Our new book of the month is the first novel ever penned by master thriller writer Harlan Coben – ANDREW FFRENCH finds out more.

THE BOOK: WHEN you sell as many books as thriller writer Harlan Coben, there’s no shame in publishing your backlist.

Play Dead was the first novel Coben ever wrote and now it’s back in the bookshops because his fans found it hard to get hold of when they tried to complete their Coben collections.

I was first introduced to the master storyteller when I went on a family holiday earlier this year.

We rented a barn conversion in a remote part of Yorkshire and, after packing my family into the people carrier, there was no room left for holiday reading. Luckily the farmer had thoughtfully kitted out the barn with a few thrillers and I picked out Coben’s Promise Me.

The novel, featuring Coben’s fast-talking sports agent detective Myron Bolitar, kept me entertained for the whole week and I have been a fan ever since.

I always like to keep a good thriller handy, and now Bolitar and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher fight for the right to occupy my glove compartment.

In Play Dead, ex-fashion model and successful businesswoman Laura Ayars’ perfect world is shattered at a time which should have been the happiest of her life.

On her honeymoon, her sports superstar husband goes for a swim – and never returns.

But what has happened to David – can he really be dead?

While struggling to cope with her almost overwhelming grief, Laura is plagued by questions and doubts. Was it an accident? Or suicide? Or is it some terrible, ill-judged hoax?

As events begin to unfold, Laura starts to question David’s mysterious disappearance.

She begins to uncover a conspiracy which reaches deep into the past, and is now slowly beginning to destroy everyone involved.

Someone will do anything to keep Laura away from the awful truth – and she has no idea who she can trust.

In a new foreward to the book, Coben admits Play Dead is not the best novel he has ever written, and I found the plot in places a little far-fetched.

But Play Dead is a page turner and the writer knew how to keep me hanging on right until the end.

Coben tells readers: “Okay, if this is the first book of mine you’re going to try, stop now. Return it. Grab another. It’s okay. I’ll wait.

“If you're still here, please know that I haven’t read Play Dead in at least 20 years. I didn’t want to rewrite it and pass it off as a new book.

“I hate when authors do that. So this is, for better or worse, the exact book I wrote when I was in my early twenties, just a naive lad working in the travel industry and wondering if I should follow my father and brother and go to law school.

“I’m hard on it, but aren’t we all hard on our early stuff? Remember that essay you wrote when you were in school, the one that got you an A-plus, the one your teacher called ‘inspired’ – and one day you're going through your drawer and you find it and you read it and your heart sinks and you say, ‘Man, what was I thinking?’ That’s how it is with early novels sometimes.

“Over the years, I’ve borrowed a bit from this book – names, places, even a character or two.

“Close readers may recognise that and will hopefully smile.

Finally, flawed and all, I love this book. There is an energy and risk-taking in Play Dead that I wonder if I still have.

“Youth, as they say, is wasted on the young. I'm not this guy anymore, but that’s okay. None of us are stagnant with our passion and our work. That’s a good thing.”

THE AUTHOR: WITH more than 47 million books in print worldwide, Harlan Coben’s last three novels, Caught, Long Lost and Hold Tight, all reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

His books are published in 40 languages and have been number one bestsellers in over a dozen countries.

Coben’s novel Tell No One was adapted in 2001 for the smash hit French movie of the same name, starring Francois Cluzet and Kristin Scott Thomas.

At the start of his writing career, Coben concentrated on the exploits of sports agent Myron Bolitar but after seven novels he decided to try something different and went on to write a series of critically-acclaimed stand-alone stories.

Tell No One was followed by Gone for Good, No Second Chance, Just One Look and The Innocent.

The author was the first writer in more than a decade to be invited to write fiction for the New York Times op-ed page and his Father’s Day short story, The Key to My Father, appeared on June 15, 2003.

Coben was born in Newark, New Jersey, and after graduating from Amherst College as a political science major, he worked in the travel industry.

The author now lives in New jersey with his wife Anne and their four children.