Harlan Coben Praise Article: A Very Successful Writer Who Brings His Stories On TV
Harlan Coben is one of the most famous American writers of yellows and thrillers, also thanks to the numerous transpositions cinematographic and television of his works, which are currently already over 15. Winner of several prizes, Coben has conquered millions of readers around the world thanks to stories full of suspense and characterized by important twists, able to displace the reader by reversing the situation and above all the expectations of those who are exploring one of their stories. Born on January 4, 1962, in Newark, New Jersey, and raised in nearby Livingston, he graduated from Livingston High School together with his childhood friend Chris Christie, future politician and Governor of New Jersey. After graduation, Harlan Coben studied Political Science at Amherst College, Massachusetts.
Here he enters the brotherhood of Psi Upsilon, together with another famous future writer: Dan Brown. After graduation, he began working in the tourism sector, where he stayed for a long time. But his real passion is writing and, in the cutouts of time from work, he decides to try to write seriously. His first manuscript is accepted by a publisher and begins his extraordinary literary career. Mixing different genres, mainly drama and thriller – with the insertion of elements of mystery that make a difference compared to many other novels – Coben dedicates himself full-time to literature, achieving extraordinary success.
Harlan Coben Praise Article: A Very Successful Writer Who Brings His Stories On TV
Prize after prize, its production continues to follow the same, simple rules that Coben’s first works have already established: unexpected twists and turns, reversal of a situation that is not as the reader expected, and dramatic and mysterious elements that mix perfectly. His style is aimed at everyone, it flows smoothly and often leaves a sense of satisfaction for the unexpected ending: success comes instantly and spreads all over the world. But there is also more. All his stories are strongly cinematic, as his literary agents often repeat him. So Coben further specializes in adventures that may be brought to the screen, that of cinema or TV.
In 1990 his first novel, Play Dead, instantly became a bestseller. An extraordinary debut, which pushes publishers to put Coben under contract and make him write as many works as possible in a short time. His style, we said, is perfect for everyone. The plot is intricate and compelling from the front pages, to immediately catch attention. A complex but well-explained plot, so it is easy to follow even complication after complication. I characters are all very well developed so that the reader’s attention focuses on each of them in the same way – protagonists aside – so as not to have the solution on the culprit on duty at hand. The main issues dear to Coben are those of loss – the drama is its forte – of the family, of betrayal, and of everything that belongs to the dark side of relationships between people. The most exploited character by Harlan Coben is that of Myron Bolitar, a former professional basketball player who first became a sports agent and then a private investigator. A dozen novels are dedicated to Bolitar, in addition to the new series of Mickey Bolitar, centered on Myron’s fifteen-year-old grandson – who tragically loses her father – and is brought on TV with Shelter (available on Amazon Prime).
The Characteristics of the Harlan Coben TV Series
The narrative structure and writing of Harlan Coben have common characteristics: we start almost always with a disappearance or murder (or from the return to the country-home district of the protagonist) which ends with bringing hidden truths to light and long-known that they concern the characters, who often do not collaborate with the police in the investigation but try to do themselves justice in search of the truth. At the same time, the personal story of the detectives in charge of the case whose life is intertwined with that of the suspects is told. The agreement with Netflix still in place will bring other adjustments on the way – the latest announced are Missing You is Run Away for 2025 – and made sure that the original novels, all set in the United States, often became European locations to encourage local productions of the platform. They were born like this: The Woods and Hold Tight (Poland), Vanished into Thin Air (France), The Innocent (Spain), and The Stranger is Fool Me Once (England). Let’s dive into Harlan Coben’s TV series on Netflix and Prime Video.
Feelings Are Always at The Center!
A distinctive element of Coben’s novels is his great ability to mix elements of thriller with a deep exploration of human feelings. The characters in his stories are often ordinary individuals, ordinary people who find themselves involved in extraordinary situations. Their reactions and emotions are carefully outlined by Coben, helping to create a compelling and engaging reading experience also from an emotional point of view, as well as from a narrative one. The television transpositions of Harlan Coben’s novels are always particularly fortunate: in 2016 the arrival on the small screen of the Sky 1 series The Five, taken from the novel of the same name, has achieved great success. Four classmates, Mark Wells (Tom Cullen), Danny Kenwood (O-T Fagbenle), Slade (Lee Ingleby), and Pru Carew (Sarah Solemani), are deeply marked when Mark’s little brother, Jesse (Alfie Boor), disappears mysteriously while playing together in a park.
The tragedy hits them hard and casts an indelible shadow over their lives. During Jesse’s research, the disturbing figure of Jakob Marosi (Rade Serbedzija) emerges, a serial killer already accused of five murders, who claims to have killed Jesse too. This heartbreaking revelation marks the end of the hopes of Jesse and Mark’s parents to find their little one of only 5 years still alive. Years later, Danny Kenwood began his sergeant career with the Westbridge police. During the investigation into a brutal attack suffered by a prostitute, Danny is faced with a shocking discovery: Jesse’s DNA is found at the crime scene. This revelation deeply shakes Danny, who decides to immediately share the information with his former schoolmates. Feeding the hope of getting together and resuming research to find out the truth about Jesse, the four friends are preparing to face a dark chapter of their past that seems now closed.
