“If someone tells you they don’t care how their show or book is received, they’re just lying to you.”

Harlan Coben – one of the world’s most successful crime writers – doesn’t mince his words: “Every writer you’ve ever interviewed wants two things: better reviews and a bigger audience.”

The 62-year-old American author has published 37 books and sold more than 80 million copies in 46 languages ​​since his debut almost 35 years ago, and he isn’t too proud to admit that he enjoys his success.

Coben tells Sky News: “It’s exciting to know that so many people are watching your shows or reading your books. To deny that is stupid and silly.”

His stories about ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations are absolutely excessive and have found a home on Netflix, carefully curated as the Harlan Coben Collection.

With nine shows and counting, Last year’s breakout hit Fool Me Once was the most-watched Netflix series of 2024. Its next adaptation, I will find youreceived the green light earlier this year.

This year’s offering “Missing You,” premiering on New Year’s Day, is likely to be met with similar enthusiasm.

Of course, Coben’s books rise again in the charts with the release of each series.

Earlier this year he occupied first and second place simultaneously on the UK paperback bestseller list, with ‘Fool Me Once’ taking second place behind his latest release ‘I Will Find You’.

He’d worked with other streamers including Amazon, Apple and MGM International, and shot his first film in France with Canal+, but it’s a truly global reach he’s aiming for.

With more than 280 million subscribers in over 290 countries, Netflix seems like a natural choice.

The “Misbranding” of Netflix

Coben’s TV deal with the streaming giant (signed for five years in 2018 and extended for four years in 2022) appears to be a sure step toward the “bigger audience” he craves.

Coben thinks that’s wrong and clarifies: “Netflix and I just agreed to do a lot of shows together.”

He says the “misnomer” was due to the number of novels available at the time the contract was signed, with no specific number set.

He has calculated that twelve shows will be released or announced by the end of 2025 and hopes the end result will be “more than 14”.

Safe (2018) was the first Coben production, followed by The Stranger (2020), Stay Close (2022), Fool Me Once (2023) and now Missing You.

Meanwhile, Polish series “The Woods” and “Hold Tight” premiered on Netflix in 2020 and 2022, respectively, while Spanish production “The Innocent” and French production “Gone For Good” both landed in 2021.

An apartment next to Yoko Ono

Coben is one of the few American novelists who has sold more books abroad than in his home country. According to Coben, possible production in the USA is also being discussed.

For an author who is already on a lot of people’s bookshelves, this is all great exposure.

It was reportedly a multi-million pound deal. Coben doesn’t want to talk about money, but insists his Netflix handshake didn’t turn his career around.

He said: “My real life is – I don’t use the word boring – but it’s pretty ordinary. I have four children who are all grown up now. I am a father first and foremost.”

“I still live in the same place, so my everyday life hasn’t changed much.”

London-born screenwriter Victoria Asare-Archer, lead author of Missing You, was able to witness Coben’s everyday life firsthand by meeting him at his Manhattan apartment – the Dakota Building – famously once the home of Beatle John Lennon to be .

Coben also has a single-family home in his home state of New Jersey, but as Asare-Archer says, “Not many people have a work apartment next to Yoko Ono.”“

The screenwriter says she enjoyed delving into Coben’s “very interesting, glamorous life,” even if “only for a short time.”

And even more glamor is in the works: Coben is writing a novel with Hollywood actress Reese Wetherspoon, which is scheduled to be published next fall.

“A tiny, tiny detail you may not have thought of.”

The main actress in his latest work, Rosalind Eleazar, calls Coben “an extraordinary writer” and “wonderful human being.”

She played DI Kat Donovan in Missing You and said: “I could text him any time if I had a question about Kat’s trip.”

Eleazar told Sky News: “He’s just so good at creating exciting drama. With all these twists and turns he takes you in the wrong direction, but at the same time his characters are relatable.”

Eleazar, one of the stars of crime writer Mick Herron’s Apple TV+ hit Slow Horses, says she is “lucky to have worked with two fantastic writers who are in the same genre but at opposite ends of the spectrum.”

Of course, it’s a big deal for such respected authors to hand over their work to a team of television people.

Coben admits: “I have a lot of control and a lot of power. But when you’re used to being the writer who has all the power and all the say, that doesn’t seem like much.”

Asare-Archer describes Coben as “a great resource,” explaining, “He spent seven months looking at every detail of how to find that one fingerprint or that little detail… (He would say things like) ‘If you change that , then.’ Page 69 will be harder to do because of this tiny, tiny thing you may not have thought of.

“Without him I might not be a writer.”

Regarding his abilities as a writer, she says: “Harlan is a master at taking your hand and guiding you to the top of the roller coaster to make you feel safe. And then he pushes you away and sends you on this crazy journey.

She had long been a fan of his work and grew up reading Coben’s books: “I was a library kid, I spent all my time in the library… There’s an argument that without him I might not be a writer.”.”

Asare-Archer is set in an unnamed area in the north of England and was filmed in Manchester. It was Asare-Archer’s job to transport the story from New York City to Britain.

Eleazar says that while the show felt somewhat like a “Manchester project,” the universal theme meant “it could be placed anywhere.”

“Our lucky underpants”

Of course, there is also the Richard Armitage factor in TV adaptations.

The Leicester-born star has had roles in four of Coben’s projects, and the pair have become friends, even spending Thanksgiving together at the author’s apartment.

Eleazar calls Armitage “the veteran,” while Asare-Archer jokes: “I’m not sure you could have a set if he wasn’t there. I think it’s mandatory.”

Coben reveals that Armitage’s repeat appearances “started as a bit of a challenge” after his first appearance in The Stranger, in which he plays a family man who makes shocking claims about his wife.

Buoyed by the warm reception, Netflix suggested that Armitage would return for Stay Closer in a very different role as a loner with an unexpected past.

Always keen to “do something completely different,” says Coben, “Armitage calls himself our ‘lucky guy,'” adding, “I wouldn’t go quite that far, but (I always think): ‘Can we do one?’ Find a role for Richard?'” You won’t think, ‘That’s the guy from The Stranger?'”

“Always create secrets”

An author himself (Armitage has a crime novel out, with a second coming next year), Asare-Archer says Armitage’s “great story mind” also made him invaluable on set.

She says, “At one point he just pointed out a tiny forensic detail in a scene he’s not even in, and he was like, ‘Damn, that’s a good point’… He was great about having a board.”“

In 2006, Coben made a brief cameo appearance as a bartender in his French adaptation Tell No One. Can we expect to see him in “Missing You”?

“Yes and no,” he teases.

“Watch out, you’ll definitely see me in this. It’s interesting how you see me.”

All five episodes of Missing You are now available to stream on Netflix. Harlan Coben’s next book, Nobody’s Fool, will be published in March.