New Nail-Biter From Master Of Suspense

(CBS)  Best-selling author Harlan Coben first won critical acclaim and fans around the world for his suspenseful whodunit novels featuring basketball star-turned-sports agent Myron Bolitar. Now, that wise-cracking character is back in Coben's latest thriller, "Promise Me."

With a plot full of twists and turns, "Promise Me" takes Myron into the darker side of teenage life and turns him into a suspect in the disappearance of a high school student. Coben joined The Early Show Tuesday and explained why, after six years, he was ready to bring Myron back into action.

"I came up with this idea, actually something that happened to me, where I overheard a couple of teenagers talking about drinking and driving," he told co-anchor Harry Smith. "I pulled them aside and said, 'Promise me you won't do that. Here's my phone number. Call me at 3 in the morning. I don't care what happened, I won't tell your parents. Promise me you will never get in the car with a drunk driver.' In the book, Myron makes a promise like that. Teenage girl calls him three weeks later he picks her up; he drops her off at a friend's house, and the next morning she's gone — and he was the last person to see her."

Happenstance events or conversations are often the source of ideas for Coben, who has warned his family that everything is "fair game," he says. "Everything's on the record, unfortunately, the kids know everything is on the record."

Coben, the father of four, sees fodder for his stories all around him, even in suburban New Jersey, where he lives with his family. "Not just the teenagers, the drinking and all that stuff, the normal teen pressure. But what I've really seen in my town is this snow globe of college acceptance and rejections lately," he said. "Your whole life is sort of dependent on what college you'll make and that pressure, and how far you'll go to get into the right school. That plays a big part in 'Promise Me' also."

Labeled a modern master of the suspense genre, Coben is an international literary superstar. His books have been translated into 34 languages and have been No. 1 best-sellers in more than a dozen countries — and, he tells Smith, success is indeed sweet. "Every day I kind of wake up, and it reminds me of that Steve Martin routine where he used to play the banjo with his nose and say, 'But the most amazing thing is I get paid for doing this.' I mean, every day it's like that. It's a great joy."

To read an excerpt from "Promise Me," click here.