The immediate flaw in any attempt to stack the 13 extant Harlan Coben TV thrillers in order of greatness is that none of them are exactly great. Pretty much all of them though, are compulsive viewing and will pull you through a bucking and twisting story at the speed of a beagle on the scent of a nearby sausage. Theyre packed with incident and revelations, and are generally performed by a charismatic cast so big that youll never quite meet them all, let alone tire of their company. Binge-watches par excellence, each one of these series is precision-designed to be gulped down in very few bites.As these stories all shop for plot in the same aisle, chances are that if you enjoy one Harlan Coben thriller, youll enjoy the others. Theyre all filled with cliff-hangers, twists, secret identities, surprise resurrections, flashback wigs, and oh-no-it-was-you-all-along reveals. Theyre largely very fun, is the point, despite an over-reliance on unlikely coincidence and a tendency to unravel come the finale. The European adaptations (so far there have been six British, three French, one Spanish, two Polish, and one US, with more on the way) tend to be less fun than the UK-set series, which lean into their high-colour absurdity with more gleeful abandon. If youre watching with subtitles then, expect more nudity and sexual violence, and fewer comedy alpacas.Here then, are all 13 Harlan Coben series so far listed in order from least to most enjoyable, along with details of where they can be streamed.13. Disparu Jamais/Gone for Good (2021)Watch on: NetflixThe coastal city of Nice makes a trs beau backdrop for this French adaptation of Cobens 2002 New Jersey-set novel Gone for Good, but thats more or less all this five-part thriller has going for it. Its the story of Guillaume, a young man who suffers a dreadful loss in 2010, but then repairs his life just in time for it all to fall apart again in 2020 with the disappearance of his girlfriend. So unravels a complicated crime story with a needlessly repetitive structure.The dialogue veers between perfunctory exposition (Remember, we have to get up early for your mums funeral, like anybody could forget) and melodrama, the characters are bland or cliched, the performances uncharismatic and the story sadly lacks any convincing surprises. And while Harlan Coben thrillers almost all include flashbacks to decades earlier (sometimes relying on a wig to de-age an actor by 20 years, with variable results), here, the time jumps between 2010, 2017 and 2020 confuse rather than engage. What it lacks in charm, it makes up for in gunfire and shootouts with preposterous villains. Nice looks nice though.12. The Five (2016)Watch on: NOW (UK), Fubo/Directv (US)This was the first of the UK Coben adaptations by Reds Nicola Schindler, Richard Fee and writer-producer Danny Brocklehurst, and while it laid down a basis for what was to follow, the formula wasnt quite there yet. Its about the disappearance of a five-year-old boy in the 1990s, and the winding path to finding out what really happened 20 years later when a group of grown-up childhood friends including the missing boys brother reunite to discover the truth.At 10 episodes, The Five is over-long and feels convoluted, but its main issue is character. The lead cast of Tom Cullen, Lee Ingleby, Sarah Solemani and O-T Fagbenle are individually strong, but have very little chemistry with each other, making them unconvincing as a group of lifelong friends who were supposedly inseparable as children. Add to that some nasty sexual abuse plot threads, an ending that involves an enormous coincidence and a major suspension of disbelief, and The Five doesnt really add up to much. Its still very watchable, with all the hooks and tricks in place to pull you through the plot, but is ultimately too ruled by contrivance to be properly satisfying. That said, it is perhaps the only crime drama to feature a high-speed foot chase involving a detective leaping over multiple caravans, so there is that.11. Juste Un Regard/Just One Look (2017)Watch on: All4 (UK), not currently available to stream in the US.This is the classic Coben story of a comfortable middle-class existence shaken by long-buried secrets. It starts well, and has a great lead in Virginie Ledoyen playing Eva the most improbably beautiful forest ranger France has ever seen but the finale is pure Scooby Doo nonsense. Prepare yourself for that, and this six-episode French mystery will fill your time well enough. Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!Its the story of Eva and Bastien, a happily married couple with two kids whose life is turned upside down when Bastien disappears one day. So begins a series of twists involving gangsters, psychopathic killers, car chases and the uncovering of decades-old secrets. To be frank, its all a waste of a great lead in Ledoyen, and not only pivots on a preposterous coincidence but also relies upon some faintly ridiculous flashbacks of men in their 40s trying to pass as their 20-year-old selves (think Joey from Friends trying to audition for teen roles in his beanie hat). Look out for novelist and screenwriter Harlan Coben making one of his many Alfred Hitchcock-style cameos as a hospital doctor in the finale.10. Hold Tight (2022)Watch on: NetflixThis is the second Polish Harlan Coben adaptation after 2020s The Woods (see below) and purists should technically watch that one first, because Hold Tight continues the characters of Pawel, Laura and Kaja from the earlier series. However, you wont be at a disadvantage if you come in completely cold as those three are just supporting characters and to be honest, theres plenty about Hold TightIts the story of dead teenage boy Igor and the secrets his friends are keeping about the circumstances of his accidental death. There are drug dealers, revenge porn, assassins, and Bushido stick fighting. Thematically, its about the love a parent has for their child, and the perennial Coben theme of the secrets our loved ones keep from us. Its overstuffed with plot and finale twists that, once prodded, fall apart under scrutiny. Its very much not the tightest, or the most entertaining Harlan Coben adaptation, hence only landing at this point in our list.9. Missing You (2025)A very decent lead in Slow Horses Rosalind Eleazar is basically squandered in this overly compressed story that hinges on the preposterous notion that a kickass, intelligent woman who was cruelly abandoned by her fianc without a word of explanation, would be moon-eyed and ready to reconnect the second he turns up again over a decade later. Missing You is the story of DI Kat Donovan (Eleazar), a detective investigating missing persons and who discovers that everything about her fathers historical murder isnt as it seems.Eleazar is solid as Kat, and Steve Pemberton makes a suitably grim villain as dog-breeder Titus, but with just five episodes to tell this story, theres not enough room to develop the supporting characters, or to include the usual oddball humour that make these British Harlan Coben adaptations stand out from the crowd. 8. The Stranger (2020)Watch on: NetflixThe Danny Brocklehurst/Red Productions adaptations get into their stride with The Stranger, which combines the classic multiple-murders-multiple-secrets stuff of the Coben novel with an emerging bizarre sense of humour. The Hobbit and Hannibals Richard Armitage stars as Adam, a man approached by the titular stranger and told a disturbing allegation about his wife. And Adams not the only one. The same young woman (Killjoys Hannah John-Kamen, gender-swapped from a male character in the original book) is going around town spilling secrets and setting off figurative bombs in the lives of comfortable middle class families. In the end, its all connected in a series of implausible yet neat ways, and the eight episodes conclude with a decent finale that sees the various plot threads accounted for. Highlights are Siobhan Finneran and Kadiff Kirwan as cops Joanna and Wes, and a very welcome appearance by Jennifer Saunders. Look out for Coben playing a police computer analyst in the back of an episode two shot. See also: alpacas.Read more 7. Harlan Cobens Shelter (2023)Watch on: Prime VideoThe first Harlan Coben TV adaptation to stay in the US is the story of Mickey Bolitar, a New Jersey high schooler who investigates the disappearance of a fellow student and discovers the truth about his father along the way. It streams on Prime Video, who nabbed the rights to the Young Adult spin-off character, while Netflix scored the rights to bring his more famous uncle Myron Bolitar to the screen.This one is a mixed bag. Its the expected cocktail of gripping cliff-hangers and ridiculous plot twists, and bounces along on the charm of its teen mystery Scooby Gang vibe, with fun, bouncy dialogue and charismatic young actors. Think Stranger Things, but instead of kids fighting monsters from other realms, theyre fighting conscienceless crime bosses and hitmen with tattooed faces. And then theres the other stuff, which is mind-blowingly tasteless, and a spoiler to say why. The tone veers wildly between deadly serious and comically silly, and never quite settles in a comfortable place, but as ever with these stories, you might be baffled, but theres very little chance youll be bored.6. The Woods (2020)Watch on: NetflixThe first Polish-language Coben adaptation (followed by Hold Tight see above) on Netflix is the story of a boy and a girl who went missing from a summer camp as teenagers in 1994. Grzegotz Damiecki plays the brother of the missing girl 25 years later, as he investigates what happened that night. Its part mystery, part romance, and part critique of the difference between natural justice and that offered by the legal system.The Woods demands that you pay attention, not least because of the frequent jumps between the past and present, in which the same characters are played by more than one actor. (For non-Polish speakers, the subtitles are a boon in that area, and useful for staying oriented.) Its a dense and compelling story that, while stretching credulity in the way these things tend to, nonetheless keeps you engaged. The chief positive is the cast, with strong performances from Damiecki and his on-screen partner Agnieszka Grochowska, and a great choice of young actors in the before sections.5. Stay Close (2021)Watch on: NetflixThis UK Coben thriller is an extremely watchable eight-episode story revolving around Megan Pierce (The Good Fights Cush