Stay Close | Harlan and me

Best-selling author Harlan Coben came up with his own review I posted on Tuesday of the miniseries stay close (Don’t walk away) from Netflix, adaptation of his eponymous novel published in 2012.

I hadn’t identified – or tagged, in plain English – the prolific 60-year-old American novelist in my tweet. Hence my first astonishment when he began to answer me publicly and kindly on Twitter. wow! Someone is effectively managing Mr. Coben’s social media accounts, I thought then. It’s brilliant, well executed, bravo.

My amazement increased tenfold when I received a long, very detailed private message from Harlan Coben in the inbox of my Twitter account. Let’s see. To see that the master of thrillers took the time to write to an unknown journalist from a media he never reads, published in a language he does not master. It can’t be.

But if. It was indeed the popular writer, who has sold more than 75 million copies of his books, translated into 25 languages. In good French, I flipped. Harlan Coben, me, long benevolent message, super friendly exchange in private afterwards, it was unreal.

Because we are talking here about Harlan Coben, who signed a juicy multi-million contract with Netflix to adapt 14 of his books over a period of five years. This author-screenwriter, father of four, is overwhelmed with money and projects and he talks to me? My head swelled up for a few minutes, we’re not going to lie to each other here.

Imagine. Harlan Coben, who lives in New Jersey, wanted to clarify an implausibility that I had noted in my paper.

Not only had Mr. Coben read my entire column, sifted through Google Translate, he told me, but he wanted to clear up the infamous geographic point of confusion involving the pivotal Cassie/Megan character. No sense at all. Let’s go on.

Many fans of stay close, the most-watched Netflix series in the world, pointed out this anomaly, which tarnished the credibility of the thriller. Naked dancer at the Vipers club, Cassie (Cush Jumbo) vanishes into thin air and reappears as Megan, 17 years later, with three children at home. The problem? You’d swear Megan lives 15 minutes away from her old life. Anyone could have recognized the heroine at any time.

Now here’s the explanation straight from Harlan Coben’s keyboard. “Cassie ran away, met Dave, started a family, felt safe, never did anything illegal and probably moved to be closer to Dave’s mother. Regardless, she crosses a huge bridge every time she goes to the Vipers. When she gets out of the car, it’s often dark, like when she meets Detective Broome on the dock,” explained the author of Do not tell anyone, In the woods and Intimidation.

According to Harlan Coben, Cassie/Megan lives at least an hour’s drive from the Vipers club. “Should we have shown her behind the wheel longer? It would have been boring. Should we have shown the big bridge more often? Even I was tired of seeing that bridge,” Harlan Coben continued in a series of posts we exchanged on Twitter Tuesday and Wednesday.

The end of the conversation that threw me on the ground, however, was this: “My comment is not an attack, it’s my fault as the author, I should have been clearer”, he said. excuse.

Truly, this Harlan Coben is humble, generous and open to criticism. I liked it even more then. In Quebec, I get kicked around for things that are a lot less serious, by people a lot less influential, I would say.

Several readers have told me that Harlan Coben regularly interacts with his “friends” on Facebook. That he is super nice when you meet him in a book fair. This shows great respect to his fans.

Harlan Coben, who knew Dan Brown (Da Vinci Code) in a college fraternity, says my column appeared in his Twitter feed by chance. Does he often contact journalists who analyze his work? Never, he replies. Could this be the start of a new thriller that could be called: Stay away, but close enough, about two men – a famous writer and a low-end journalist – who live in two different countries and discover a very shady common history on the Internet? I would read that myself.