Coben, Harlan 1962–

PERSONAL:

Born January 4, 1962, in Newark, NJ; son of Carl Gerald and Barbara Coben; married Anne Armstrong (a pediatrician), November 5, 1988; children: four, including Charlotte and Benjamin. Education: Amherst College, B.A., 1984.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Ridgewood, NJ. Agent—Aaron Priest Literary Agency, 708 3rd Ave., New York, NY 10017. E-mail—me@harlancoben.com.

CAREER:

Writer. Previously worked in travel industry.

MEMBER:

Mystery Writers of American, Sisters in Crime.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Anthony Award for best paperback original novel, World Mystery Conference, and Edgar Award nomination, Mystery Writers of American, both 1996, both for Deal Breaker; Edgar Award for best paperback original mystery novel, Mystery Writers of American, Shamus Award for best paperback original novel, Private Eye Writers of America, and OLMA Award for best paperback original, American Online/Microsoft/Internet Newsgroups, all 1997, all for Fade Away; Fresh Talent Award, United Kingdom, c. 1997, for One False Move; Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination in best novel category, Mystery Writers of America, 2002, Le Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle for fiction, France, both for Tell No One; International Book of the Month, Bookspan, 2003, for No Second Chance; "Thumping Good Read" Award, W.H. Smith, for Gone for Good; Le Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle for fiction, France, for Tell No One.

WRITINGS:

MYSTERY NOVELS

Play Dead, British American Publishing (Latham, NY), 1990.

Miracle Cure, British American Publishing (Latham, NY), 1991.

Tell No One: A Novel, Delacorte (New York, NY), 2001.

Gone for Good, Delacorte (New York, NY), 2002.

No Second Chance, Dutton (New York, NY), 2003.

Just One Look, Dutton (New York, NY), 2004.

The Innocent, Dutton (New York, NY), 2005.

"MYRON BOLITAR" MYSTERY NOVELS

Deal Breaker, Dell (New York, NY), 1995.

Dropshot, Dell (New York, NY), 1996.

Fade Away, Dell (New York, NY), 1996.

Back Spin, Dell (New York, NY), 1997.

One False Move, Dell (New York, NY), 1997.

The Final Detail, Dell (New York, NY), 2000.

Darkest Fear, Delacorte (New York, NY), 2000.

Promise Me, Dutton (New York, NY), 2006.

OTHER

(Editor and contributor) Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part: New Stories about Love, Lust, and Murder, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including the short story "The Key to My Father" in the New York Times. Books have been published in twenty-two languages.

ADAPTATIONS:

Film adaptations of novels include Tell No One, 2006, and Deal Breaker, c. 2008. Books have been adapted as audiobooks, including No Second Chance, Books on Tape, 2003, Just One Look, Penguin Audio, 2004, and Promise Me, Brilliance Audio, 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Harlan Coben made his mark in the 1990s with mystery novels that embrace the worlds of professional sports and high-powered media glitz. His first, Play Dead, concerns a Boston Celtics basketball star, David Baskin, who fakes his own death on his Australian honeymoon. His widow, supermodel Laura Ayars, investigates and finds that the people she wishes to interview about the case have a habit of turning up dead. David, meanwhile, has resurfaced, in disguise and with a new identity, playing the same position he formerly did for the Celtics. The solution to the mystery has to do with a murder that happened thirty years earlier which was witnessed by David's brother and Laura's sister.

Library Journal contributor Marylaine Block noted that Play Dead is "an engrossing suspense novel"; the novel is also, Block stated, "primarily great romantic suspense" rather than a sports book. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that the novel is "manipulative but otherwise engaging." Noted the reviewer: "Coben manufactures tension primarily by keeping key details out of his narrative." In School Library Journal, Katherine Fitch, assessing the book's appeal for young adult readers, wrote, "Coben weaves a delicate web of intrigue." Fitch went on to write: "A fast-moving thriller with a rapidly twisting plot."

Once again writing in the School Library Journal, Fitch found Coben's second novel, Miracle Cure, a "fast moving mystery." Here, the subject is the fictional development of a cure for AIDS by a pair of brilliant researchers, one of whom is murdered, as are several of their clinic's patients. When sports star Michael Silverman, a friend of the researchers, is diagnosed as HIV-positive, his wife, beautiful television journalist Sara Lowell, begins investigating the clinic murders with the help of secretly gay New York City homicide detective Max Bernstein. The suspects and other involved characters include Sara's bad-girl sister; the sisters' father, who is a research rival of the AIDS doctors; a televangelist; and a U.S. senator whose son is a patient at the AIDS clinic.

