Caught

Caught
by Harlan Coben

Genre:  Mystery/thriller
Pages:   464
Published:  3/22/11 by Penguin Group
Format:  ebook

My Rating:
3 out of 5 stars







Caught by Harlan Coben is about a TV reporter named Wendy Tynes who specializes in trapping pedophiles and bringing them to justice.  Wendy's latest culprit, Dan Mercer, swears his innocence and is eventually let go.  However, angry parents want to see him brought to justice and take the law into their own hands.  Meanwhile, a teenage girl is missing, and after three months with no leads, a clue to her disappearance is finally discovered.  The story is full of twists and turns as these two events are linked together and secrets from the past are uncovered.

I enjoyed the story and the suspense, but I didn't find anything to love about this book.  The story was pretty complicated, and by the end, I felt like there were a few too many twists.  Several subplots run throughout the story, and just when you think the story is over, another twist is revealed.  That worked one time, but after the third time, I was just annoyed by it!

I was surprised by the moral message found in this story.  Themes of forgiveness and revenge run throughout the story, demonstrating the power and freedom of forgiveness and the destructiveness of revenge.  This story also examines the influence of social media on our world today.  Caught was more thought-provoking than I expected from this genre.

My final thought:  while not a book I would highly recommend, it was entertaining and meaningful enough to make for a decent read.