The twists and turns come thick and fast in this deeply pleasing Harlan Coben thriller, as a father goes in search of his missing daughter. Even a vegan restaurant owner gets in on the act
T
hey come round sooner every time, do they not? I think we’re now the recipients of a new Harlan Coben adaptation every three weeks or so. Who knows what rate will be attained next year? We watch and wait, though possibly in neither case for long.
We are now about a dozen, rating-banking offerings into the bestselling thriller writer’s multi-book deals with Netflix and Amazon. They are generally solid, workmanlike fare that doubtless help fund many passion projects and pay many mortgages along the way. They are comfort TV not just for viewers, but, I suspect, everyone involved.
Run Away (written by frequent Coben collaborator Danny Brocklehurst, plus Tom Farrelly and Amanda Duke, and based on the 2019 book of the same name, and one of Coben’s less bombastic and more harrowing thrillers) is a return to form. Not least because it stars James Nesbitt as Simon, the tormented father of Paige, who is now in the throes of drug addiction and missing from home. It’s not a groundbreaking role for Nesbitt but it does remind you that few do the tormented Everyman better than he does. And, just as deeply pleasingly, it has the always-magnificent Tracy-Ann Oberman going toe to toe with him as his terrifying lawyer Jessica, plus Ruth Jones as private investigator Elena Ravenscroft, an iron fist in a velvet glove – faintly but beautifully unsettling in every scene.
