Everyone Has Secrets... (Reviewing Netflix's spin on Harlan Coben's STAY CLOSE)

Everyone—and I mean, everyone—has secrets. [Yes, plural. I’d be willing to wager Mother Theresa had more than one thing she desperately wanted to keep on the downlow, and she was Mother-Frickin’-Theresa.] Those hidden things may or may not seem like big deals to you or me—were we somehow to find ourselves privy to them—but that’s never really the point, is it? The secrets we choose to keep always have some meaning, for us… and presumably, good reason for our going to the trouble of making sure they remain for-our-eyes-only.

In Stay Close—Harlan Coben’s latest suspense-novel-to-Netflix-miniseries—there are plenty of secrets lying around… just waiting to be uncovered. Dug up. Exposed to the bright light of day. (And, basically, primed and ready to turn a whole lot of people’s lives into a right mucky mess.)

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Looking at it from the outside, chances are good you’d think that Megan Pierce is living a pretty sweet life. She has three healthy, well-adjusted kids (ranging from nearly-teen to teenagers), a job she enjoys, a nice home in a good neighborhood, a set of friends she genuinely likes, and is about to be married—after many years of rejecting his proposals—to Dave, the father of her children. 

In fact, many people might even envy Megan her comfortable life.

Those people wouldn’t have a clue… because Megan has only been leading this life for the last 17 years.

Actually, she’s only been Megan for the last 17 years. Prior to that, she was Cassie… and Cassie’s life was a very, very different thing.

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You wouldn’t, on the other hand, be nearly so apt to want to switch places with Ray Levine. Once a renowned photojournalist, his life has changed drastically over the past couple of decades… and not for the better. These days, he’s a small-time paparazzo-for-hire [yep, just as grubby and humiliating as it sounds], shilling for birthday gigs, bar mitzvahs, and hen parties in “Ridgewood”—a fictional beach town somewhere in England [with a picturesque-if-slightly-seedy boardwalk and various amusements]—by day, which helps him maintain an ample supply of barbiturates and booze for whiling away his mostly-empty [save for the occasional nightmare] and decidedly-lonely nights.

Ray’s secrets? Yeah, also to blame for his life’s sea change.

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Detective Michael Broome’s life lies somewhere in between Megan’s and Ray’s on the “appealingness” scale to which I’m assigning them. A person whose voice practically begs you to pay attention [and, well, confess all your secrets… detective, and all that], Broome’s situation isn’t all bad… but isn’t all roses, by any means, either. He’s clearly  good at his job, and well-liked by his colleagues (including his partner, Erin, who also happens to be his ex, which, erm… awkward!), but remains haunted by an unsolved case—that of a missing man—from nearly 20 years earlier.

Actually, make that from 17 years earlier. [Cue dramatic music, here. You’re keeping up, right?]

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When Broome’s boss ropes him and Erin into looking into the disappearance of a young man on Carnival Night, it isn’t long until Broome begins to see striking similarities between this case and the frustratingly never-solved one. 

Granted, not every aspect is the same. The cold case involved the mysterious disappearance of a family man, one Stewart Granger, in the prime of his life… a far cry from the newly-missing Carlton Flynn, a young, single man who’s barely old enough to drink. Still, each man was last seen in the same vicinity. Each had visited the same places. Each subsequently vanished… on Carnival Night.

Somehow, both Megan/Cassie and Ray were also in the presence of each missing fellow… at some point, on each fateful night. And Broome intends to find out how and why.

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Stay Close is the third Coben book to become a Netflix production (following 2018’s Safe and 2020’s The Stranger), and, as with the previous pair, it has also been transposed from its original East Coast/U.S. location to “somewhere in Great Britain”. [I don’t know why… but for me, at least, it actually makes the Netflix shows a bit more fun: a) we’re treated to some incredible British actors (which is never a bad thing), and b) it makes the stories feel fresh, by being set in a different location.]

Speaking of acting, Stay Close has some great performances. James Nesbitt is the perfect Broome, with a mien that manages to convey both compassion and doggedness, and an Irish accent that makes even the hardest question sound not-so bad. (There are a lot of emotions roiling around under the surface with Broome, and Nesbitt is always believable.) 

Cush Jumbo’s portrayal of Megan/Cassie is equally impressive; her character runs the gamut from happy/“normal” to scared to tough to unravelling (but trying desperately not to, with three kids to worry about), and sometimes, she’s called on to merge all of them together… which she does, beautifully. 

Richard Armitage, as Ray, has to show more angst and pathos than happiness (not surprising, given what we know of his character’s fall prior to the story beginning), and he displays Ray’s despair poignantly. 

A couple of other actors merit a few words, here, too, for their own memorable performances. Sarah Parish is absolutely brilliant as bar owner Lorraine Griggs, whose establishment features in Broome’s questioning (as a place the missing guys had each stopped by on the nights in question). Lorraine is a strong woman—competent, smart, and tough—and Parish absolutely nails the role. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out Eddie Izzard (long one of my favorite comedian-slash-actors*), in a positively-mesmerizing turn as Harry Sutton, a woefully-louche lawyer… with a heart of 24k gold. She is, from scene to scene, pitiable, hilarious, touching, brave, witty, and enviably quick-thinking, and I loved every moment she was on camera.

Netflix certainly swung for the fences with Stay Close, allowing it to unfold in all its splendor in eight [count ‘em, eight!] episodes, rather than condensing it into something much shorter. It was definitely the right decision, because this one doesn’t lag… ever. Instead, what we get is the treat of (approximately) eight hours of top-notch storytelling… penned by a master in the genre, directed by a pair of directors with a great feel for the story, and brought to life by a fantastic group of actors. 

I actually forced myself to savor this one over three consecutive nights (even though I really, really wanted to keep hitting the PLAY button), because I wanted to make it last. But, however you choose to watch Stay Close—spacing it out with one episode per day, lumping a couple-few together, or greedily gobbling it up in one epic binge—my advice? Just watch it. It really is That. Good.

~GlamKitty

*Eddie Izzard has recently begun using the pronouns "she" and "her".