Harlan Coben

Template:Infobox writer Harlan Coben (born January 4, 1962<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>) 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.

Coben has won an Edgar Award, a Shamus Award, and an Anthony Award—the first author to receive all three.<ref name="khomami">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His books have been translated into 46 languages and sold over 90 million copies.<ref name="Podcast Episode">Template:Cite podcast</ref>

Early life and education

Coben was born into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, and was raised in Livingston,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> where he graduated from Livingston High School, with his childhood friend, future governor Chris Christie.<ref name="cobenoped">Template:Cite web</ref> His brother is the noted businessman Lawrence S. Coben.

He studied political science at Amherst College, where he was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity, along with Dan Brown.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Coben was in his senior year at college when he realized he wanted to write.<ref name="Lochte-2004"/>

Career

After graduating in 1984, Coben worked in the travel industry, in a company owned by his grandfather.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="Lochte-2004">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="Lochte-2004" /> 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.<ref name="Télérama-2022">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2003, Coben published a short story about his father, who had died of a heart attack at the age of 59 in 1988.<ref name="Podcast Episode"/><ref>Template:Cite tweet</ref> Entitled "The Key to My Father," the story was published in The New York Times on Father's Day, June 15, 2003.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Besides The New York Times, his essays and columns have appeared in Parade magazine and Bloomberg Views.<ref name="Official Site">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2025, Coben published his first collaborative co-authored novel, Gone Before Goodbye, with Reese Witherspoon.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Bibliography

Series	Year	Title
Myron Bolitar	1995	Deal Breaker
	1996	Drop Shot
		Fade Away
	1997	Back Spin
	1998	One False Move
	1999	The Final Detail
	2000	Darkest Fear
	2006	Promise Me
	2009	Long Lost
	2011	Live Wire
	2016	Home
	2024	Think Twice<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Mickey Bolitar (1st Myron Bolitar spin-off series)	2011	Shelter
	2012	Seconds Away
	2014	Found
Wilde	2020	The Boy from the Woods
	2022	The Match
Windsor Horne Lockwood III (2nd Myron Bolitar spin-off series)	2021	Win
Standalone novels	1990	Play Dead
	1991	Miracle Cure
	2001	Tell No One
	2002	Gone for Good
	2003	No Second Chance
	2004	Just One Look
	2005	The Innocent
	2007	The Woods
	2008	Hold Tight
	2010	Caught
	2012	Stay Close
	2013	Six Years
	2014	Missing You
	2015	The Stranger
	2016	The Magical Fantastical Fridge
		Fool Me Once
	2017	Don't Let Go
	2019	Run Away
	2023	I Will Find You
	2025	Nobody's Fool
	2025	Gone Before Goodbye

Awards

In 2010, Live Wire won the crime fiction award, the RBA Prize for Crime Writing, worth €125,000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

For his literary talents, Harlan Coben has been nominated for & won many awards from the likes of the Anthony Awards, the Barry Award, the Crime Thriller Awards, the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Awards & many more.