A Kirkus Reviews contributor questioned the high-glamour aspects of Miracle Cure, while Library Journal contributor A.J. Wright, despite calling the novel's characters "an uneasy stew of American types," declared that "Coben keeps the reader's interest by fleshing out the stereotypes a little bit and moving the plot fast enough to overcome the more incredible aspects."

Coben went on to develop a new investigative hero in later novels, which include Deal Breaker and the 1996 Dropshot. As their titles imply, the series protagonist is a sports agent; but Myron Bolitar is anything but typical. An aging child who still lives in his parents' basement despite a successful career as attorney and agent (and as basketball player before that), Bolitar plays TV-trivia games and hangs around with one Windsor Horne Lockwood III ("Win"), a lethally powerful young man of patrician ancestry who is devoted to the watching of his own X-rated home videos. The murder in Dropshot is that of Valerie Simpson, a former teenage tennis phenomenon who is trying for a comeback after a serious decline; she is shot dead at the Food Court of the U.S. Open, while another young prodigy, an African American former street kid named Duane Richwood, serves the ball for match point. Both Valerie and Duane were Myron's clients; thus, his involvement in the case.

Publishers Weekly contributor Maria Simson commented that the novel's "rapid-fire dialogue" reminded her of the "Fletch" novels by Gregory McDonald. "Dry humor and a self-deprecating attitude make Myron an appealing hero, and minor characters are delineated with attitude and verve," Simson wrote. Margo Kaufman, reviewing Dropshot for the Los Angeles Times Book Review, wrote that the plot twists were not surprising but that Coben's "depiction of the sports marketing scene is hilarious." Armchair Detective contributor Ronald C. Miller called the novel "a solid mystery with an interesting sports background, a fast-paced plot, witty dialogue, and a you'll-never-guess-whodunit denouement." He added: "Harlan Coben brings a new and exciting voice to the mystery novel."

In Coben's stand-alone novel No Second Chance, Dr. Marc Seidman wakes up in a hospital after being in a coma for twelve days following an attack. Also present at the attack was his wife, who was killed, and his baby daughter, who has been kidnapped. When he pays a ransom to the kidnappers, they take off with the money but do not return his daughter and then contact the doctor months later for more money. This time Seidman sets out to get his daughter back. Writing in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Oline H. Cogdill commented that the "action-laden plot spins on false endings, surprise revelations and a pathos that accentuates the story." Cogdill continued: "Coben sharply shapes the characters as realistic, flawed human beings capable of extreme courage and cowardice."

Just One Look begins with Grace Lawson finding a picture that doesn't seem to belong in a group of photos she just picked up from being developed. Nevertheless, one of the people in the picture looks like her husband, Jack, when he was a college student. Furthermore, one of the women in the picture has her faced crossed out. After revealing the picture to her husband, he quickly disappears, and Grace sets out to look for him. In the process, secrets from both her and her husband's past come to light. Connie Fletcher, writing in Booklist, noted the author's ability "to get readers to identify so passionately with the beleaguered principal character that they disappear into the story." A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that Just One Look "highlights the author's customary strengths (swift pacing, strong lead characters)." Joe Heim, writing in People, noted: "The tension doesn't build slowly; it snaps and crackles right from the get-go."

The Innocent tells the story of Matt Hunter, who, after finding out that she is pregnant, has his wife buy a cell phone with picture taking capabilities so they can record every second of their parenthood. When his wife goes on business trip he gets a phone photo sent to him of his wife seemingly having an affair with another man. Hunter, who spent four years in prison for killing another student in college during a brawl, is soon caught up in a mystery that includes a nun's murder. A Kirkus Reviews contributor commented that "there's a record number of jaw-dropping plot twists." A reviewer writing in Publishers Weekly called The Innocent Coben's "best book to date." Booklist contributor Connie Fletcher noted the novel's "intriguing start … [that] hurtles into a fast-paced hunter-and-hunted drama."

Coben returns to his hero Myron Bolitar in Promise Me. This time, after overhearing two teenage girls talk about driving drunk and getting them to promise to call him rather than do it again, Bolitar receives a call from one a few nights later and drives her to a friend's house. When the girl disappears without ever making it home, Bolitar decides it is his duty to find her. A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that the author "piles on the plot twists, false leads, violent set pieces and climactic surprises." Writing in Booklist, Connie Fletcher praised the novel's "melding of high suspense and high technology with a somewhat battered, very canny, questing hero." Adam B. Vary, writing in Entertainment Weekly, pointed out the author's "skillful pacing and truly surprising turns of plot."

