Ridgewood Bestselling Author, Netflix Show Creator Publishes 35th Book

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Ridgewood's own Harlan Coben, a global bestselling author and creator of several Netflix shows, has just published his 35th novel.

Early reviews said Coben's latest book, "I Will Find You", is one of his best, and fastest-paced.

In reviews of Coben's other projects, the Ridgewood resident was called the "absolute master of huge twists and turns", and one of his novels "a helter-skelter of a read".

Published March 14, the standalone novel is about an innocent father who is serving life for the murder of his own son and, five years into his sentence, receives evidence that his child may still be alive. He "must break out of prison to find out the truth," a book summary said.

"Friends, I couldn't be more thrilled to share this book with you," Coben said on social media. "Thank you, and happy reading."

In a teaser video for the book, a narrator asks: "What if you were accused of the worst crime possible? How far would you go to prove your innocence?"

"You are not ready for this much suspense," Coben said in another social media post.

Coben has sold over 80 million books in print, and is the novelist behind the ideas for "Stay Close" and "The Stranger" on Netflix.

In "I Will Find You" — what Coben said is "your next binge-worthy fix" — the thriller will follow David who has to prove his innocence and find his son before police catch up with him.

"I am serving the fifth year of a life sentence for murdering my own child," the opening of the book said. "Spoiler alert: I didn't do it."

"Once you get to that opening, you can't put the book down," Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos said to Coben in a launch interview Wednesday.

Stephanopoulos, an early reader of the book, said he feels lucky to have been able to read a galley copy, and asked Coben who reads his works prior to advance readers.

"It has to pass the family test," the husband and father of four said. "So far that has always worked out."

In the interview, Stephanopoulos also raved about the volume of Coben's craft — to be able to publish a new book nearly every single year. Coben, in response, credited author Stephen King as a sort of mentor, in part for his work ethic.

"(King's) a protean genius. He's always producing," Coben said. "But also the insecurity never goes away. Whenever he sends me a new book, he is still nervous how I am going to react to it."

"Only bad writers think they're good. If you have a writer on who says, 'I'm really great.' Trust me, their book is horrendous. We all have those doubts, and you have to have them. Otherwise, it's not going to work."