Harlan Coben is one of those writers whose thrillers and mysteries go straight to the top of the charts and are translated into dozens of languages.

“Harlan Coben’s Shelter,” available on Prime Video, is based on Coben’s 2012 YA novel — and, seemingly, two subsequent volumes that complete a trilogy.  “Shelter” features a character named Mickey Bolitar, spun off from his Myron Bolitar books. Myron is a basketball player-turned-sports agent who gets mixed up in enough murders to have kept a series going for 11 volumes; Mickey is his teenage nephew, who, in the book, comes to stay with him after his father is killed in a car crash — Mickey was there too — and his mother winds up in rehab.

Myron is mentioned in passing here, but in the adaptation, Mickey (Jaden Michael), is being looked after by his aunt Shira (Constance Zimmer), perhaps because “Shelter” comes from Amazon Studios while a Myron Bolitar series is being prepped by Netflix. The upside is that Zimmer is one of the series’ delights. In this telling, Shira is back in town — the fictional Kasselton, New Jersey — after years away, living incompatibly with Mickey in the house of her parents/his grandparents in their absence. (When they return, they turn out to be Peter Reigert and Adrienne Barbeau.)

Mickey has been living out of the country, where his parents were involved in unspecified good works; there’s nothing in his character to suggest a cosmopolitan background, but he does speak fluent Spanish with his mother, Kitty, played by Dominican American actress Narci Regina.

A new kid in school — that old trope — he quickly gathers friends, outsiders like himself, and enemies, the usual popular set. The characters describe familiar types, but the writing and performances make them feel original, individual. On Team Mickey are Arthur, who goes by Spoon (Adrian Greensmith), a nerdy extrovert, and Ema (Abby Corrigan), sullen and goth; opposing them are aggressive jocks Troy (Brian Altemus) and Buck (Antonio Cipriano). Cheer squad leader Rachel (Sage Linder), who goes out with Troy, is something of a neutral party, a swing vote. And then there is Ashley (Samantha Bugliaro), also new to school, who seems prepped to become a love interest for Mickey but disappears almost immediately, initiating the series’ first mystery.

Others will follow. Walking home, Mickey hears music coming from a big Victorian house, dripping with vines — one of those not-like-the-other manses many of us will remember passing with head down and a faster step — inhabited by a local enigma known as Bat Lady (Tovah Feldshuh). It’s a song called “Shelter,” the very song his family had been singing along to on the night of the crash. As Mickey goes to investigate, Bat Lady appears on the porch to tell him his father is not dead, then disappears inside behind a locked door.

The series is a welter of twists and turns, conspiracies and connections, leading to some dark (one might say “adult”) places.

Tribune News Service