Coben is also the editor of Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part: New Stories About Love, Lust, and Murder. Written by members of the Mystery Writers of America, the stories are primarily about love that typically end in disaster. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Coben's contribution to the anthology a "spectacular shocker." A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote that "fans of quality short fiction should be satisfied."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Armchair Detective, spring, 1996, Ronald C. Miller, review of Dropshot, p. 242.

Booklist, March 1, 2004, Connie Fletcher, review of Just One Look, p. 1100; March 1, 2005, Connie Fletcher, review of The Innocent, p. 1101; April 1, 2006, Connie Fletcher, review of Promise Me, p. 4; July 1, 2006, David Pitt, review of Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part: New Stories about Love, Lust, and Murder, p. 37.

Detroit Free Press, May 4, 2005, Ron Bernas, review of The Innocent.

Entertainment Weekly, April 30, 2004, Adam B. Vary, review of Just One Look, p. 168; April 29, 2005, Jennifer Reese, review of The Innocent, p. 155; April 28, 2006, Adam B. Vary, review of Promise Me, p. 139.

Europe Intelligence Wire, June 3, 2006, review of Promise Me.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 1991, review of Miracle Cure, p. 1106; March 15, 2004, review of Just One Look, 239; May 21, 2004, "Look'ing Good," book rankings, p. 85; March 1, 2005, review of The Innocent, p. 244; March 15, 2006, review of Promise Me, p. 263; June 15, 2006, review of Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part, p. 602.

Library Journal, April 1, 1990, Marylaine Block, review of Play Dead, p. 136; November 1, 1991, A.J. Wright, review of Miracle Cure, p. 130; May 1, 2004, Jeff Ayers, review of Just One Look, p. 139; April 1, 2005, Jeff Ayers, review of The Innocent, p. 84; May 1, 2006, Jeff Ayers, review of Promise Me, p. 77.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, March 10, 1996, Margo Kaufman, review of Dropshot, p. 11.

Orlando Sentinel, May 26, 2004, Nancy Pate, review of Just One Look.

People, May 3, 2004, Joe Heim, review of Just One Look, p. 47.

PR Newswire, August 12, 2003, "Harlan Coben's Gone for Good voted WHSmith Thumping Good Read of the Year."

Publishers Weekly, April 6, 1990, review of Play Dead, p. 101; February 5, 1996, Maria Simson, review of Dropshot, p. 82; March 29, 2004, review of Just One Look, p. 36; May 10, 2004, Daisy Maryles, "It's Coben Time," p. 16; December 20, 2004, John F. Baker, "Big Deal at Dutton for Coben," p. 10; March 7, 2005, review of The Innocent, p. 50; March 6, 2006, review of Promise Me, p. 48; June 5, 2006, review of Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part, p. 40.

San Jose Mercury News, April 21, 2004, John Orr, review of Just One Look.

School Library Journal, October, 1990, Katherine Fitch, review of Play Dead, p. 150; May, 1992, Katherine Fitch, review of Miracle Cure, p. 151.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service), May 5, 2003, Oline H. Cogdill, review of No Second Chance; April 28, 2004, Oline H. Cogdill, review of Just One Look; April 27, 2005, Oline H. Cogdill, review of The Innocent; April 26, 2006, Oline H. Cogdill, review of Promise Me; August 9, 2006, Oline H. Cogdill, review of Deal Breaker.

Writer, September, 2006, Leslie Garisto Pfaff, "In the Gray Zone with Harlan Coben," interview with author, p. 20.

ONLINE

BookPage,http://www.bookpage.com/ (December 26, 2006), Stephanie Swilley, "Harlan Coben Tells All."

Bookreporter.com,http://www.bookreporter.com/ (December 26, 2006), Joe Hartlaub, reviews of Promise Me, The Innocent, Just One Look, and Gone for Good; Bob Rhubart, review of No Second Chance; also interview with author.

Harlen Coben Home Page,http://www.HarlanCoben.com (December 26, 2006).

Harlen Coben MySpace,http://www.myspace.com/harlancoben (December 26, 2006)

Internet Movie Database,http://www.imdb.com/ (December 26, 2006), information on author's film work.