled children, but he had been caught, and she was proud that she caught him. However Dan is freed on a technicality and Wendy loses her job. When Dan’s name is tied to that of a teenage girl who’s disappeared, Wendy begins to investigate and matters go from bad to worse. Dead ends abound and good guys seem like bad guys and bad guys seem like good guys, maybe… Interspersed with the Dan Mercer story is Wendy’s struggle with raising a teenage son and dealing with her hatred against the woman who killed her husband. Lots of suspense and similar to the other Coben books that are not in the Myron Bolitar series. The Bolitar series is the best though. Thank you Betty Cork for introducing the series to me and Jim

[lrobe190 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Dan Mercer stands accused of being a sexual predator thanks to the ambush journalism of Wendy Tynes, a tabloid TV reporter, who must cope with her husband's death caused by a drunken driver as well as reckon with the possibility of Mercer's innocence. When Tynes finds a link between a father of one of Mercer's alleged victims and others felled by scandal, she could become a killer's next victim (summary from ISBN 052595158X).Interesting premise, but complicated plot and dissatisfying ending.

[cmblaker · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love his writing & sense of humor! It was nice to see little cameos from Coben's other series on Myron Bolitar. The story is intense. I think I liked it so well because I've thought about the nature of American Justice & if those accused of especially henious crimes are really ever "innocent until proven guilty". How just the accusation can ruin a person's life. Coben handled it well, without settling for an easy answer to that moral question.

[tabascofromgudreads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Caught" is a very good thriller in the typical Harlan Coben's 100-miles-per-hour style, that makes you turn the pages so fast that your hair will ruffle in the ensuing wind. I have read a couple of books by this author before, and I chose this one because it was another "stand alone" thriller, as opposed to the Miron Bolitar series, that I carefully avoided.
Coben seems to have carved himself out a little niche which could be defined as "the fast-paced thriller where seemingly normal people are hiding dark and life-altering secrets".
The good: a complex plot that pulls you into different and rather unpredictable directions, many references to current ("current" 4 years ago) social habits and events, from unemployed white collar guys to social networks to viral marketing.
The not so good: like 90% of books belonging to the "fast-paced thriller" genre, it's pretty shallow. Well, of course, you can only have this speed in shallow waters. Also, just like in a Dan Brown or a Dean Koontz thriller, you obviously don't go around looking for particularly elegant writing. For example, one character is introduced as "flamboyant", which is a pretty uncommon word, and only two pages later he is again described as "flamboyant". Also, different characters seem to use the same expressions, like for example "Boo-friggin'- hoo", or the family-slang word "friggin" that I don't think is such a commonly used expression.

[thoughtsofjoylibrary · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A high school girl goes missing; the police and a reporter work the case to find the predator.Oh dear, another read that just didn't hold my attention. And, that was a shocker because I really enjoy Coben's standalones. I must say that I did enjoy the prologue and looked forward to the story, but as it continued I never fully connected. When a few new characters (and there were many) were introduced, I disengaged some more. I did enjoy the ending, though. Ultimately, only truly liking the beginning and the ending does not make a great read. I'm glad to be moving on.Originally posted on: Thoughts of Joy

[gatorhater · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Seventeen year old Haley McWaid is a good girl, captain of her suburban New Jersey lacrosse team, and was headed off to college next year with all the hopes and dreams. Her mother awakes one morning to find that Haley never came home the night before and three months quickly pass without word from the girl. Wendy Tynes is a reporter on a mission; to identify and bring down sexual predators via elaborate sting operations. Dan Mercer is a social worker known as a friend to troubled teens, but his story soon becomes more complicated than Wendy could have imagined. Princeton Univ, Sterns Suite #109 with Dan Mercer, Phil Turnball, Farley Parks, Kelvin Tilfer and Steven Miciano "as roommates."

[bellafoxx · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Harlan Coben is one of the few fiction writers I like, mainly because when he writes a mystery, he includes the human element, his books are part mystery, partly a commentary on human nature.In this book, like in many of his books, he shows how the things we do affect us for the rest of our lives. It is also interesting how he reveals thought processes, he weaves modern technology into the story and provides enough twists to keep me interested.More then a mystery, this is a story of how modern technology can be abused, and how revenge is ‘a dish best served cold’ for many people.

