The result is that Harlan Coben’s fictional Bolitar family has been split between two streamers: Netflix gets Myron and his adventures, while Prime Video gets nephew Mickey, and never the twain shall meet. That means that when Netflix’s Myron Bolitar series arrives, it won’t feature his nephew Mickey. Coben explained to Deadline in late 2022: 

“He is tied up at Amazon right now. So why knows, maybe we’ll get to do something at some point but right now, there’d be no plans for him to be in the series. Mickey doesn’t really cross into the Myron series except for one or two books, so I don’t think that’ll be an issue.”

Mickey’s Aunt Shira

Amazon has worked around the fact that their Mickey Bolitar series can’t feature his uncle Myron (with whom Mickey goes to live in the original books) by creating new character Shira Bolitar. Shira, played in the series by Constance Zimmer, is Mickey’s aunt, and sister to his father Brad. She’s a successful lawyer in Seattle who returns to her family’s hometown of Kasselton, New Jersey to raise Mickey while his parents are… well, that’s spoiler territory. 

Does that mean that Myron doesn’t exist in the Prime Video series? It does not. One of Shelter’s earliest shots is of a varsity basketball trophy inscribed to the man himself, and his basketball jersey hangs on the wall among his medals in his old basement bedroom in the family’s New Jersey home.

Myron’s name is even mentioned a couple of times in Shelter. In episode one, Mickey’s schoolfriend Spoon and basketball captain Troy both mistakenly assume that Myron is Mickey’s father, and he corrects them. Myron is considered “legendary” at Kasselton High says Spoon, and the Bolitar name is all over the school trophy cabinet. 

Don’t expect to actually meet Myron in the Prime Video series though, or hear much more about him after episode one. He doesn’t appear in Shelter in person, doesn’t feature in the show’s flashbacks to the 1990s, and isn’t even in any family photos at the Bolitar home. Even when Mickey’s grandparents show up in episode three, their other son goes unmentioned.