Harlan Coben’s books have become insanely popular with 11 of his books now adapted into series on Netflix. The author’s taste for dark mysteries and uncovering a web of untruths strikes the right chord for many and now his books have created a huge fandom of people who wish to temporarily switch reality in favour of a classic murder mystery.
Coben has sold more than 90 million copies and his books have been translated into 43 languages. He has won an Edgar Award, a Shamus Award and an Anthony Award – the first author to receive all three. Here, based on ratings left by readers on book reviewing platform Goodreads, we rank his 11 most popular books:
11. Run Away
73,698 ratings
Simon has lost his daughter, Paige, to drugs and an abusive boyfriend. After the boyfriend turns up dead, Paige disappears without a trace. When Simon begins searching for her, he finds a dark world of cult rituals, drugs and murder. Will he manage to save his daughter?
10. Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1)
74,796 ratings
More than 20 years ago, heiress Patricia Lockwood was abducted after a robbery of her family’s estate, then locked inside an isolated cabin. She managed to escape, but so did her captors – and the items stolen from her family were not recovered. Until now.
9. Don’t Let Go
77,215 ratings
Suburban New Jersey Detective Napoleon has been searching, both for his long lost love and for the real reason behind his brother’s death. Now, it looks as though he may find what he’s been looking for. Coben explores just what secrets and lies can do to a relationship, a family, and even a town in this thriller with emotional insight and heavy suspense.
8. Caught
78,135 ratings
When 17 year-old Haley McWaid, a popular girl who is the pride of her family and preparing to head off to college, goes missing and three months quickly pass without word from her, the community assumes the worst. The adaptation of Coben’s Caught has recently been added to Netflix.
7. Six Years
93,311 ratings
Jake and Natalie meet in Vermont and have three months of bliss together until Natalie tells Jake she is marrying an old boyfriend, Todd. She makes Jake promise to leave them alone, so he does – for Six Years. When he comes across Todd’s obituary, things begin to unravel…
6. The Stranger
98,383 ratings
Adam Price has a lot to lose: a comfortable marriage, two wonderful sons, a big house, a great job, he’s living the American Dream. Then he runs into the Stranger. When he learns a devastating secret about his wife, Corinne, he confronts her, and finds himself tangled in something far darker than he could imagine.
5. The Boy from the Woods (Wilde, #1)
107,606 ratings
Thirty years have passed since Wilde was found living in the woods and with no memory of his past. When another child goes missing Hester Crimstein, a television criminal attorney, asks Wilde, who she shares a tragic connection with, to use his experience to help find the girl.
4. The Woods
107,198 ratings
Two decades after four teenagers went missing in the woods while at summer camp, a body is found that threatens to bring up the long-hidden secrets of the past. Paul Copeland’s sister was one of the missing teenagers. Could the victim be one of the missing teenagers? Is his sister alive?
3. I Will Find You
108,450 ratings
Five years into his imprisonment, after being framed for his son’s death, David Burroughs receives a visit from his wife’s sister – and she drops a bombshell. She brings a photo of who she thinks is David’s son at a theme park. David begins to plan a harrowing escape from prison, in the hope of saving his son and clearing his own name.
2. Fool Me Once (Detective Sami Kierce #1)
128,626 ratings
When widowed former special ops pilot Maya sees her husband Joe – who was brutally murdered two weeks earlier – playing with their two-year-old on her nanny cam while she is at work, gets the shock of her life. The question at the heart of this mystery is: can you believe everything you see with your own eyes, even when you desperately want to?
1. Tell No One
179,333 ratings
Every day for the past eight years, Dr. David Beck has been reliving the loss of his wife, and the horror of what happened. Everyone tells him he must move on but for Beck, there is no getting closure. When a message appears on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know, he is taunted with the idea that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive.