Created by Harlan Coben & Danny Brocklehurst
Fans of the 2004 Netflix mini-series Fool Me Once, adapted from Harlan Coben‘s bestselling 2016 novel of the same name, may be shocked (I tell you, shocked!) to discover that that show’s most intriguing character, SAMI KIERCE, is barely mentioned, appearing only in a few scenes.
In the book, he’s Roger Kierce — simply a short, hairy white NYPD detective who appears in a few scenes, questioning the central character, Maya, about the murder of her husband. And that’s about it. Next.
Sami, on the other hand, is almost solely the creation of the Netflix show runner, Danny Brocklehurst. In the series, Roger has become DS Sami Kierce (the setting is switched from the US to the UK) and he’s a major character, even appearing in the poignant epilogue (set twenty-five or so years later) bringing flowers to a new mother in the hospital. The new mother is Lily, the now grown-up daughter of Maya for whom the new baby is named. It’s a touching scene, and it reverberates.
But it’s more than screen time Sami gets on the show — he’s a complete and fully rounded (ie: troubled) character, a sad-eyed, world-weary recovering drunk with a dark backstory that includes the long-ago murder of the woman he intended to marry; a mysterious, life-threatening medical condition; an seeming addiction to some under-the-counter medication he’s taking; a brand new (and pregnant) fiancée, and a slew of other secrets that are slowly revealed in the course of the eight episodes. He also speaks to an unseen woman throughout the show whom we assume in his recovery sponsor —but she’s not.
But what really pushes Sami into the spotlight is the performance of British actor Adeel Akhtar. Although race isn’t a factor in the role, it’s refreshing nonetheless to see the role go to a non-white actor (Akhtar’s of Kenyan and Pakistani heritage). Especially one who has the acting chops to imbue every single seen-it-all-before trope with vulnerability and conviction, easily outshining the rest of the cast. It’s a memorable star turn.
And so, no fool he, Coben decided to bring Sami back, in the 2025 novel Nobody’s Fool, which serves as a shape-shifting prequel/sequel to the Netflix mini-series. Perhaps not surprisingly, Coben does some major tweaking on not just the original character he built, but the the Netflix renovation. Sami is still a shortAsian man, but he’s now an American. There’s a flashback to Sami’s college days, when a backpacking trip in Europe with his pals ends unexpectedly with the (still unresolved) murder of his girlfriend Anna, whom he met in a Spanish nightclub.
Fast-forward to a year after the events in the Netflix series, and Kierce is now a former cop, a married man, a new dad and a not exactly ethical private investigator, living in New York City, and teaching a dodgy investigation course at night at a local college.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Harlan Coben is a bestselling American author, with his suspense novels published in over forty languages, with eighty million books in print worldwide. Around these parts, though, he’s best known for his Myron Bolitar series about a sports agent who acts more like a private eye than some private eyes, earning Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards. But elsewhere he’s mostly known for a long string of surprisingly domesticated suburban noir one-offs (full of lost children, missing parents, straying spouses and, yes, the the deep, dark waters of family and the tangled lies and broken memories that shape us al) that have sold in the kajillions (Promise Me, Fool Me Once, Hold Tight, etc.), many of which have been developed into Netflix mini-series, mostly set in Europe. The author lives in New Jersey.
NOVELS
- Fool Me Once (2016) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- Nobody’s Fool (2025) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
TELEVISION
- FOOL ME ONCE
(2024, Netflix)
8 episodes
Based on Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben
Adapted by Danny Brocklehurst
Writers: Danny Brocklehurst, Charlotte Coben, Yemi Oyefuwa, Nina Metivier, Tom Farrelly
Directed by David Moore, Nimer Rashed
Starring Michelle Keegan as Maya Burkett
and Adeel Akhtar as DS Sami Kierce
Also Richard Armitage, Joanna Lumley, Dino Fetscher, Emmett J. Scanlan, Joe Armstrong, Marcus Garvey, Jade Anouka, Dänya Griver, Anthony Howell, Laurie Kynaston, Hattie Morahan, James Northcote
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to David Willmer for the geography lesson.
