Harlan Coben Reveals Why His Leading Character Myron Bolitar Hasn’t Appeared In Netflix Shows

Caroline Frost
·2-min read

Harlan Coben is one of the world’s most successful crime writers, and now one of the most successful TV producers, but he has revealed why his most enduring character has never been portrayed on television.

Coben has written “at least 35 novels,” he tells The Times of London in an interview, with sales of approximately 80million books worldwide. He has a 14-series production deal with Netflix, where he acts as executive producer on, and has eight series already on the streamer. His most recent adaptation, Fool Me Once, which was released at the beginning of the year, has had nearly 100million viewers.

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But keen-eyed fans of his books will have noticed that his central detective Myron Bolitar, whom the author first came up with 30 years ago, has yet to appear on screen – and now Coben says there’s a reason, which is that he has a very specific image of the character in his head, and is worried any actor might get it wrong.

Offered the suggestion of Stanley Tucci, a well-known fan of the books, Coben told The Times: “Yeah, big fan, but he’s a little smaller.” The author, who is big and brawny like the Bolitar of his books, says his character is a “faster, stronger, funny” version of himself.

Coben’s new book Think Twice is about to be released. He says he gets inspiration from the world around him, but crime changes like everything else. He told the newspaper of the challenge of creating a serial killer in 2024: “It’s impossible to get away with. There are a million CCTV cameras, so my challenge is, ‘How do I find a new way of doing it?’”

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