Take Shelter: Coben's New Novel is Out

Mystery suspense thrillers aren't only the domain of adult novels as of Tuesday, September 6. Enter Castleton, a Livingston/Ridgewood-like fictional land of mystery, intrigue, and myth where new kids on the block weave tales two parts familiar, one part foreign from the imagination of Harlan Coben. You'll find buffalo chicken sandwiches from Wilkes Deli, wonder about mysterious disappearances and greet a new Bolitar, a 15-year-old named Mickey.

The acclaimed Ridgewood novelist just released his latest book, Shelter, his first foray into the Young Adult genre that's exploded in recent years with blood-sucking vampires and spell-casting wizards. The New York Times #1 best-seller spoke at the library–sponsored by , which donated a portion of the proceeds to the library–to a packed auditorium on Tuesday, greeting fans and discussing characters old and new.

Those who read his explosive adult novel Live Wire with famed character Myron Bolitar will be able to get right into Shelter, Coben told reporters in an interview just prior to his meet-and-greet with fans.

This story centers around Mickey Bolitar, Myron's nephew. "Mickey's father is recently killed, the mother is in rehab and he's forced to live with his Uncle Myron," Coben explained. "He's also starting a new school with all those challenges. When he really starts relating to this girl, she disappears. At the same time, someone tells him his father may still be alive."

There's a certain draw Coben found with moving across lines to YA, a new set of colors on the easel.

"What we hadn't seen is a really great suspense crime novel for kids or for teens," Coben said. "I hadn't seen that yet – one that didn't talk down to them [teens], one that wasn't Encyclopedia Brown, one that they can relate to. I thought it was time for that."

Shelter has a kind of "haunted house" dimension with mystery and mythology that will continue as the series develops as adults and teens alike dog-ear pages.

"There's almost a lost X-Files thing I love that will continue in the books," Coben said. "I'm really passionate about Shelter. I really think it's one of my best books. Adults will like it and read it too. I've always told the story I've wanted to tell and this time the story I wanted to tell is about a 15-year-old." 

It wasn't as challenging as you'd think to remember how to be a kid again, Coben said. Or to write from the perspective of one.

"I live by one of life's theories that we are always 17 waiting for our life to begin. So really, channeling the age wasn't that hard . . . I think Mickey Bolitar was one of the easiest skins to get into. There's a lot in that I really liked and related to."

Mickey, Coben said, is not quite what readers used to Myron will be expecting. 

"He's different than Myron and kind of like him," Coben said, adding that Mickey doesn't quite like the noted fictional sports agent. "It's almost a chance to sort of re-do Myron as a teenager. Myron always had this sort of wonderful, happy family life. Or so we always thought he had . . . Mickey, the opposite. Always on the move, parents are totally destroyed, he's much more cynical, he's a little bit angrier. I think he's a bit funnier than Myron and more mature than Myron."

Some of the plot turns in Shelter may even be familiar to your kids, if you know the Cobens. They're borrowed from real life events in Ridgewood.

"They actually happened to my kids and I took them. There's an early scene involving this ridiculous team-building exercise they make kids go through now. It's exactly what happened at one of my kid's schools," he said.

As for those craving another Myron novel in the future, he's not ruling it out.

"There was a time I felt Live Wire was going to be the last Myron Bolitar novel. I don't know if that's the case now, I doubt it," he said. "People ask me if I'm going to write another Myron Bolitar novel and my stock answer now is probably."

Coben has big expectations for Shelter–it's not about where his book's title sits on the New York Times list. His hopes are a bit more grounded; they lie in those he's trying to reach.

Coben wants that half hour of school reading required per night, to defy the clock. "I want them to stay up reading all night," he said with a laugh. Given how many advanced copies of Shelter that have been perhaps not-so-mysteriously disappeared from his Ridgewood home, there will likely be a lot of flashlights casting light next to pillows.

"The last line of this book will make people gasp out loud," Coben promises. 

But you'll have to stay up all night to read it.