The Stranger

Chapter 1

The stranger didn t shatter Adam s world all at once.

That was what Adam Price would tell himself later, but that was a lie. Adam somehow knew right away, right from the very first sentence, that the life he had known as a content suburban married father of two was forever gone. It was a simple sentence  on  the  face  of  it,  but there was  something   in  the  tone, something  knowing  and  even  caring,  that  let Adam  know  that nothing  would ever be the same.

You didn t have to stay with her, the stranger said.

They were in the American Legion Hall in Cedarfield, New Jersey. Cedarfield was a town loaded up with wealthy hedge fund managers and bankers and other financial masters-of-the-universe types. They liked to drink  beer in the American  Legion Hall  be- cause  it was  comfortable slumming,  a way  to  pretend  that  they were  salt-of-the-earth good  ol boys,  like something  in a Dodge Ram commercial, when they were anything  but.

Adam stood by the sticky bar. There was a dartboard behind him. Neon signs advertised Miller Lite, but Adam had a bottle of Budweiser in his right hand.  He turned to the man, who had just sidled up to him, and even though Adam already knew the answer, he asked the man, Are you talking to me?

The guy was younger than most of the fathers, thinner, almost gaunt, with big, piercing blue eyes. His arms were white and reedy with a hint of a tattoo showing beneath one of the short sleeves. He was wearing a baseball cap. He wasn t quite a hipster, but there was something of a wonk attitude coming off him, like some guy who ran a tech department and never saw the sun.

The  piercing  blue  eyes held Adam s  with  an  earnestness  that made  him  want  to  turn

Harlan Coben is the #1 New York Times and international bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including I Will Find You, The Match, Win, Fool Me Once, Stay Close, and The Stranger, as well as the award-winning Myron Bolitar series. Coben has more than eighty million books in print in more than forty languages worldwide, and several of his novels have been made into Netflix series. The winner of Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards, he lives in New Jersey.

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