We all love a good mystery thriller. It’s our chance to escape into a crime-filled world, playing detective as we attempt to solve the mystery. If there is one mystery writer in the modern era who has delivered a world of excellent content, look no further than Harlan Coben. The brilliant mind behind some of your streamers’ highest-charting hits, the American author is, to say the least, prolific.
Having written dozens of novels that bring twists and turns around every corner, many of the titles have been adapted for serialized purposes. Though they may not all be extraordinary, they’ve certainly become a guilty-pleasure genre within thrillers. Adapted in many countries in a variety of languages, one thing they all have in common is the ability to keep you intrigued from start to finish. We’re going to celebrate his televised bibliography as we determine the best series in the greater Harlan Coben Cinematic Universe.
16
‘Caught’ (2025)
Coben might be American, and his work tends to be transported to the UK, but that doesn’t mean all of his work has to follow the same formula. In 2025, Caught became the first Latin American adaptation of a Coben piece. Set in Bariloche, Argentina, Caught follows investigative journalist Ema Garay (Soledad Villamil), who has built a successful career by catching criminals who have eluded justice. But her latest story hits closer to home. Working alongside social worker Leo Mercer (Alberto Ammann), Ema gets a tip into the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl that makes Leo the primary suspect. With the entire justice system gunning for him, Ema might be the only person who believes his innocence. But as she pursues the truth, she unravels a web of interconnected mysteries that puts her life in direct danger.
Regardless of language, Caught is typical Coben. There are elements that make it a strong series, but what Caught lacks is an immediate, original, and engaging hook. With a pretty murky first episode, Caught drudges along as twists and turns tend to pop out from nowhere simply for the sake of it. Coben’s stories are almost all fragmented, eventually uniting down the line, but Caught seemed to suffer more than normal. What shines through is that, no matter the language or location, you can sense Coben’s unique voice.
15
‘Gone for Good’ (2021)
Based on one of Coben’s earliest works, the French-language series has all the markings of a classic Coben thriller. Gone for Good follows Guillaume Lucchesi (Finnegan Oldfield), who spends his summers at his family estate on the French Riviera. During his trip in 2010, he witnessed the murder of his girlfriend and his older brother. Ten years later, on the eve of his mother’s funeral, Guillaume proposes to his new girlfriend, Judith (Nailia Harzoune), who suddenly disappears the next day. The past and present collide as Guillaume is thrust into a brand-new mystery to discover the truth about Judith and where she may have gone.
The five-part series has an engaging and riveting hook that immediately moves into a swiftly paced drama. Moving the location to France was a seamless transition. Gone For Good does a lot of time-hopping, which is good for developing a tense story that sets up a stronger overall narrative, but it just needs a bit more nuance and purpose. It’s not necessarily confusing, but it stalls the action at times. If you’re eager to watch every Coben series, regardless of language, Gone for Good is a decent time; otherwise, you can probably skip.
14
‘Just One Look’ (2025)
Like many of Coben’s mysteries, it’s the darkest secrets of ours that tend to become the most destructive. Set in Warsaw, Poland, Just One Look follows Greta (Maria Dębska) as her life is upended when a disturbing photo mysteriously surfaces, connecting to the disappearance of her husband, Jacek (Cezary Lukaszewicz). As she digs into what happened, Greta confronts buried truths, past traumas, and her own hazy memory to save her husband. But that might mean discovering a marriage that was not what she thought.
Thanks to its worldwide Netflix release, Just One Look charted quite quickly, as Coben series tend to do. But if you had Coben fatigue at the rate that his series have been churned out, you might have passed this one up. The adaptation of the 2004 novel is led by Dębska, who delivers a solid performance. With an American writing perspective told with a Polish setting, Just One Look works, but it lacks a bit of the universality that other Coben shows contain.
