Harlan Coben picks his top 10 thrillers of all time

New Jersey native Harlan Coben is the internationally bestselling author of more than 25 books, known for their twists and turns. His work has been made into multiple TV adaptations. The latest one, Run Away, is the 12th for Netflix.

Clearly, he knows a thing or two about thrillers. So we asked Coben to give us his top 10 from TV and film, and some of them feature actors he’s then gone on to feature in his own series.

“I want to be surprised. I want to be entertained. I want to be moved. I want something that's going to stir my heart,” he says of his criteria.

“I don't think a twist that surprises you is enough. The twist has to generate something inside of you and move you.”

1) Strangers on a Train

“I love Alfred Hitchcock, obviously. He's been a major influence on me – the ordinary man and the extraordinary circumstance, or woman, and in this case, Strangers on a Train happens to be my favourite.

"It's just a chance meeting between two people and some of the great, iconic scenes of all time, and we intentionally paid homage to it in (Netflix adaptation) Stay Close – the tennis scene when all the heads are moving back and forth, and one head is looking straight ahead. I used that one to represent my Hitchcock love.

"If you asked me tomorrow, I could have picked Vertigo, I could have picked Rear Window, Psycho, a bunch of them.”

2) The Secret in Their Eyes

“This is the original Argentinian one, do not watch the American remake! It's gripping, it's moving, it's a love story. I was so in love with this movie that we decided to make a Netflix South America show. We made one in Argentina where this is filmed, and the lead in Caught on Netflix is the lead in The Secret in Their Eyes, but it's dark, it's surprising.

"It's got a wonderful twist at the end and a true, true heart. And there's one great film sequence when they scoop you into a stadium. Even with today's AI and things like that, I'm not sure you can duplicate it or make it as compelling as it is in that movie.”

3) The Lives of Others

“Another great foreign film from Germany. Both The Secret in Their Eyes and The Lives of Others have won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.

"It's a little bit of a spy story [about] a Stasi agent, but where you think it's going to go in one direction, it goes in a completely different one. And again, besides the twists, I love the heart of the story.”

4) Prisoners

“A lot of you probably remember this one with Hugh Jackman. You feel for this father who is doing anything and everything, going too far to find his child. Once again, a nice dark ending with a nice dark twist at the end. Well-acted, gripping from beginning to end.”

5) The Invisible Guest

“A Spanish movie made by the incredible Oriol Paulo. A man and a woman driving accidentally kill somebody and try to hide it, and everything spins out of control. I love the small event that spirals. He made The Innocent, on Netflix with me. I found him from this movie, and I wanted to work with him. It just keeps twisting. If there's anybody who likes to twist more than me, and maybe, like me, over twists, it's Oriol Paulo.

"We are simpáticos. We have the same vision. We had so much fun making The Innocent. Every episode starts with a different viewpoint. He did something a little bit similar here. Mario Casas and José Coronado are both in The innocent and The Invisible Guest.

"I'm really proud of what we made together and when people ask me what movie they should watch of his, I always tell them, check out The Invisible Guest first, then go to The Body and everything else, because he's a wonderful director.”

6) Veronica Mars

“Veronica Mars is a wonderful TV show. When I first was going to watch it, I thought it was a young adult show. There's a lot of people who later became quite big from the show and it was really realistic and gripping and dark and took on very adult themes. It was also funny as heck.

"The father-daughter relationship in that is magic. The father's a local cop. Veronica is a high school student who's a PI, and it sounds silly, but it's really, really good. It's one of my favourite TV shows of all time.”

7) Columbo

“I grew up on Columbo. It's probably the single greatest detective series in the history of television. I'm not sure what would be second – Cracker would be up there. The way Colombo works is he's not in it for the first hour, half hour.

"We see it all from the criminal's viewpoint, the killer's viewpoint, and you just realise there's no way this guy's going to get caught, and then Columbo comes into the picture and kind of bungles his way to finding out the answer and surprising us. Some of them have wonderful twists. The villain was always a great actor who was just chewing the scenery and having a blast. If you haven't watched Columbo, go back and watch the original ones. They're so good, even now.”

8) Line of Duty

“I just love Line of Duty. Jed Mercurio's so good. It's a giant mess of perfection. It's all over the place, and you don't know where it's going, and it’s so unrealistic, and things could never happen, and I love every moment of it. The cast is great. The crew is great. All of the little buzz phrases are great.

"They take a lot of the rules and just toss them out the window. You can't have an interrogation scene last that long – I'm sorry, you cannot – and he does it every time and you're gripped from the first moment. I can't wait for the new season.”

9) Spiral

“It reminds me of when Hill Street Blues first came out in America. It's a great cop show. It's got a ton of characters, a big ensemble cast. I first saw the actress Audrey Fleurot, who we ended up using in Safe when we needed a French actress, in that.

"Each episode follows new different people, the entire police precinct that they have, the lawyers. It's a big cast, and always gripping. I work with people I'm fans of. If I see this person and I love them, I'm like, ‘I'd love to work with that person.’”

10) Fargo (TV series)

“The TV series is really great. Noah Hawley's done a great job of making a quirky show with extreme violence, outrageousness, interesting twists and turns.

"I wouldn't say quite as much heart in that one, but you never know what's going to happen next, and your eyes are glued to the screen every moment. It's a really well done show. I think the second season was my favourite.”

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