Harlan Coben: ‘I want TV fans to be obsessed with my new Amazon Prime thriller’

From the classic French thriller Tell No One to The Stranger and most recently Fool Me Once, few writers have mastered the art of the twist quite like Harlan Coben.

With 35 novels to his name and more than 80million books in print along with a string of TV adaptations, the best-selling author has built an empire of binge worthy content.

Now, the 63-year-old is showing a different side of himself with Amazon Prime Video’s Lazarus, starring Sam Claflin, Alexandra Roach and Bill Nighy.

Speaking to Metro about his new haunting psychological thriller, Harlan discussed what a pleasure it is to have people want to see his work and how quickly he came up with the plot of his latest series.

‘One day I was playing tennis and I was going to my car and across the street I saw a psychiatrist’s office where I’d taken my father-in-law a few years earlier when he had severe depression,’ he says.

‘I started thinking about the psychiatrist’s office and all the misery that they hear. I thought – where does all that misery go? And then what happens when the psychiatrist dies, and that misery can come out again?

‘That’s what started it and I actually ran home, and in about an hour, I had outlined at most of the story. I’ve never had it happen to me that fast.’

The New Jersey native assures me that his writing is usually never as ‘magical a sounding process’.

But for Harlan, writing truly is the centre of his world.

‘Life is about balance,’ he says to me. ‘And if I’m not writing well, it’s all going to go out of balance and will eventually fall apart. So writing is part of what I need to keep my life in balance. It’s why I need to think about writing every day.’

From 2010-2019, Harlan produced one new novel a year and continues to surge forward like a literary runaway train.

The 63-year-old often aims to puncture the façade of suburban family life, but he’s keen to continue trying different genres.

‘I always react if I write a story,’ he explains. ‘Things naturally go that way.

‘[For Lazarus] it just ended up being – how do I tell this story? And in order to tell this story, it had to be a little more ghosty. I’m not a big horror fan,  but I wanted this eerie, uneasy quality to come in.

‘I just do whatever. I come up with the story and then whatever it fits into. I never think of genre.

‘I hope to keep coming up with them. I love telling stories, and I want to keep doing it in different ways and collaborating with new and more interesting people.’

For this project in particular, it was partly inspired by when Harlan, in his 20s, lost his father aged 59 after a heart attack.

He tells me: ‘With Lazarus, it’s a father and son story. I lost my father at a young age, and I think we all had that dream of what if I could see him again? What if I could be with him one more time? That happens in Lazarus.’

Previously, Harlan told GQ that if his fans didn’t binge his series in two days, he wouldn’t be happy.

I ask him if that view still stands with Lazarus today.

Laughing, he says: ‘Yeah, sure. I say that tongue in cheek. I just want you to be caught up. I love that feeling when I’m reading a book or watching a series where I just become enamoured with it and obsessed and it’s always my hope that I give you that.’

As well as being a prolific writer of novels, Harlan’s career reached new heights in 2018 when he signed a five-year deal with Netflix to get his 14 books adapted into TV series.

His foray into UK television came with 2020’s Manchester-set The Stranger, which proved to be a smash hit.

This was before Michelle Keegan wowed fans in Fool Me Once and Missing You, starring Rosalind Eleazar and Ashley Walters, left fans reeling with its shocking turns.

Discussing how he is able to plant himself in the UK with his work, Harlan reveals his secret weapon, his British collaborator Danny Brocklehurst who makes sure British sensibilities are retained.

But for the 63-year-old from New Jersey, being in a position where so many people are wanting to read and see his work on the silver screen, it’s a ‘dream come true’, as he emphasises how ‘lucky’ he is.

‘I remember the days when that didn’t happen. And so I’m wildly appreciative of anybody who wants to read my books or wants to watch my shows. It’s a tremendous compliment. It’s a tremendous thrill. And that thrill never goes away.

‘When I was on set, I thought to myself how I had this little idea when I was playing tennis one day, and now it’s been brought to life.

‘If that doesn’t jazz you as a creator, then there’s something wrong with you. The stress is when no one wants to watch TV shows or read your stuff.’

Amazon Prime Video’s Lazarus is available to watch from October 22.

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