After some dark reads, Linwood Barclay's latest crime thriller was just what I needed, it is entertaining, fast paced, and exciting storytelling that had me immersed from start to finish.

I read this book in one sitting and couldnt put it down, it was fantastic and really a great introduction to this author.

There are so many connected themes that it keeps you compulsively reading to the end. My favourite kind of books and I would recommend anyone to read this.

I've always been a big Linwood Barclay fan and thoroughly enjoyed this story. It had a great central premise and I loved the characters, a strong point of this author, I think. It would have been a 5* but the finale got a bit too far-fetched for me. However, I loved the ending, that was perfect. A great, entertaining read!

I haven’t read Linwood Barclay for quite a few years but I remember enjoying them so when his latest ‘find you first’ popped up on netgalley I was excited - and rightfully so, this is another great book from him. Miles Cookson is a tech millionaire but before earning his wealth he made express cash by donating sperm. Fast forward the years and Miles is diagnosed with the genetic condition Huntingtons disease. Miles wants to find out if any children he fathered have the condition and also so he can leave them his fortune. However as he begins he discovers that some of his potential heirs have vanished. There are a number of different threads to this story but it reads so easily. Just what you need from a crime thriller - a fast paced exciting story line that had me hooked. Thanks

Many Thanks to Linwood Barclay and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book before being published in exchange for an honest review.

One of my favourite Crime authors and he´s done it again.

I loved the fast pace of this book and so many twists.

I loved the main character, Miles, a filthy millionaire, although from minute one I could see that he was the good guy, but who´s not going to be a good guy when you go to the doctor and the first sentence is “you are dying”?. So if you have to do some good deeds, you better do them as quick as you can because you don´t have a lot of time of being 100% yourself.

Also the first daughter he finds, Chloe, is a very likeable character and you can see that from the beginning til the end that they have really good feeling for each other.

When he was younger and having economic difficulties, Miles was a sperm donor. Now he wants to find out how many children he´s had and leave some good money to them. So he and his team embark in the search of all of them but soon he realises that for some reason they are dying before he find them.

It is a really good thriller. Very fast paced with a lot of twists. I love Linwood Barclay and each of his books.

I have never read Linwood Barclay before but as he one of my mother's favourite authors I decided to request this book on Netgalley. I found the start very confusing as there were lots of people and it took quite a while to sort the characters out. Having said that I found this a great read tying the different plots together and going along with the way that he was leading, ony to discover that it was a false lead.
This story is a race aganst time to attempt to stop more murders. I thought the ending tied it up nicely but it was not reality but still good.
The characters were well defined, twists galore and it is a compulsive read once it grabs you. Some of the characters were really likeable but others were distinctly dislikeable but at all times they were written clearly within the bounds of their initial descriptions. I particularly liked Chloe who had spirit and was not afraid to be cheeky.
Great book

WOW, Linwood Barclay has done it again, this is an author is on my automatically buy list I have loved every book he has written so far. This is another one that doesn’t disappoint. I was hooked from the first page to the last reading through the night to get the book finished.

Miles Cookson is a millionaire he wants for nothing, it wasn’t always that way, he has made it himself through hard work. He has never been married never had a serious relationship. But now at 42 he has just been told he has Huntington’s disease, knowing he has it he now has to deal with it and starts to reassess his life. As well as knowing his death could be a long and slow one as he will gradually deteriorate. Knowing it is hereditary he realises he donated sperm in his younger days in order to get money to pay for a new computer. He could be a father, does he owe it to those children to find them and warn them about Huntington’s disease? As he thinks about this he realises he would like to know if he has children, he wants to meet them. The only family he has is his brother Gilbert his sister in law and his niece.

Miles’ s looking into his possible children sets off a chain of events that you just don’t expect, so many threads that all link together by the end of the book but with so many twists and turns, you are on a rollercoaster ride, trying to guess who is behind what is happening. I loved Chloe such a sassy young girl with lots of empathy, bravery and she is sharp. The story is fast paced, that you just can’t turn the pages fast enough. Totally engrossing, gripping read.

