From gaping plot holes to television so confusing it’s actually distressing to watch, here’s our ranking of the US author’s TV adaptations
T
he American novelist Harlan Coben is, by commercial fiction standards, one of the most successful writers working today. A No 1 New York Times bestseller author, he writes pulpy thrillers of the type you buy at the airport, consume feverishly poolside, and never take home.
Coben has written 35 novels, and is 11 adaptations (eight of them English language) into a nine-year, 14-book adaptation deal with Netflix. These series share a tone, style, and even actors – in multiple shows, Spooks heart-throb Richard Armitage pops up like a bad penny.
But despite their mass-market appeal, the adaptations are widely regarded as some of the worst telly around. They tend to be set in English suburbia, and usually involve a mysterious crime being ineptly investigated by a corrupt police force. Coben’s daughter is the scriptwriter for many of these adaptations, which suggests a disdain for realism runs in the family.