The plot of The Five it’s a representative plot of Coben’s work: loss, personal trauma, drama, and the return to the past with the discovery of alternative truths. In short, things in Coben’s works are never as they seem. Great success has also achieved Safe, which arrived on Netflix in 2018 with the former Dexter star: Michael C. Hall. This time the story is about Tom (Michael C. Hall), a surgeon who remained a widower. Devastated by the loss of his wife, who was missing from a disease for which even Tom could not do anything, the man remained alone to take care of the two teenage daughters, sixteen-year-old Jenny (Amy James-Kelly) and little Carrie (Isabelle Allen). When, after attending a party, Jenny disappears, Tom begins to investigate and discovers all the bewildering secrets of the neighborhood. Loss, mysteries, secrets. Coben’s style continues to please the public, in different situations and with characters who always deal with the same themes dear to the writer.
Harlan Coben’s Pact with Netflix: Many Stories with Different Contexts?
In 2018, the year of Safe’s release on Netflix, Harlan Coben signed an agreement with the streamer for the transposition of something like 14 series or films based on his novels. We have already seen some of them and are still available on Netflix:
- The Woods (2020) is an investigative story that changes direction when a prosecutor, investigating a murder, finds evidence that indicates that his sister, who disappeared a quarter of a century earlier, may still be alive.
- The Stranger (2020) features Adam Price, a family man like many others who, when he receives information from an unknown woman about a shocking secret related to his wife, is at the center of a mystery that he decides to investigate. Ending straight into the midst of questions and answers he never wanted to face.
- Stay Close (2021) speaks to us instead of the disappearance of Carlton Flynn, which occurs 17 years after that of Stewart Green and ends up triggering a sort of chain reaction of discoveries in the lives of people linked to both disappeared.
- The Innocent (2021) is the story of a man who finds himself, following particular circumstances, becoming a sort of murderer by mistake. From that moment his life turns into a long nightmare and then, when he deludes himself that he can start living again, free and perhaps even finding love, with a simple phone call he finds himself immersed in the old nightmare again.
- Gone for Good (2021) tells the story of a man whose girl mysteriously disappears. Exactly ten years earlier, the man had lost two loved ones and was at the center of a mystery that brought old traumas and secrets to the surface.
- Hold Tight (2022), focuses on the disappearance of a boy shortly after the death of a friend of his, who will bring to the fore the secrets and lies of an entire wealthy neighborhood in Warsaw.
- Fool Me Once (2024), of which we have talked in depth here, is the story of a woman who, after having buried her husband, sees him by chance through a domestic camera while playing with her daughter. From that moment, the woman begins to seek the truth: is her husband still alive? Why did he lie to you? And who else in his family knows his secret?
Harlan Coben has also seen many other transpositions of his works, from Do Not Tell Anyone to Just a Glance, from The Innocent to Missing You, to the aforementioned Shelter inaugurating the successful series on the young Mickey Bolitar. Novel after novel – has come to something like thirty titles – Harlan Coben continues, in parallel, his success as a writer and as a creator of series and TV films taken from his works. New adaptations are expected during the year, with particular attention from France – which has made several transpositions, loved by the French public – and from many other European countries which, from Poland to Spain, have offered adaptations made by Coben always new scenarios that make stories even more exciting.
The Stranger (2020)
The best Harlan Coben series for us is located on Netflix and is titled The Stranger. The merit of the magnetic gaze of the unknown of the title (Hannah John-Kamen), who goes to various characters communicating secrets about their family that make the foundations of their relationships waver. As happens at the wedding of Adam Price (Richard Armitage), who no longer knows who his wife is, especially after his disappearance. One following twist that will unite personal and professional by putting all the pieces of the puzzle together in a surprising way. Siobhan Finneran (Downton Abbey, Happy Valley), Jennifer Saunders (Assassination on the Nile, Shrek 2), Anthony Head (Buffy, Ted Lasso) and Stephen Rea (Counterpart).
Fool Me Once (2024)
In Fool Me Once Maya Stern (Michelle Keegan) returns to the United Kingdom after a military mission abroad and finds herself in double mourning: first her sister Claire and then her husband Joe (again Richard Armitage), both victims of two badly finished robberies. Forced to raise her daughter alone, the woman tries to deal with post-traumatic stress by suspecting that it is murder and that the two deaths are connected. It does not help the interference of the mother-in-law, the terrible matriarch Judith (Joanna Lumley) together with the surviving children, Caroline and Neil, CEO of the family pharmaceutical company. Meanwhile, the quasi-father detective Sami Kierce (Adeel Akhtar), a former alcoholic with some health problems, tries to get to the truth. Their paths will cross in unthinkable ways, as explained in our review, also inserting extremely current issues in the narrative fabric.
