Harlan Coben's new horror-thriller series Lazarus, premiering on Prime Video on 22 October 2025, draws directly on the author's own experience of losing his father at a young age. “I’ve dealt with it in a lot of stories but in this one, it’s directly,” Coben said.
The six-part mystery follows forensic psychologist Dr Joel Lazarus (Sam Claflin), whose life unravels after his father's sudden death. Returning home, Joel discovers a cryptic suicide note and begins to be haunted by ghosts from the past, forcing him to confront family secrets. “When we lose somebody, we all have hope of, one day, seeing them again,” Coben said. “That’s a lot of what the story really is.”
Bill Nighy stars as Dr Lazarus, Joel’s enigmatic father. Coben revealed he specifically wrote the role with Nighy in mind. “This is the first time I ever specifically pictured someone while writing the story,” he said. “We couldn’t imagine, not in our wildest dreams, that he would say yes. I screamed like a little baby.” The cast also includes Alexandra Roach as Joel's sister Jenna and David Fynn as his best friend Seth.
Behind the scenes, Coben reunites with screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst and producer Nicola Shindler, a team responsible for hits such as Stay Close and The Stranger. “If Danny and I have discord, Nicola just tells us what to write,” Coben joked. “We share a vision and put our egos aside.”
Lazarus marks a departure from typical Coben thrillers by flirting with the supernatural. Joel begins conversing with dead people, including his late sister Sutton (Eloise Little), whose murder remains unsolved. “That’s the most significant difference to the thrillers we’ve done,” Brocklehurst said. “We wanted to take the viewer on that journey.” Coben emphasised the supernatural elements are grounded: “We wanted to do something grounded.”
The show is set in a towering, gothic office building rather than a family home. Filming took place in Manchester and Liverpool, directed by Wayne Che Yip. Coben confirmed the series is a complete story, but left the door open for a potential second chapter: “Do we leave a door open? Perhaps.”