[bsquaredinoz · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Caught opens with the life of Dan Mercer, social worker and all around good-guy, falling apart. Feeling what turns out to be a justified sense of unease Dan makes his way to an address at which one of the troubled children he counsels is waiting in apparent distress. When he gets there he is instead ambushed by a TV reporter who accuses him of being a paedophile who had gone to the house with the hope of having sex with an underage girl. Ugliness ensues. Concurrently in the same town the McWaid family are dealing with the disappearance of their teenage daughter Hayley. The seemingly happy young girl has been missing for three months and her family are barely coping with the uncertainty her disappearance has caused.

Much of this story is told from the perspective of Wendy Tynes, the news reporter who ambushed Dan Mercer. I found her sanctimonious, hypocritical and obtuse. Did I mention sanctimonious? It was this holier-than-thou aspect of her personality that increasingly grated on my nerves as the book progressed. I should however separate the fact I did not like Wendy from the fact she is a well drawn, complex character. After all it is realistic that I wanted to run over her driving an SUV as I fantasize about doing that to people (and television reporters) in the real world too.

Despite my homicidal feelings for Wendy the characters were the best thing about this book. There were several really credible and quite beautiful depictions of ordinary people in horrible situations. The parents and siblings of Hayley McWaid were all heart-wrenchingly believable. As were the Fathers’ Club: a group of middle-aged men including one of Dan Mercer’s old college roommates who Wendy tracks down with the aim of discovering more about Dan’s past. All of the men had become unemployed thanks to the economic downturn and their various ways of coping with being men unable to provide for their families in a world they believe only values them by their ability to do so was touchingly portrayed. I even managed to find Wendy’s teenage son and father-in-law quite endearing despite their association with the self-righteous Ms Tynes.

Parts of the story were solidly plotted and more akin to traditional crime fiction than a thriller as layers of people’s pasts were unpicked to provide understanding and motivation for various happenings. For me though these portions were overshadowed by some clumsiness. Firstly I began to wonder if Coben had been paid by the Temperance Society (or some shady government body) to wedge the ‘alcohol is bad’ theme in wherever he could (and sometimes where he couldn’t). This was monotonous and a pretty big give away to one of the two major plot threads which meant I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop despite the several apparent endings to that storyline. The other jarring note for me was the inclusion of the use of social media as a plot device. At times this was well integrated but at others it felt overly awkward. I can’t say more without giving away spoilers but, for example, I simply did not believe the actions taken by Wendy’s employers to information they discovered via the blogosphere.

I acknowledge this as a character defect of my own but when I love a particular character I can forgive minor flaws in a book and, conversely, when I develop a slow-burning hatred for someone my brain turns each tiny imperfection of the book into a major distraction. This is, I think, partly to blame for my reaction to Caught but I’ve never claimed to be entirely objective here. If you’d like another perspective on the novel do read the review at Petrona which is untainted by a reviewer’s rampant hatred for the encapsulation of everything that is wrong with the world in the form of Wendy Tynes (though being fair to myself I think I would have found the plot clumsy anyway). This is only the second Harlan Coben book I’ve read and as I really enjoyed the other one I’ll happily give the man another go and I’ll look for more books narrated by Christopher Evan Welch who was excellent (rating is 2.5)

[mahallett · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

many plots, many layers, maybe too much for a recorded book. the narrator was a good character but i had trouble keeping track of all the other characters- even the woman who killed her husband driving drunk. jeeesus

[kelslynn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wendy Tynes, a TV reporter who specializes in sting operations involving sexual predators, lures Dan Mercer into a camera and police laden trap. Mercer is thereafter accused not only of being a predator but also of taking a 17 year old girl's life. Mercer was a Princeton graduate, whose only close relationships in the world were with his college roommates and his ex-wife, Jenna; in short, he was a loner except when he was working with children.There are many plot twists and turns "Caught," as reporter Wendy has to follow her intuition on what is and is not truth.

[marksouza · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was my first Harlan Coben and I was impressed. Caught is a well executed and well written mystery/thriller. TV news reporter Wendy Tynes has nabbed an unsuspecting Dan Mercer red handed in a sting aimed at exposing sexual predators on television. It doesn't take much to see the possible link between Mercer and a local girl who's gone missing for weeks.But as she digs deeper, Wendy starts having doubts. And after Dan Mercer is shot to death in front of her by the father of one of Mercer's alleged victims, Wendy wonders if she's helped frame an innocent man and might be partially responsible for his death.You may think I've spilled the beans, but I haven't. There are many more twists and turns in the road ahead. It's a fun ride full of vivid characters.

[williwhy_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Eh. Never quite passed the believability test, but a few interesting moments.