Love ‘Fool Me Once’? This is the best Harlan Coben series according to critics

After the viral success of Netflix’s Fool Me Once, many fans will be looking for a new Harlan Coben adaptation to get their fix – check out the highest rated options below. 

The eight-part series Fool Me Once is just the latest adaptation of the mystery and thriller writer’s work that has been created for the streaming service. 

In the show, a family has been rocked by a pair of murders, when Michelle Keegan’s Maya sees her murdered husband Joe (Richard Armitage) back as an intruder. At the same time, Maya’s niece Abby and nephew Daniel are investigating the murder of their mother, drawing connections between the two cases. 

In 2018, Coben signed a multi-million dollar five-year contract with Netflix, which stipulated that 14 of his novels would be developed into series or films on the service, with Coben reserving the right to serve as executive producer on all of them. In 2022, it was announced that Netflix has extended the deal for another four years. 

Fool Me Once is the seventh series to date to have been released. Two of the previous adaptations were Polish productions, with one being Spanish, another French and the other three being British. 

Of all of the existing Harlan Coben adaptations to date, the highest rated by critics is 2021’s Stay Close, receiving a 92 per cent rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. 

Stay Close stars Cush Jumbo as a former exotic dancer who is now a suburban mum living in Scotland with her fiancé, played by Daniel Francis. Meanwhile, James Nesbitt plays a detective who is haunted by a previous unsolved case, and takes on a new case that seems to be linked to it. The show also stars Richard Armitage, Jo Joyner and Eddie Izzard. 

Stay Close is available to stream on Netflix now.

The second-highest rated Coben adaptation is not one from the Netflix contract, but a separate production by Amazon Prime Video, named Harlan Coben’s Shelter, which has an 88 per cent Rotten Tomatoes score. The show premiered in August 2023 and stars Jaden Michael as a man who becomes entangled in the mysterious disappearance of a student at his school, leading him to discover a dark underworld in the local community. 

For Coben fans looking for a film recommendation, the highest rated Coben adaptation of all is the 2006 feature film Tell No One, a French production directed by Guillaume Canet. Receiving a 93 per cent score, Rotten Tomatoes says it is “an intense, well-crafted thriller, equal parts heart-pounding and heart-wrenching”. 

Tell No One won four Cesar Awards in 2007 – the French equivalent of the Oscars – including Best Director and Best Actor for Francois Cluzet. 

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