Michael C. Hall returns to TV in Netflix's twisty thriller Safe: See the first trailer

“This is a gated community. You can see who comes in and who comes out. It’s safe.”

So goes the foreboding beginning to the trailer for Safe, a twisty new thriller slated to premiere on Netflix in May. Created by best-selling novelist Harlan Coben (the Myron Boiliar series), the show is set in a wealthy gated community and stars Michael C. Hall as Tom, a pediatric surgeon and widower raising two teenage daughters. When one goes missing and a murder coincides, a tense saga unfolds, in which buried secrets slowly come to the surface.

Coben and the show’s team have exclusively shared the Safe trailer with EW. For Coben, the show grew out of a simple, tantalizing question: “Sometimes we build fences to keep the bad out — but what happens when we trap the bad in?”

Coben reunites with writer Danny Brocklehurst (The Five) on the series. “As a guy who writes novels in relative seclusion, I would probably bring home a report card that says, ‘Does not play well with others.’ But with Danny, it’s different,” Coben tells EW. “We have the same vision and sense of humor, but mostly, Danny and I love compelling, gripping dramas you can’t stop watching. Our roles overlap a lot and we have a ton of fun, but I would say I’m more story-oriented and he’s more about structure, if that makes sense.”

The show, consisting of eight episodes, is very much meant to binge-watched, according to Coben. Among the elements the creator is most excited about are the performance by Hall, who plays a “relatively normal” guy compared to his Six Feet Under and Dexter roles — oh, and shows off a pretty good British accent — and the juicy ending. “The ending will shock you,” Coben teases. “Yes, you hear that all the time, but I think Safe will really take you for a fun ride.”

Watch the exclusive trailer for Safe above. All eight episodes will be available to stream starting May 10, on Netflix.