Harlan Coben

I was born in Newark, New Jersey.

I grew up in Livingston, New Jersey, in a split-level, three-bedroom... I mean, it could have been on any TV show house.

You know, the same... Maybe a little smaller in some, but exactly that.

I grew up in a town where everybody was very, very similar and the same.

But we had...

Two rumors in my town when I was growing up.

One was that behind these barbed wire fences and no trespassing signs was a nuclear missile base.

And the other one was behind this baronial mansion with these guards at the door and these lion statues belonged to Richie the Boot Boyardo, who was one of the models for the Godfather, and that he burned bodies in the backyard.

And what I found out after I grew up was both rumors were true.

Absolutely true.

We had the Nike nuclear missile base hidden behind Riker Hill Elementary School.

And right next door to it, weirdly enough, Richie the Boot Boyardo lived.

And you can look up his house.

It's this weird baronial mansion with these weird statues outside of it.

and that they did burn bodies, according to his grandson, who I've met, in this furnace in the backyard.

So this is the kind of town I grew up with.

I grew up very much in the heart of mafia, very much in the heart of organized crime.

My grandfather was part of organized crime, I found out a little later on.

Which, the parent of who?

My mother's father was president of the Liquor Salesman Union, which, yeah, do I need to go into more detail than that?