Harlan Coben

Last updated

Harlan Coben
Harlan Coben.jpg
Bornc. 1962 (age 6162) [1]
Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
OccupationAuthor
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Amherst College
Period1990–present
Genre Mystery, thriller
Notable works Myron Bolitar series of novels
Notable awards Anthony Award (1996),
Edgar Award and Shamus Award (1997)
SpouseAnne Armstrong
Children4
Website
harlancoben.com

Harlan Coben (born c. 1962) is an American writer of mystery novels and thrillers. The plots of his novels often involve the resurfacing of unresolved or misinterpreted events in the past, murders, or fatal accidents and have multiple twists. Twelve of his novels have been adapted for film and television.

Contents

Coben has won an Edgar Award, a Shamus Award, and an Anthony Award—the first author to receive all three. [2] [3] His books have been translated into 43 languages and sold over 60 million copies. [4]

Early life and education

Coben was born into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, and was raised in Livingston, [5] where he graduated from Livingston High School, with his childhood friend, future governor Chris Christie. [6]

He studied political science at Amherst College, where he was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity, along with Dan Brown. [7] [8] Coben was in his senior year at college when he realized he wanted to write. [9]

Career

After graduating in 1984, Coben worked in the travel industry, in a company owned by his grandfather. [7] [9] It was during that time when he wrote his first book, romantic suspense thriller Play Dead , which was accepted for publication when he was 26 and released in 1990. [9] It was followed by Miracle Cure in 1991. He then began writing a series of thrillers featuring a former basketball player turned sports agent, Myron Bolitar, who often finds himself investigating murders involving his clients.

Tell No One , his first stand-alone thriller since the creation of the Myron Bolitar series in 1995, was published in 2001. A French-language film adaptation based on the book was released in 2006. [10] Coben followed Tell No One with nine more stand-alone novels. His novel Hold Tight , published on April 15, 2008, was his first book to debut at number 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. [11]

In 2003, Coben published a short story about his father, who had died of a heart attack at the age of 59 in 1988. [4] [12] Entitled "The Key to My Father," the story was published in The New York Times on Father's Day, June 15, 2003. [13] Besides The New York Times, his essays and columns have appeared in Parade Magazine and Bloomberg Views. [14]

Bibliography

SeriesYearTitle
Myron Bolitar 1995 Deal Breaker
1996 Drop Shot
Fade Away
1997 Back Spin
1998 One False Move
1999The Final Detail
2000Darkest Fear
2006 Promise Me
2009 Long Lost
2011 Live Wire
2016 Home
Mickey Bolitar
(1st Myron Bolitar spin-off series)
2011 Shelter
2012Seconds Away
2014Found
Wilde2020The Boy from the Woods
2022The Match
Windsor Horne Lockwood III
(2nd Myron Bolitar spin-off series)
2021 Win
Standalone novels1990 Play Dead
1991 Miracle Cure
2001 Tell No One
2002 Gone for Good
2003 No Second Chance
2004 Just One Look
2005 The Innocent
2007The Woods
2008 Hold Tight
2010 Caught
2012 Stay Close
2013Six Years
2014 Missing You
2015 The Stranger
2016The Magical Fantastical Fridge
Fool Me Once
2017Don't Let Go
2019Run Away
2023I Will Find You

Awards

Coben won the 1996 Anthony Award in the category "Best Paperback Original", for Deal Breaker, the first volume of the Myron Bolitar series; it was also nominated for an Edgar Award in the same category. [15] [16] Fade Away won the 1997 Shamus Award and the Edgar Award for "Best Paperback Original", [16] [17] was nominated for the Anthony Award and the Barry Award in the same category, [15] [18] and was nominated for a Dilys Award. [19] The following Myron Bolitar novel, Back Spin, won the 1998 Barry Award and was nominated for the Dilys Award and the Shamus Award. [17] [18] [19] In 2002, Tell No One was nominated for the Anthony Award, the Macavity Award, the Edgar Award and the Barry Award. [15] [18] [20] [21] In 2010, Live Wire won the crime fiction award, the RBA Prize for Crime Writing, worth €125,000. [22]

In 2023, the Japanese edition of Win , translated by Toshiki Taguchi, was nominated for the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Mystery Fiction in Translation. [23] [24]

Films and TV series

Coben's first book to be adapted for the screen was Tell No One . Director Guillaume Canet made a French-language film, based on the book, titled Ne le dis à personne , in 2006. [10]

Coben's 2003 book No Second Chance became the basis for the 2015 French miniseries of the same name. Two years later the same happened to Just One Look .

Coben is the creator of the British crime drama television show The Five, which first aired in April 2016 on the Sky 1 channel in the United Kingdom. [25] [26] [27] Coben also created the French-British crime drama television show Safe, which premiered on Netflix in 190 countries on May 10, 2018. [28] [29]

In 2024, Fool Me Once was released on Netflix. [2] The eight part television series is an adaptation of the 2016 novel.

