Harlan Coben

Harlan Coben (born January 4, 1962) is an American writer of mystery 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. Fifteen 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. His books have been translated into 46 languages and sold over 90 million copies.

Early life and education Harlan Coben was born on January 4, 1962 into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, and was raised in Livingston, where he graduated from Livingston High School, with his childhood friend, future governor Chris Christie. 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. Coben was in his senior year at college when he realized he wanted to write. 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. 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.

In 2003, Coben published a short story about his father, who died of a heart attack at the age of 59 in 1988. Titled "The Key to My Father," the story was published in The New York Times on Father's Day, June 15, 2003. Besides The New York Times, his essays and columns have appeared in Parade magazine and Bloomberg View.

In 2025, Coben published his first collaborative co-authored novel, Gone Before Goodbye, with Reese Witherspoon.

Recognition and awards Coben's books have been translated into 46 languages and sold over 90 million copies. He has won an Edgar Award, a Shamus Award, and an Anthony Award—the first author to receive all three.

In 2010, Live Wire won a Spanish crime fiction award, the RBA Prize for Crime Writing, worth €125,000.

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.

List of nominations and wins

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. Coben also created the French-British crime drama television show Safe, which premiered on Netflix in 190 countries on May 10, 2018.

Film and TV series Early adaptations The first of Coben's works to receive the screen treatment was his 2001 novel Tell No One, which was adapted into a 2006 French film of the same name. The film was a box office success and was widely praised, being nominated for nine César Awards, and winning four. Two further novels were adapted as miniseries for France's TF1 broadcaster: 2015's No Second Chance and 2017's Just One Look.

The 2016 Sky1 drama The Five was an original series created by Coben, who followed suit with the C8/Netflix show Safe.

Netflix In August 2018, following the success of Safe, Coben signed a multi-million-dollar, five-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. The first one was The Stranger which premiered in January 2020. In October 2022, Netflix extended the deal for another four years, with the Myron Bolitar novel series now also available for adaptation. On February 20, 2023, Fool Me Once was announced as an upcoming adaptation in production for Netflix. , in addition to the original Safe, 12 series have been released under the Netflix deal; the series have been produced in different countries, with six in English, three in Polish, two in Spanish, and one in French as the original languages. A Myron Bolitar English-language television series is also in the works at Netflix.

Others In 2022, Amazon Studios announced plans to produce a series based on the first Mickey Bolitar novel, Shelter. Jaden Michael stars as Mickey, alongside Constance Zimmer, Adrian Greensmith, Abby Corrigan, and Sage Linder. The series, Harlan Coben's Shelter, was released on August 18, 2023. In 2025, Prime Video released the series Lazarus, based on an original concept by Coben.

As of 2026, Coben hosts the true crime documentary series Harlan Coben's Final Twist for CBS.

List of films Title (English & LOTE)Country of originLanguageDirectorReleaseTell No OneFranceFrenchGuillaume CanetNovember 1, 2006

List of series

Personal life Coben lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey, with his wife Anne Armstrong-Coben, a pediatrician, and their four children. His daughter, Charlotte, wrote two episodes of the TV series Run Away, of which he is an executive producer. They have also worked together on Dead Hot, Fool Me Once and Harlan Coben's Shelter.

Published works