Cosy up with a Coben

Have you been duped repeatedly by bestselling thrillers? Made a solemn vow never to touch the genre again? As a fellow reader carrying a bruised and battered heart at the hands of thrillers powered by characters as appealing as a bucket of vomit, I understand your pain.

But now, to mend your broken heart, I implore you to make room on your shelf for New Jersey author Harlan Coben and his brand of twisty thrillers. In this generous spirit of recommendations, I would also suggest not starting any Coben book at bedtime, unless you crave nursing a book hangover the following day. On account of, you know, having sacrificed sleep for a crucial plot reveal.

In case you read the previous paragraph and went, "Harlan who?" I am obligated to inform you that Coben has done for thrillers what Stephen King did for horror and what John Grisham did for courtroom drama. Coben is the Number 1 New York Times author of 35 novels with over 80 million books in print worldwide, including Fool Me Once, Run Away, and the Myron Bolitar series - tailor-made for any adult who spent their youth picking up an armful of Hardy Boys novels from the thelay wala.

Netflix's favourite author

So adept is Coben at spitting thriller after twisty thriller that Netflix, too has started spitting out one Coben adaptation after another. In January this year, we were treated to eight episodes of Fool Me Once, holding audiences spellbound for a solid eight episodes. Any book fan will tell you that the book pulled off the final reveal in a more spectacular fashion - but that is the prerogative of any book fan, and in no way detracts from the screen version of Fool Me Once. Evidently, those in charge of such things at Netflix feel the same way, because last week, the streaming giant announced Missing You, the latest Coben limited series to grace us all beginning January 1. In case you required any more reasons to pick up a Coben thriller, a delighted Reese Witherspoon took to her Instagram handle last month to announce she is collaborating with him to publish her first debut novel.

"I'm beyond excited to share that I'm co-writing my very first thriller with # 1 bestselling author Harlan Coben," gushed Witherspoon in a caption alongside a picture of herself beaming next to the man himself. "As a massive fan of Harlan's work, I can't believe he agreed to co-author a novel with me. I'm either the most persuasive person alive or the idea of this book is just too good!"

Unputdownable at the core

Just what sets Coben apart from a dime-a-dozen thriller writers jostling for position on bestseller charts? What is it about him that has inspired Witherspoon to become the next celebrity novelist? Is Coben as unputdownable as reviews suggest? Does that mean that you will not, in fact, throw a Coben thriller across the room when you have been bitterly let down by a moronic conclusion?

The answer to those two questions is a simple 'yes'. I have sacrificed my children's needs many a time in pursuit of a Coben mystery, because sometimes, some questions need to be answered despite the fact that it is time to serve dinner.

At the heart of any Coben thriller is a protagonist you instantly connect with, and a plot that poses a new question at the end of every chapter. Just like King sets much of his work in Maine, Coben's novels are set across New Jersey, which, if his books are to be believed, is an absolute hotbed of suburban crime and deep hidden secrets. Adrenaline-fuelled escapism, a head-scratching whodunnit manned by a colourful cast of witty characters with a functioning brain - there is nothing more a jaded reader could ask for on a long-haul flight or when searching for a reason to avoid a large pile of ironing.

Sizzling suspense

As a father of four, Coben has an intimate understanding of how far a parent would go for a child, which is why so many of his novels feature a parent going to breathtaking lengths to protect a beloved son or daughter. More often than not, this parent is desperate to keep long-buried secrets buried. Unfortunately for the heroic parent (although depending on the novel, that parent may well be Coben's designated villain), dead and buried secrets have a way of inconveniently popping up, sacrificing lives along the way to keep us entertained. Home, for example, features a boy who has been missing for six years, but suddenly reappears. Where has he been all this time? Why has he come back? And more importantly, where is his best friend, who went missing alongside him on the same day all those years ago? We are hooked from the opening line, and the book's haunting conclusion stays with us for years after. Do not start reading Home at night.

Although many of Coben's novels take place across the nineties, there is something charming about revisiting a world that uses outdated technology (payphones, answering machine messages) to solve crimes. Coben started creeping up the charts with his Myron Bolitar series, which began in 1995 with Deal Breaker. The series features good-looking sports agent Myron (ex-basketball star, heart of gold, expert street fighter) and his loyal sidekick Win (blond, rich, psychotic, martial arts extraordinaire). Together, channelling Batman and Robin, Myron and Win tackle murder and mayhem across New Jersey and New York with their unique brand of wit, humour and penchant for action. Expect a slew of bodies along the way.

Whilst the adventures of Myron and Win would make for exceedingly good television, it is Coben's standalone work that has so far been translated to Netflix. Coben, too, had taken a few years to focus on his standalone characters. However, when I met him at a book signing in 2019, I asked him to "Please bring back Myron," to which the man replied, "Okay." With that in mind, the latest page-turning Myron novel Think Twice was released in June this year, so to all readers who'd been nursing a Myron-shaped hole - you know who to thank.