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If you love to dwell in the darkest corridors of Netflix, where killings and chaos are the only norm, it’s probably Harlan Coben welcoming you to his universe on streaming. Here, mystery is the appetiser, and death the main course. But for dessert? There are plenty of plot twists to get you on your toes. The New Jersey-based author has a slew of thrillers to his name, and you can find way more than one circling the dark alleys of Netflix.

Netflix and Coben’s partnership is not exactly new, and their collaboration has resulted in record-shattering viewership, anticipation, and craving for more. This has not only allowed the author and the streamer to renew their bond and strengthen their relationship, but has also generated a cult following worldwide. Since the Coben collection cannot be an overnight watch, we have curated the five best shows to narrow it down for you this weekend.

Harlan Coben’s role in the list of series is not confined to authorship. He serves as an executive producer on all of them. So, for those who fear faulty adaptations, that’s non-applicable to his shows. These shows are just as gripping and spine-tingling as the source material, but their DNA reeks of the same adventurous suspense that keeps you on the edge of your seat. With Netflix’s ongoing partnership with Coben, the content library has literally no shortage of murder mysteries.

So, keep your Saturday and Sunday free from the streaming shackles of counter services, because Netflix has the real party poppers with it.

Five Harlan Coben shows on Netflix for a weekend streaming trip

5. The Stranger (Daniel O’ Hara and Hannah Quinn, 2020)

Based on Coben’s 2015 novel, The Stranger takes place in a world where a secret proves to be someone’s nightmare. In the eight-episode series, Adam Price is approached by a mysterious woman in a baseball cap who tips him off about her wife, Corrine’s, fake pregnancy. Adam is not the only victim. The stranger’s motives are unknown, but a pattern can be observed when she goes out to reveal secrets of people in and around the community.

Things go south when Corrine goes missing, leading Adam on his only mission: to find the stranger’s true identity and purpose. The Stranger lives up to every Coben hallmark of mystery adventure. But once you’re done, save some appetite for the next.

4. Stay Close (Daniel O’Hara, 2021)

Stay Close is adapted from Coben’s 2012 novel. At the core of the story is an unsolved missing person’s case from two decades ago, which resurfaces when another person goes missing on that very date years later. Stay Close revolves around a few shady characters who have their own traumas and secrets. Megan Pierce is one of them, living in the suburbs of Livingstone, with a past she believed she had left long behind.

Then there’s Michael Broome, a detective, who is still caught up in the nightmares of a missing persons case from 17 years ago. And lastly, a character named Ray Levine catches the eye, who has fallen from his reputation as a celebrated documentary photographer to a paparazzo-for-hire, making ends meet.

3. Gone for Good (David Elkaïm and Vincent Poymiro, 2021)

Nobody excels in executing a full-circle story like Coben. Gone for Good centres around Guillame Lucchesi, a man pain-stricken from a decade-past trauma of witnessing two murders in Nice, France, of his girlfriend and brother. But the Netflix show takes place a decade after his girlfriend, Judith, disappears into thin air following his mother’s funeral. Guillaume is determined to track down Judith, but his quest ultimately takes off with an unexpected light on his girlfriend’s mysterious past.

But that’s not all. He must confront the murders of his past because somehow, Judith’s disappearance is tied to whatever went down during the summer of tragedy years before.

2. Safe (Harlan Coben, 2018)

Coben’s universe of thrillers is never safe without a missing person pulling strings, not even Safe. The story is about Tom Delaney, a widowed father struggling to connect with his teenage daughters. But a crisis seems to be on his tail. Though he has barely recovered from the grief of losing his better half, another important woman goes MIA, his teenage daughter, Jenny.

So far, Tom is convinced that the community they live in is secure, and most importantly, safe. But his desperate search for Jenny unravels unexpected links to that very community, which he finds hiding secrets behind closed doors, and an interconnected past.

1. Fool Me Once (David Moore and Nimer Rashed, 2024)

Fool Me Once is adapted from Harlan Coben’s 2016 novel. But this is one such show that will make you scream if you see it right. The show was a major hit on streaming and follows Maya Stern, who recently lost her husband, Joe Burkett, in a devastating murder. Eva Finn, a friend of Maya, presents a nanny camera to help her watch over her daughter. However, when Joe pops up in one of the nanny cam footages after he was presumed to be dead, Maya can no longer think straight.

She soon finds unforeseen links to her sister, Claire’s murder, with Joe’s. But her suspicion doesn’t even exempt the investigators.