13
‘The Five’ (2016)
One of Coben’s first series to be created for the screen and not a direct adaptation, The Five is a thriller that takes audiences from the past to the present. Childhood friends Mark Wells (Tom Cullen), Danny Kenwood (O.T. Fagbenle), Slade (Lee Ingleby), and Pru Carew (Sarah Solemani) are reunited when DNA evidence left at the murder scene of Annie Green is revealed to be that of Mark’s younger brother, Jesse (Alfie and Harry Bloor), who disappeared 20 years prior, believed to be killed by serial killer Jakob Marosi (Rade Serbedzija). Through an intricate web of trials and tribulations, the four childhood friends search in hopes of finding Jesse alive.
A true, “I know what you did 20 years ago” story, The Five is Coben at his earliest. And for that, The Five drops a few spots down. Though it has strong acting and solid storytelling, The Five lacks the bells and whistles that later entries tend to have. Despite some clunky dialogue and hokey moments, however, The Five is a steadfast mystery. Should you go back in time and watch all of these shows in release date order, The Five will leave you slightly satisfied and eager to reach the Netflix era as soon as possible. The Five is story first, emotions second.
12
‘Hold Tight’ (2022)
For the most part, Coben’s stories are contained in their own universe, but two pieces share the same world and timeline: Hold Tight and The Woods. In the unofficial sequel to The Woods, Pawel Kopiński (Grzegorz Damięcki) and his now-wife, Laura (Agnieszka Grochowska), find themselves connected to the primary story through Pawel’s daughter, Kaja (Agata Labno). Her boyfriend, Adam Barczyk (Krzysztof Oleksyn), suddenly goes missing after their friend Igor dies. The race is on to find Adam, and his mother, Anna (Magdalena Boczarska), will go to great lengths to do so.
With action, suspense, and a killer plot, Hold Tight is a decent non-English language adaptation, but, dare I say, on the verge of being too stale and predictable. With some major changes from page to screen, including gender and age, Hold Tight lives on its own. There are some strong story elements, but the series meanders a bit too much. It’s not as engaging as some of the other entries, especially the one it’s connected to.
11
‘Shelter’ (2023)
Image via Prime Video
Created for Prime Video, Shelter was inspired by Coben’s 2011 young adult novel. Shelter follows Mickey Bolitar (Jaden Michael) as he starts a new life in Kasselton, New Jersey, following the death of his father. While there, he becomes entangled in the mysterious disappearance of Ashley Kent (Samantha Bugliaro), a student at his school, which leads him to discover a dark underworld in the quiet suburban community. An absorbing thriller, the intensity helps the series thrive as the fast-paced mystery keeps you glued to your screens.
The key difference between Shelter and nearly every other Coben entry on this list is that Shelter is young adult-focused, not just in the audience but in the central character. The mystery unfolds through the eyes of protagonists much younger than Coben’s other main characters, making Shelter a bit of an enigma. The strength of Shelter lies in the chemistry and dynamics, especially between Michael as Mickey, Abby Corrigan as Emma, and Adrian Greesmith as Spoon. Plus, appearances from Constance Zimmer, Tovah Feldshuh, and Missi Pyle make it a worthy watch. Intended to be a multi-season run, Shelter was unfortunately canceled after a single season.
10
‘Lazarus’ (2025)
One of the most promising concepts in the Coben collection was 2025’s Lazarus. The horror-thriller follows psychiatrist Joel Lazarus (Sam Claflin), who returns home to his family’s house following the apparent suicide of his estranged father, Jonathan (Bill Nighy). Haunted by the unsolved murder of his sister 25 years earlier, Joel goes down a rabbit hole, convinced his father wouldn’t have taken his own life, only to be followed by unsettling phenomena and disturbing visions. A visually stunning and artfully crafted mystery, Lazarus had all the makings of a masterpiece but fell into some convoluted directorial execution.
Don’t get it twisted, Lazarus is a fun watch. Watching the typically grounded Claflin descend into madness was an extraordinary experience. The issue with Lazarus was its storytelling. With distinct timelines jumping in and out, maintaining order and comprehension was not its strongest suit. And when you’re dealing with a pair of “Dr. Lazurus,” you have to pay keen attention to whether father or son is being referenced. Diving into the world of supernatural horror was a logical next step for Coben.Lazarus still has a labyrinth of mystery to explore, but the mood does not make up for the preposterous plot.