Safe (2018)
For Safe, his original production for Netflix, without therefore a starting novel, Harlan Coben chose the enigmatic face of Michael C. Hall (Six Feet Under, Dexter) to play Tom Delaney, a family man who was a widowed and single parent of two teenagers (note the pattern that repeats itself?). The man faces the disappearance of the firstborn, Jenny, trying to rebuild his last night at a party that came out of control to understand what happened to her. The suburban neighborhood closed by the walls to make it more secure, on the contrary, will prove dangerous and full of secrets. At the same time, the investigations of the two police officers in charge of the case are shown, including the family friend and neighbor Sophie Mason (Amanda Abbington, Sherlock, Mr. Selfridge), who has a sick child.
The Woods (2020)
Polish first series born from the agreement between the writer and the streaming giant, The Woods uses the narrative tops of the summer camp seat of blood and death, transporting it not in the horror genre but in the thriller one. Paweł Kopiński (Grzegorz Damięcki) and Laura Goldsztajn (Agnieszka Grochowska) are the only two survivors of a mysterious massacre that took place in a Polish summer camp 25 years earlier, in which two boys died and two more disappeared, including the sister of the man. He has become a prosecutor who fights for justice, and she is a teacher. Their paths will cross again when a new clue appears in that old case, bringing to light disconcerting truths. The rhythm does not always pay off, but the mystery, the photography, and the interpretation of the cast work.
The Innocent (2021)
The Spanish series adaptation of Coben’s novel of the same name, The Innocent (El Inocente), is full of the typical characteristics of Hispanic productions, that is, exaggeration and exasperation of the plot and interpretations of the cast, but begins in a more balanced and contained way. The merit of the series is certainly keeping the viewer glued with a compelling mystery that connects the various characters, and their storylines divided into monographic episodes for a puzzle full of twists and surprises as you approach the epilogue (here is the review). On the other hand, there is an excessive lengthening of the history and duration of the episodes, another typical element of Spanish seriality.
Stay Close (2021)
Cush Jumbo (The Good Wife, Criminal Record) is the protagonist of this British transposition of the novel by the prolific writer (here is the review). “Keep friends close, but enemies even closer”: Carlton Flynn’s disappearance occurs exactly 17 years after Stewart Green’s disappearance, triggering a chain reaction in the lives of the families of both people involved, which will lead to twists and bring out secrets that the protagonists thought would be buried. In the center of the plot of Stay Close the double life of the protagonist Megan (Jumbo). To investigate certain detectives with outstanding sentimental issues interpreted by James Nesbitt and Jo Joyner. Richard Armitage (habitué of Coben / Netflix productions), Eddie Izzard and Sarah Parish.
Gone for Good (2021)
Go back to the monographic structure of the episodes in Gone for Good and this time we are in France. The young Guillaume Lucchesi (Finnegan Oldfield, Das Boot) lost his brother Fred (Nicolas Duvauchelle, Braquo) as a teenager during a home attack from which the family never recovered. When, ten years later, Judith (Nailia Harzoune), the woman he asked to marry mysteriously disappears, decides to research him but will discover shocking secrets about his past and identity. Not only that: perhaps even under the death of his brother there is much more. Again they face current issues such as discrimination and racial integration of immigrants to France.
Hold Tight (2022)
Another Polish series, Hold Tight starts once again from a disappearance. That of the teenager Adam Barczyk (Krzysztof Oleksyn), following the death of his best friend, a tragic accident due to a lethal mix of drugs and alcohol. But perhaps there is more under the carpet of the wealthy district of Warsaw, and it will be up to the friends and especially the parents of the boys – led by Anna (Magdalena Boczarska) and Michał Barczyk (Leszek Lichota) – to find the truth. The miniseries puts the story at the center of privacy issues: how much we know our teenage children and how legitimate it is to control and spy on them with apps special on smartphones. What comes out of it is something confusing and unintriguing, especially for solving the mystery. Fun Fact: the series is part of the same Summer of Death narrative universe, so much so that they have a couple of characters in common, namely Pawel and Laura, who in the meantime have gone on with their lives.
Shelter (2023)
The worst series by Harlan Coben is also the only one born so far from the agreement with Prime Video, Shelter, taken from the first novel in the Mickey Bolitar saga, as explained in our review. The writer tries to jump into the mystery of young adults and also involves his daughter Charlotte in writing, getting a half hole in the water mainly because of the resolution of the mystery (close to the ineffectiveness of Hold Tight) and all heroes of the protagonist complex, played by Jaden Michael, which is strongly rejected. After a car accident that sent his mother to the hospital and his father to the other world, the teenager Mickey returns to his hometown to live with his father’s sister Aunt Shira (Constance Zimmer).
Still traumatized by events, he struggles to insert himself and at school he knows Ashley, who after 24 hours disappears: the girl’s search will lead him to make friends with Arthur ‘Spoon’ Spindell (Adrian Greensmith) and Ema Winslow (Abby Corrigan) and above all to uncover uncontestable family secrets, forcing her aunt to do the same.
