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Harlan CobenHome
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Harlan Coben
Harlan Coben is the New York Times bestselling author of over 35 thrillers and mysteries. Although he began his career with a standalone novel, Play Dead (1990), he gained mainstream success with his Myron Bolitar series, in which Myron, a sports agent, investigates mysteries with his wealthy and morally compromised former college roommate, Win Lockwood. Coben’s novels have been translated into 43 languages, and he is the first author to receive all three prestigious mystery novel awards: the Edgar Award, the Shamus Award, and the Anthony Award. When asked where he gets his ideas, Coben says, “[A]nything can stimulate an idea. […] Turning it into a story…that’s where the real work comes in” (“FAQ.” Harlan Coben.)
Coben has published more than 30 novels, many of which have been bestsellers and adapted for film and television, including Tell No One (2001) and Fool Me Once (2016). In 2018, he signed a contract with Netflix to develop 14 of his novels into original Netflix productions. This deal also gave him executive producing power on each project.
Coben was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, and attended Amherst College for a political science degree. After graduation, Coben worked in the travel industry while he worked on his first novel, Play Dead. After it was published in 1990, he quickly published his next novel, Miracle Cure (1991), before beginning the Myron Bolitar series. During his time at Amherst, Coben met fellow author Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code (2003) and Angels and Demons (2000). Coben lives in New Jersey with his wife, who is a pediatrician, and their four children.
Series Context: The Myron Bolitar Books
Myron Bolitar is the protagonist of a series of thrillers, Deal Breaker (1995), Drop Shot (1996), Fade Away (1996), Back Spin (1997), One False Move (1998), The Final Detail (1999), Darkest Fear (2000), Promise Me (2006), Long Lost (2009), Live Wire (2011), Home (2016), and Think Twice (2024).
Myron is a former college basketball star turned sports agent and amateur detective. He suffered an injury that ended his promising basketball career and started a sports agency as a second career. Myron is frequently pulled into cases that affect his clients and loved ones, which often reveal the dark underbelly of the sports and entertainment industries.
As an undergraduate at Duke, Myron was the roommate of Win Horne Lockwood III. Win comes from a very wealthy family and has a set of mysteriously lethal skills. His moral compass skews slightly differently than Myron’s, and this often leads to conflict between the two friends.
Several recurring characters feature in many books of this series. Myron’s parents, Ellen and Al, frequently appear. They are very supportive and hardworking and often take care of his nephew Mickey when his estranged brother Brad is unavailable. Esperanza Diaz is a wrestler known as Little Pocahontas who went on to partner at Myron’s sports agency. Big Cyndi, Esperanza’s best friend and fellow wrestler in Fabulous Ladies of Wrestling (FLOW), is very protective of Esperanza and occasionally becomes involved in Myron’s mysteries as well.
Literary Context: Modern Thrillers
The modern thriller genre is defined by complex characters and suspenseful plots. Crime thrillers often consider the intersection of good versus evil, pondering if people are inherently evil or if they are made evil by the circumstances of their upbringing or environment. An essential component of this uncertainty is the simultaneous generation of hope and anxiety; the audience knows what they want to happen, yet fears that this will not be achieved. Thrillers are designed to generate an emotional reaction from their audience, evoking emotional reactions with scenarios that bring crime, murder, and mystery into the everyday lives of their characters.
The modern thriller owes its origins to the mystery genre and uses many of the same conventions. Genre conventions like plot twists and red herrings (false leads) generate suspense and create an atmosphere of uncertainty for the reader. Many thrillers also use the “MacGuffin,” a plot device that is essential for moving the plot forward and yet proves irrelevant to the crime itself. Thrillers also depend on high stakes and a quick pace to create suspense and tension.
The thriller genre currently produces some of the most popular mainstream bestselling fiction. Authors similar to Harlan Coben include Karin Slaughter (Pieces of Her, The Good Daughter), Denis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island), David Baldacci (Memory Man, A Calamity of Souls), and Michael Connelly (The Lincoln Lawyer, The Black Echo). Other notable thrillers in this category include Agatha Christie’s The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly, Mary Higgins Clark’s Where Are the Children, Dennis Lehane’s Gone Baby Gone, and Walter Mosley’s Rose Gold.
Related Titles
By Harlan Coben
