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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Lucy Mangan

Harlan Coben’s Shelter review – this twisty thriller is as charming as The Goonies

Adrian Greensmith (Arthur ‘Spoon’ Spindell), Jaden Michael (Mickey Bolitar) and Abby Corrigan (Ema Winslow) in Harlan Coben’s Shelter.
A small Scooby-Doo gang … Adrian Greensmith (Arthur ‘Spoon’ Spindell), Jaden Michael (Mickey Bolitar) and Abby Corrigan (Ema Winslow) in Harlan Coben’s Shelter. Photograph: Michael Parmelee/Prime Video

It feels odd to call an adaptation of a Harlan Coben thriller “charming”, but the eight-part Shelter series is just that. Netflix acquired crime writer Coben’s big standalone novels in a five-year, multimillion-pound deal for the rights to 14 of his 34 books, and its renewal in 2022 is thought to have included the best-selling Myron Bolitar series, too. But Prime Video has nabbed his young adult series, whose protagonist is Myron’s nephew, Mickey; this is a dramatisation of the first Mickey book.

It has slightly less gore than usual and an even more madly corkscrewing plot. But the charm – reminiscent of early teen fare, such as The Goonies, that the 80s offered while it waited for you to graduate to John Hughes – is still an unexpected bonus.

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