Birds of Prey - Harlan Coben

Jul 30, 2026

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Birds of Prey is a crime-fiction short story collection edited by Harlan Coben, united by a bird-of-prey premise that can be literal or symbolic across different narratives. The introduction frames the challenge for eleven writers to craft stories featuring birds of prey, mixing real avian threats with figurative equivalents. “The Coffin Bearer” begins on Maine’s coast with a heroine drawn to eerie gull cries over Penobscot Bay, escalating into an island mystery involving a lobster vessel, missing crew, and mounting danger at sea.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages282

Reading Time7 h 14 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Writing challenge and bird-of-prey premise

The Coffin Bearer

Maine coast setup and Maggie’s journey

Hannah B discovery and missing Ben

[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) INTRODUCTION by Harlan Coben Let me just start oﬀ by saying that this short-story collection is truly owl-some. Some of these bird stories might ﬂy over your head, but if you love reading compelling crime ﬁction, toucan understand how egg-cited I am to be editing this collection. Then again, hoo cares what I think? I know, I know. None of these puns are emu-sing. Egrets? I have a few, but then again, too few to mention. Whoa, this is getting hawkward. Did I get you to skip this intro yet? Or do you at least want to tell me to duck oﬀ? Okay, enough. Puns like this should be ill-eagle. Dad Joke Mode is over. Let’s get to it. An introduction like this is required to tell you a bit about this wonderful collection, but I wish I didn’t have todo that. If your gut instinct is to skip this and get right to the stories, I encourage that. I have always been of the opinion that prefaces and intros are like your appendix: They are either superﬂuous or they hurt you. So skip ahead and get to the stories. That’s where the gold (goose) lays. If you’re still here, I’ll keep this brief. I challenged eleven of my favorite writers to write a short story containing a bird of prey. Several writers hesitated and insisted, “I pelican’t do it,” but I said, “No, you peli-can.” Okay, that’s it. No more puns, I promise. The birds in the challenge could be actual birds—like Kathy Reichs’s owl or Ace Atkins’s turkey buzzard—or a metaphorical bird of prey, like Robert Dugoni’s 1965 Ford Falcon or Hank Phillippi Ryan’s Maltese Falcon. When Tess Gerritsen chose a seagull, I asked her why seagulls ﬂy over the sea and not the bay. Answer: Because then they would be called bagels. Oh, come on. You can’t still be listening to this introduction after that pun. Allison Brennan chose eagles, but we didn’t ask her to place them at the Hotel California. The brilliant C. J. Box took on peregrine falcon eggs. The legend that is Heather Graham landed on a California condor. The supernaturally talented Gregg Hurwitz took a bite with a vampire ﬁnch. The im-peck-able Kelley Armstrong chose a northern goshawk (I didn’t know what that was either), and the blazing supernova known as S. A. Cosby made his nest with a great horned owl. Still here? Well, you shouldn’t be. It’s cockatiel hour! You can listen to these stories in Turkey or the Canary Islands or, heck, wherever you make your nest. Remember: Owl you need is love—and a really good book. Enjoy my feathered friends. And enjoy, my feathered friends. [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) THE COFFIN BEARER by Tess Gerritsen I’m fortunate enough to live on the coast of Maine, and every day, I can see seagulls skimming for ﬁsh out my window. As any lobsterman will tell you, gulls are persistent and aggressive, quick to steal your lunch and harass other birds. Once, I made the mistake of feeding a seagull some dinner scraps. The next morning, that bird rapped on my bedroom window, demanding another meal. For a month, he continued to bang on that window, rapping so hard one day that he cracked the glass. Naturally, I chose my real-life avian nemesis as the bird of prey for my story. I loved the concept for this collection because from that starting point—a bird of prey—we could ﬂy anywhere with the story. The bird can be real or ﬁgurative, a major or a minor element. In “The Coﬀin Bearer,” I use seagulls to kick oﬀ the action. As my heroine, Maggie, motors to the lonely island where she lives, the screams of gulls in the mist tell her that something terrible has happened out on the water [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) I hear them before I see them, their cries like the wail of a hundred banshees in the fog. I’m only halfway to Gam Island, and there are no nearby outcroppings for birds to land, so I wonder why they’ve gathered so far out in Penobscot Bay. As I throttle down the engine, something swoops past me like a black-and-white scythe cutt

FAQs

What holds the collection Birds of Prey together?

Each story contains a bird of prey premise that can be literal (real birds) or figurative (symbolic elements).

Who edits Birds of Prey?

Harlan Coben edits the collection and introduces the challenge to other writers.

What triggers the main action in “The Coffin Bearer”?

Gulls’ screams in the fog guide Maggie as she heads toward her island, signaling that something terrible has happened out on the water.

Jul 30, 2026

Upload by Finn