Harlan Coben (article)

Published by Mason Oldridge, 19 February 2026

American author Harlan Coben has a large collection of TV series to his name, both adaptations of his mystery thriller novels and original stories. They have been produced by many networks including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Sky and produced in various countries around the world including the UK, the US, France, Spain, Poland and Argentina. Here we take a look at the Harlan Coben series not previously reviewed by Audio Visual (excluding the French exclusives that are internationally unavailable). Expect lots of spoilers for this one!

The Five (2016)

Four childhood friends Mark, Danny, Slade and Pru reunite 20 years after Mark’s younger brother Jesse went missing, following his DNA being found at a crime scene. There are interesting chapters throughout, such as the discoveries of Jay Newman’s imprisoned girls and Jakob Marosi’s victim tapes, and the series provides a satisfactory ending, revealing that Jesse’s biological father abducted and subsequently raised him, subverting convention as Jesse is still alive.

Safe (2018)

Surgeon Tom uncovers a web of lies and deceit while searching for his missing teenage daughter Jenny. There’s suspicion over a pool death at a house party, a 1980s-themed bar and a teacher-student affair, but the final truth emerges as it is revealed that Jenny’s mum Rachel, Jenny’s stepmum Sophie, neighbour Helen and nightclub owner Bobby started a school fire in the 90s to get revenge on their teacher, accidentally killing eight students in the building, and it was Sophie who killed Jenny’s boyfriend Chris when he threatened to expose the secret. Bobby then kills Helen at her own house, where Jenny was on a quest for information following her mum’s deathbed admission and stayed in hiding after Chris’ death, before committing suicide and Tom has Sophie arrested.

The Stranger (2020)

Adam Price’s perfect family life falls apart when a mysterious young woman tells him that his wife faked her pregnancy. There’s mystery surrounding Corinne’s disappearance, a decapitated alpaca and an unconscious naked teen boy, a compelling villain in Katz and chilling reveals aplenty as we learn that Killane refused to move because was harbouring his murdered wife’s corpse, Olivia is being poisoned by her mother, The Stranger is Adam’s half-sister and Doug killed Corinne, a confession that he shockingly plays down.

The Woods (2020)

Widowed prosecutor Pawel is called in to identify a body, which links back to a summer camp he attended 25 years ago in which two teenagers were found dead and another two missing, one of which was his sister Kamila. We learn of the events that took place in the woods involving Malczak in which Monika and Daniel were killed and Kamila and Artur went into hiding. Furthermore, Dawid killed Artur and Wladyslaw killed Natalia. In the present day, Pawel resigns his job, takes the blame for Gosia and doesn’t get his happy ending with Laura, all on top of the trauma and loss of the past, but there is a glimmer of hope as he visits a convent and approaches a nun, teased to be Kamila. 

The Innocent (2021)

Nine years after accidentally killing a man in a brawl, Mat is rebuilding his life after prison with his wife Olivia. Meanwhile, Detective Ortiz investigates the death of a nun, who fell from a window. This series is particularly dark, with prostitution being a main theme as we learn of Olivia’s past as an exotic dancer and sex worker. Particularly thrilling scenes include the girls’ plot to escape and disposing of Aníbal’s body in the ocean despite him still being alive as well as learning why Detective Aguilar so desperately wanted the blackmail tapes and the ensuing chase for him. Following one last harrowing ordeal for Mat and Olivia at the hands of Kimmy, they seemingly confess all their secrets to begin life afresh, before a final scene reveals Mat in fact did kill the inmate in prison.

Gone for Good (2021)

Ten years on from the murder of his ex-girlfriend Sonia and the disappearance of his brother Fred, Guillaume attends his mother’s funeral with his current girlfriend Judith, though she vanishes soon after. We learn that Judith is actually Nora, who was in an abusive relationship with her husband and Fred helped her. However, Fred was also involved in a drugs gang and a shady character from his past Ostertag causes trouble for Guillaume in the present, culminating in a multi-story car park shoot-out with the final twist revealing Fred killed Sonia and prompting Guillaume to shoot Fred dead.

Stay Close (2021)

Suburban mum Megan’s old life comes back to haunt her, photographer Ray is taking photos in the woods and Detective Broome takes on a case when a local man Carlton goes missing on the 17th anniversary of another missing man Stewart. There’s other interesting characters including nightclub owner Lorraine, lawyer Harry and the psychopathic musical theatre killers Barbie and Ken. We learn that Lorraine has been killing violent and abusive men (gruesomely piling bodies up in an underground bunker) but didn’t in fact kill Carlton. A shocking moment reveals that Megan’s husband Dave pushed a car into a lake to protect their daughter Kayleigh, unaware that Carlton was in the boot, unintentionally killing him. 

Hold Tight (2022)

Anna finds herself beaten up when she goes looking for her runaway son Adam, shortly after the death of his friend Igor. Elsewhere, Adam’s younger sister Ola’s friend Jasmina is bullied after teacher Tadeusz jokes about her facial hair and an ex-army officer with PTSD Natan goes on a killing spree. The series contains a theme of helicopter parenting as Anna tracks Adam’s phone, including messages with his girlfriend Kaja. It is revealed that Adam and Igor attended Guru, a counselling group that also used the boys to run a drug ring, and Adam was actually kidnapped by his friends, who feared he would snitch. Furthermore, Jasmina was the one blackmailing Tadeusz and she shot Natan, who was carrying out these killings for Tadeusz, who served with him in Afghanistan.

Lazarus (2025)

Joel investigates the apparent suicide of his psychiatrist father Jonathan, some 27 years after the unsolved murder of his sister Sutton. The supernatural element in which he talks to his father’s dead patients elevates the series, with each visit being increasingly exciting as each arrival begins with the eerie elevator ding. The highlight is when Cassandra violently murders her boyfriend in the past and then his decaying corpse is discovered in the present. Compelling throughout, the ending is strong too as it is revealed that Olson killed Sutton, DCI Brown was involved in the other deaths (who is then crushed by a bus), Jonathan was the true serial killer and Joel had actually been listening to video tapes of historic patient meetings, all before the final act in which Aidan kills Laura, fulfilling Jonathan’s warning that “sons become their fathers.”

With another Coben series currently in production by Netflix, it seems his mystery thriller series are set to continue!