Jumbo), a charity worker and mother of three whose life is tipped upside down when (you guessed it) secrets from her past start to bleed into her present. When a young man goes missing from a nightclub, his wealthy father sends two psychopathic assassins to find him, while local cops Broome and Cartwright believe theyre on the trail of a serial killer.Stay Close may have some grisly revelations in store (the weak-stomached, be warned), but its also where Coben thrillers really make peace with their natural absurdity. Thats seen in the characters of killers-for-hire/musical theatre nerds Barbie and Ken, who tap dance and jazz hands their way through torture and knife-fights as the twisting plot builds. Theres a very decent cast in this one, which also features James Nesbitt, Sarah Parish, Richard Armitage (again) and Eddie Izzard. 4. Une Chance de Trop/No Second Chance (2015)Watch on: All4 (UK), PBS Masterpiece (US)Anuzzer French sirees de Arlan Coh-ban ere, and the best of the bunch so far. No Second Chance aired in the UK as part of Channel 4s Walter Presents strand of quality non-English language drama, and its a good pick, if not quite the season of Spiral it would perhaps like to be. Alexandra Lamy plays Alice, a doctor who suffers a brutal attack in which her baby daughter is kidnapped. So begins a race to find the girl while trying to solve the mystery of who broke into Alices family home.What Alice discovers as she searches for baby Tara is a tragic family history, and a complicated international operation. After a tense and eventful opener, a solemn story unfurls thats not quite done justice to by a slightly cheesy conclusion, but at only six episodes, No Second Chance doesnt outstay its welcome. The real star of the series is Hippolyte Girardot as grouchy detective Tessier, part of the team tasked with tracing Alices missing daughter. Alices character was originally a man in the US novel, and the change was worth making if only to set this six-part series apart from others in the find my daughter revenge genre. 3. Safe (2018)Watch on: NetflixAll anyone likes to talk about with Safe is Dexter star Michael C. Halls British accent (which is uncanny in every sense of the word) but this eight-part thriller has more to offer than that. Hall plays Tom, a widower and father of two ex-army surgeon who lives in a gated community among a bunch of wealthy neighbours under the illusion that their money has made their families safe. Safe from what? Abduction, murder, drugs, scandal, their own troubled and long-buried secret pasts You name it, this lot have done it. Whats really right about this one is the cast, which balances Hall on a fulcrum of Amanda Abbington and Marc Warren playing Toms two closest friends, and then tips that balance in the right direction with the always-unforgettable Nigel Lindsay as the flash dad of a tearaway teen. The plot is rightly ludicrous (there are 19th century morality novels with fewer hidden relations and terrible secrets), but it all rips along enjoyably, without leaving a moment to consider quite how unlikely it all is. A proper old-fashioned thrill ride.2. Fool Me Once (2023)Watch on: NetflixTwo words: Adeel Akhtar. Playing detective Sami Kierce, an expectant father with a traumatic past and secrets of his own, Akhtar steals the show in Fool Me Once, which is that rare thing a Harlan Coben thriller that doesnt fall apart by its final episode. This is the story of Maya Stern (Michelle Keegan), a helicopter pilot and captain who left the military after a scandal, and who loses her husband (Richard Armitage) and sister in close succession. Are their murders connected, and if so, can Kierce find out how? Moreover, can Maya discover why her supposedly dead husband has just shown up alive on their daughters nanny cam? Fool Me Once has all the twists, cliffhangers and secrets-buried-25-years-ago of any of these stories, with the addition of some ever-popular working class outsider v the one percent conflict, plus Akhtar acting up a storm (not having apparently received the memo that hes in a big, silly, thriller so A-games arent necessarily a cast requirement). All that, plus a finite ending (major finale spoilers in our exploration here) that properly closes the book. Its highly watchable stuff and a great place to start with these shows.1. The Innocent (2021)Watch on: NetflixWhether The Innocent would take your personal top spot in this list depends on whether you prefer your Harlan Coben series fizzy and bizarre, or earnest and straight down the line. This Spanish adaptation is the latter, a serious thriller filled with prison, guns, sex cults, blackmail, murders and voice-over narration. (Personally, the nasty sexual violence made me long for the alpaca oddness of the British strand, but theres no debating that this is a seriously good thriller with one of the most satisfying endings of any on this list.) The Innocent, largely set in Barcelona, is the story of Mat, an ex-convict lawyer whose wife goes missing, setting him on a complicated journey themed around revenge where the twists keep coming. Its about the notion of second chances, and would probably have been called that had Harlan Coben not already published No Second Chance (see above) in 2003.