UNION COUNTY LOCALSOURCE LOCALSOURCE.COM THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2011 — PAGE 23

With 'Shelter,' Coben finds a new, younger audienceCoben is a New York Times best-selling author who usedhis new novel to express 'an idea or two about teenagers'

By Bea SmithStaff Writer

The indomitable Harlan Coben,No. I New York Times best-sellingauthor of 22 novels, who hasthrilled thousands upon thousandsof readers, here and in so manyother countries, has decided toattract a whole new audience.Young adults.

Coben, a down-to-earth writer,the winner of the Edgar Award, theShamus Award and the AnthonyAward — the first author to receiveall three — with books published in40 languages and 47 million copiesin print, and best sellers in morethan a dozen countries, explainedwhy he has added a whole newrealm to his literary world, during aconversation the other morning.

"I have four children," Cobensaid, "ages, 17, 14, 12 and 10, and Iwanted to do something special forthem. So, I created a new character,a teenage boy, Mickey Bolitar, andplaced him in a young adult novel,'Shelter.' And for my regular read-ers, Mickey is the nephew of one ofmy well-known characters, MyronBolitar."

The language and characteris-tics of Coben's children helped theauthor to create a boy named Mick-ey. "Whenever my kids were in thecar, I'd listen a lot to their conver-

sations, their ideas and thoughts,and before long, I had more than anidea or two about teenagers. And Ialso wanted to develop some newcharacters."

The suspense writer also devel-oped the spooky moments in "Shel-ter," by remembering "the spookyhouses that kids used to talk aboutand asking themselves and theirfriends, "What if ...?' That's howthe book sort of opens up."

Despite the fact that his charac-ter, Myron, may somewhat fade inhis future books, it appears thatMickey, Myron's nephew, willhave a whole new literary career.As in Coben's best-selling book,"Mold Tight," where Mickey wasintroduced, and now, when he is hisown man in "Shelter," the two donot get along.

"First of all," explained Coben,"Myron came from a caring family;his parents were a loving couple.And Mickey's parents were just theopposite, which turned him into adifferent type of person. And,"laughed the author, "everybodyloves Myron. That is, everybodyexcept Mickey. It'll be fun. We'llfind out for sure one day whether ornot they'll get together."

One of Coben's books, "Tell NoOne," was adapted to the screen inFrance. It had English subtitles.

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The book, itself, had grossed morethan $27 million in that country.Will there be more books adaptedto the screen?

"I don't really know," he said."We're planning on screening sev-eral of them. Yes. But they are invarious stages."

With the vast success of "Shel-ter," Coben already has anotherbook in the works about MickeyBolitar. It's untitled right now, but itwill be out next September. Thatdoesn't mean that he will discontin-ue his regular agenda of a book ayear. Coben's next book will becalled "Stay Close," with a Marchpublication.

In addition to his busy schedule,the Newark-born Coben, who wasgraduated from Amherst College,has narrated one of his books,"Promise Me," to voice tapes forhi! fans.

"1 narrated just this one. I don'tthink I'll do it again, however. It'shard work," he admitted.

And isn't the writing of greatmystery novels hard work?

Coben's attitude changed com-pletely. Perhaps, he indicated, it'sbecause, after more than 20 yearsand as many novels, this kind ofwork comes so smoothly and natu-rally to him. With, he added, moreto come.

Harlan Coben, No. 1 New York Times best-sellingauthor of 22 novels, who has thrilled thousands uponthousands of readers, here and in so many othercountries, has decided to attract a whole new audi-ence of young adults.

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