9
‘The Woods’ (2020)
Time for a foreign language triumph in the Harlan Coben Cinematic Universe! In the Polish thriller The Woods, the story is divided into two time periods. In August 1994, at a summer camp in the woods, Pawel Kopiński (Hubert Milkowski) chaperons his younger sister’s camper, Kamila (Martyna Byczkowska). In September 2019, Pawel (now played by Grzegorz Damięcki), a Warsaw prosecutor and recently widowed single father, reconnects with his camp sweetheart, Laura (Agnieszka Grochowska). After a body is discovered surrounded by newspaper clippings about Pawel, he’s called in to identify the deceased. It’s only then that we learn that at that fateful summer camp, two people were murdered and two went missing, including his sister. Pawel investigates the case and digs deeper to learn that his sister may still be out there. A swiftly moving series with red herrings galore, The Woods helped kick off the Netflix domination of Coben mystery thrillers.
The biggest downfall of the series is the way the exposition is layered in, as it’s not as natural as one might like. Once you get past that and dive into the mystery in the present, The Woods is a satisfying story. The Woods is an example of where characters triumph over tropes, though the classic Coben staples are alive and well. The transition from New Jersey to Poland was seamless, though selfishly, an American edition of The Woods would be a thrilling watch. Critically approved but audience thrashed, The Woods suffers from the language barrier when it should be on a must-watch list.
8
‘No Second Chance’ (2015)
How far will you go to save your own child? Just ask Dr. Alice Lambert (Alexandra Lamy). In this shocking miniseries, Alice goes to fix a bottle for her daughter when two gunshots ring out, and everything goes black. A week later, Alice emerges from a coma, and a nightmare reality awaits as her husband has been murdered and her baby is missing. Suspected by the police and hunted by ruthless hitmen, Alice refuses to give up, turning to Richard (Pascal Elbe), her first love and a former criminal investigator. No Second Chance was a twisted tale that kicked off the Coben obsession around the world.
Based on his bestselling novel, No Second Chance became an instant hit in France. A harrowing story of corruption, social inequality, and the resilience of true love, the series makes a smart and bold choice of swapping genders, turning the protagonist into a woman. Lambert’s hunt for her daughter is the key cog in the story, and it’s truly her journey that draws you in. While many Coben thrillers seem to have the same law enforcement character archetypes, No Second Chance has a standout in Hippolyte Girardot as grouchy detective Cyril Tessier.
7
‘Stay Close’ (2021)
A true Coben classic is 2021’s Stay Close. The eight-part series finds three seemingly random individuals whose lives become intertwined by an unsolved case. Photographer Ray Levine (Richard Armitage) inadvertently captured an image of a shadowy figure running in the woods. Then there is Megan Pierce (Cush Jumbo), a mother of three, who is about to be wed to her fiancé, Dave Shaw (Daniel Francis). Meanwhile, Michael Broome (James Nesbitt), a detective investigating the disappearance of a young man, Carlton Flynn, discovers the disappearance happened exactly 17 years after another missing persons case of his that went unsolved. So, how are these three strangers connected to Carlton’s missing-person case? In typical Coben fashion, the puzzle is completed at the end.
From psychopathic musical-theater-loving assassins, Barbie and Ken (Poppy Gilbert and Hyoie O’Grady), to bumbling detectives Broome and Cartwright (Jo Joyner), Stay Close is an outright thrill ride — and one that doesn’t spare much for the imagination if you’re on the queasy side. Stay Close layers in just enough camp to make it enjoyable and not too weighty. Plus, the addition of Eddie Izzard in the ensemble helps boost it to the next level. Jumbo is a satisfactory lead, but it’s Armitage and Nesbitt, true staples of Coben’s, who manage to tackle the material best.