Work	Year & Award	Category	Result	Ref.
Deal Breaker	1996 Anthony Awards	Paperback Original	Template:Won
	1996 Edgar Allan Poe Award	Paperback Original	Template:Sho
Fade Away	1997 Anthony Awards	Paperback Original	Template:Nominated
	1997 Barry Award	Paperback Original	Template:Nominated
	1997 Dilys Award		Template:Nominated
	1997 Edgar Allan Poe Award	Paperback Original	Template:Won
	1997 Shamus Award	P.I. Paperback Original	Template:Won
Back Spin	1998 Barry Award	Paperback Original	Template:Won
	1998 Dilys Award		Template:Nominated
	1998 Shamus Award	P.I. Paperback Original	Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
"A Simple Philosophy"	1999 Anthony Awards	Short Story	Template:Nominated
	1999 Macavity Awards	Mystery Short Story	Template:CFinalist
Tell No One	2002 Anthony Awards	Novel	Template:Nominated
	2002 Macavity Awards	Mystery Novel	Template:CFinalist
	2002 Edgar Allan Poe Award	Novel	Template:Sho
	2002 Barry Award	Novel	Template:Nominated
	2002 Audie Awards	Mystery	Template:Won
	2003 Grand prix des lectrices de Elle	Crime Fiction	Template:Won
The Woods	2007 Crime Writers' Association	Ian Fleming Steel Dagger	Template:Sho	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Hold Tight	2009 International Thriller Writers Awards	Thriller of the Year	Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	2009 Crimefest Awards	Sounds of Crime Award	Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Long Lost	2010 International Thriller Writers Awards	Hardcover Novel	Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Live Wire	2010 RBA Prize for Crime Writing		Template:Won
	2011 Goodreads Choice Awards	Mystery & Thriller	Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Shelter	2011 Agatha Award	Children/Young Adult Fiction	Template:Nominated
	2012 Edgar Allan Poe Award	Young Adult Novel	Template:Sho
	2014 Rhode Island Teen Book Award		Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Caught	2011 Edgar Allan Poe Award	Novel	Template:Sho
Seconds Away	2012 Agatha Award	Children/Young Adult Fiction	Template:Nominated
Stay Close	2012 Goodreads Choice Awards	Mystery & Thriller	Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Six Years	2013 Goodreads Choice Awards	Mystery & Thriller	Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Found	2014 Agatha Award	Children/Young Adult Fiction	Template:Nominated
Missing You	2014 Goodreads Choice Awards	Mystery & Thriller	Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	2015 Audie Awards	Mystery	Template:Nominated
The Stranger	2015 Goodreads Choice Awards	Mystery & Thriller	Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	2015 Hammett Prize		Template:Nominated
Fool Me Once	2016 Goodreads Choice Awards	Mystery & Thriller	Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Home	2017 Audie Awards	Thriller or Suspense	Template:Nominated
Don't Let Go	2018 Audie Awards	Thriller or Suspense	Template:Nominated
Run Away	2019 Goodreads Choice Awards	Mystery & Thriller	Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Boy from the Woods	2020 Goodreads Choice Awards	Mystery & Thriller	Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	2021 Barry Award	Novel	Template:Nominated
Win	2023 Mystery Writers of Japan Award	Mystery Fiction in Translation/Double Copper Award	Template:Nominated
I Will Find You	2024 Audie Awards	Thriller or Suspense	Template:Nominated
	2009 Crime Thriller Awards	ITV3 Writer's Award for Favourite Crime Genre Author (Public Vote)	Template:Won
	2013 Crime Thriller Awards	ITV3 Crime Thriller Living Legends	Template:Nominated
	2017 New Jersey Hall of Fame	Arts & Letters	Template:Sho
	2019 International Thriller Writers Awards	Silver Bullet Award	Template:Won

Adaptations

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.<ref name="Télérama-2022" />

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Coben also created the French-British crime drama television show Safe, which premiered on Netflix in 190 countries on May 10, 2018.<ref name="cast">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Film and TV series

In 2022, Amazon Studios announced plans to produce a series based on the first Mickey Bolitar novel, Shelter.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Jaden Michael stars as Mickey, alongside Constance Zimmer, Adrian Greensmith, Abby Corrigan, and Sage Linder.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The series, Harlan Coben's Shelter, was released on August 18, 2023.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In August 2018, Coben signed a multi-million-dollar, 5-year contract with Netflix. Under the deal, 14 of his novels would be developed into series or films, with him serving as executive producer on all of them.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The first one was The Stranger which premiered in January 2020.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In October 2022, Netflix extended the deal for another 4 years, with the Myron Bolitar series now also available for adaptation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On February 20, 2023, Fool Me Once was announced as an upcoming adaptation in production for Netflix.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

No.	Title (English & LOTE)		Country of origin	Language	Episodes	IMDB Rating	Premiere	Finale	Template:Abbr
1	The Five		United Kingdom	English	10	7.5	April 15, 2016	May 13, 2016
2	Safe		United Kingdom	English	8	7.2	May 10, 2018
3	The Stranger		United Kingdom	English	8	7.2	January 30, 2020
4	The Woods	Template:Small	Poland	Polish	6	6.6	June 12, 2020
5	The Innocent	Template:Small	Spain	Spanish	8	7.8	April 30, 2021		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
6	Gone for Good	Template:Small	France	French	5	6.3	August 13, 2021
7	Stay Close		United Kingdom	English	8	6.9	December 31, 2021		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
8	Hold Tight	Template:Small	Poland	Polish	6	6.2	April 22, 2022		<ref>Template:Cite video</ref>
9	Shelter		United States	English	8	6.6	August 18, 2023	September 22, 2023
10	Fool Me Once		United Kingdom	English	8	6.8	January 1, 2024		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
11	Missing You		United Kingdom	English	5	6.1	January 1, 2025		<ref name="Hollywood Reporter-2024">Template:Cite web</ref>
12	Just One Look	Template:Small	Poland	Polish	6	6.1	March 5, 2025
13	Caught	Template:Small	Argentina	Spanish	6	6.5	March 26, 2025		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
14	Lazarus		United Kingdom	English	6		October 22, 2025		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
15	I Will Find You		United States	English	8				<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
16	Run Away		United Kingdom	English					<ref name="Hollywood Reporter-2024" />

Personal life

Coben lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey, with his wife Anne Armstrong-Coben, a pediatrician, and their four children.<ref name="Official Site" /><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

External links

• Template:Official website
• Template:IMDb name