Film Contracts

In 2022, Amazon Studios announced plans to produce a series based on the first Mickey Bolitar novel Shelter . [30] Jaden Michael stars as Mickey, alongside Constance Zimmer, Adrian Greensmith, Abby Corrigan, and Sage Linder. [31] [32] [33] The series, Harlan Coben's Shelter , was released on August 18, 2023. [34]

In August 2018, Coben signed a multi-million-dollar five-year contract with American company Netflix. Under the deal, 14 of Coben's novels would be developed into original Netflix series or films, with him serving as executive producer on all projects. [35] The first title released under the deal was The Stranger, based on his novel of the same name, which premiered in January 2020. [36] In October 2022, it was announced that Netflix had extended the deal for another four years, with the Myron Bolitar series now also available for adaptation. [37] On February 20, 2023, Fool Me Once was announced as an upcoming adaptation in production for Netflix. [38]

List of Netflix Original Series Under the Deal
Title (English & Lote)Country of originLanguageRelease dateNotesRef
The Stranger (English: The Stranger) United Kingdom English January 30, 2020 [39]
The Woods (Polish: W głębi lasu) Poland Polish June 12, 2020 [39]
The Innocent (Spanish: El inocente) Spain Spanish April 30, 2021
Gone for Good (French: Disparu à jamais) France French August 13, 2021
Stay Close (English: Stay Close) United Kingdom English December 31, 2021 [40]
Hold Tight (Polish: Zachowaj spokój) Poland Polish April 22, 2022 [41] [42]
Fool Me Once (English: Fool Me Once) United Kingdom English January 1, 2024 [43]
Missing You (English: Missing You) United Kingdom English [44]
Run Away(English: Run Away) United Kingdom English [44]

Personal life

Coben lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey, with his wife Anne Armstrong-Coben, a pediatrician, and their four children. [14] [45]

Related Research Articles

<i>Stay Close</i> 2021 British crime drama miniseries

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<i>Deal Breaker</i> 1995 thriller novel by Harlan Coben

Deal Breaker is a 1995 thriller novel by Harlan Coben and is the first in his Myron Bolitar series.

<i>Just One Look</i> (novel) Novel by Harlan Coben

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<i>Tell No One</i> (novel) 2001 thriller novel by Harlan Coben

Tell No One is a 2001 thriller novel by American writer Harlan Coben. This was Coben's third stand-alone novel and first since 1991, his previous seven books having all been part of the Myron Bolitar series. Said Coben, "I came up with a great idea that simply would not work for Myron."

The Myron Bolitar series of thrillers are written by Harlan Coben with a series protagonist of the same name.

<i>Drop Shot</i> Crime novel by Harlan Coben

Drop Shot is a murder mystery by Harlan Coben. It is the second novel featuring Myron Bolitar. It was published in 1996.

<i>Live Wire</i> (novel) 2011 mystery/thriller novel by Harlan Coben

Live Wire is a 2011 mystery/thriller novel by American writer, Harlan Coben. It is the tenth novel in his series of a crime solver and sports agent named Myron Bolitar. It is preceded in the series by Long Lost (2009) and succeeded by Home (2016).

<i>Shelter</i> (novel) 2011 young adult novel by Harlan Coben

Shelter is the first novel of the "Mickey Bolitar" series by American crime writer Harlan Coben and Coben's first young adult novel. It features the teenage nephew of Coben's popular protagonist Myron Bolitar. The novel was first published on September 15, 2011, by Orion Books in the UK and Puffin Books in the US.

<i>Home</i> (Coben novel) Novel by Harlan Coben

Home is a 2016 mystery/thriller novel by American writer, Harlan Coben. It is the eleventh novel in his series featuring crime solver and sports agent Myron Bolitar.

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The Innocent is a Spanish television mystery thriller miniseries directed by Oriol Paulo and based on the Harlan Coben novel of the same name. The show stars Mario Casas, Alexandra Jiménez, Aura Garrido and José Coronado. It was released on Netflix on 30 April 2021.

<i>Win</i> (Coben novel) American mystery/thriller novel

Win is a 2021 mystery/thriller novel by American writer Harlan Coben. Following eleven novels in Coben’s series featuring sports agent-turned-crime solver Myron Bolitar, this is the first novel to completely feature Myron’s best friend and sidekick, the wealthy and mysterious Windsor "Win" Horne Lockwood III. This is the second time Coben readers experience first-person narrative from the Win character. The 2016 Myron Bolitar story Home had multiple chapters told from Win’s perspective.

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<i>Harlan Cobens Shelter</i> 2023 American television series

Harlan Coben's Shelter is an American mystery drama television series starring Jaden Michael, Constance Zimmer, Abby Corrigan, and Adrian Greensmith. It is based on the 2011 young adult novel Shelter by Harlan Coben. The series was released on Amazon Prime Video on August 18, 2023. In November 2023, the series was canceled after one season.

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Fool Me Once is a mystery-thriller written by Harlan Coben and known for its intricate plot and narrative turns. It explores the life of Maya, a former military pilot who is thrust into a perplexing situation when she spots her supposedly deceased husband on her nanny cam. This bewildering incident sets the stage for a story filled with suspense, deception, and unexpected twists.

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