I would definitely highly recommend this fabulous read.

Thank you to #netgalley and #HQ for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review.

As a huge Linwood Barclay fan, I was so excited to get my hands on a copy of “Find You First” and, as usual, I was not disappointed. In fact I think this might be his best work yet!

When Miles find out he has a tragic disease that will prove to be hereditary, he must track down his biological children to warn them but someone appears to be one step ahead of him and they start to vanish without a trace.

I could not put this down-I found myself walking around the house with it as it was so gripping, and I was dying to find out what was going on. The entire story was interesting and thought provoking and I was guessing until the end.

Linwood Barclay books are a joy to read. The story is fast paced with a lot going on and I really enjoyed it. The story is well written with excellent characters. It has a very good plot and I thought I knew what was happening, but the more I read, I realised, I had it completely wrong. Loved it and highly recommend it. Thank you #netgalley

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher HQ for the ARC.
This is a really good, complex thriller with an unusual storyline. It's well-written, with well-developed main characters and definitely keeps the reader guessing. Twists and red-herrings abound. A most absorbing read.

Forty- two year old millionaire tech company owner, Miles Cookson, is in a dilemma; he's received the devastating news that he has Huntington's disease and there's a 50% chance his brother Gilbert may have it - and any of Miles' children. His problem is that he doesn't know how many children he has, nor who they are, because 20 years previously, when he hadn't a penny to his name, he sold his sperm to a fertility clinic.
Now, facing his own mortality he concludes that he must trace any children for two reasons - one is that they would need to know of their chances of having inherited the disease, the other being that given his death sentence, however long that may last, he needed to distribute his wealth between them.
However, 3 weeks after being given the news, and discovering his children's identities, his heirs begin to disappear - completely. Their residences are bleached-clean - the disappearances mount up.
Meanwhile, Chloe Swanson, born to a lesbian mother, is determined to find out who she actually is. She's documenting conversations with her maternal grandfather and anyone else she finds. Against her mother's wishes she submits her DNA for testing and finds she has a half-brother, Todd. She continues on her quest and eventually meets up with Miles and they form a father/daughter-type bond.

In the background there is 65year-old Multibillionaire Jeremy Pritkin who hosts parties of anyone who is influential, but unfortunately has a penchant for young women.
Miles' trusted assistant Dorian is instrumental in helping Miles in his quest but his brother Gilbert has discovered financial irregularities within his company.

This is certainly a complex web of a story. Thoroughly engrossing - heart-warming as well as heart-wrenching.
A really good read.

I haven't read many of Linwood Barclay's books, but those that I have read I have really enjoyed. However, I did find this book a little harder to immerse myself in to at first. There was quite a few characters to get to grips with and a storyline that was different to others I have read before.

I found the first quarter of the book a little slower and I was desperately waiting for the "thriller" aspect to kick in and when it did it wasn't the shock I had initially hoped for. That said, the book did pick up speed and get a little grittier. Perhaps I would class this book as more of a suspense than thriller.

However, I did actually enjoy the book and raced through it. I had an inclination towards what the "twist" would be but hadn't got a fully thought out idea.

As always the writing was superbly done, the scene setting was wonderful and the characters felt real; Miles a great protaganist and Chloe a fiesty but brilliant young woman. I also found myself drawn to Charise, who though only a side character had some good moments of her own.

An enjoyble and engaging read.

A great read, this book is fast paced and progresses well. The characters are well described and Miles and Chloe are very relatable.
It starts with several different strands of storyline and proceeds to weave them together.
Initially it has you wondering what the connection is between the different elements but as the story progresses they begin to fall into place albeit with twists and turns along the way.
From about 70% I couldn't put the book down, things were happening thick and fast and the various twists just drew me in more. The action built up towards the end with a dramatic finale and thankfully all loose ends were tied by the close of the book, something I am particularly keen on.
I have read books by Linwood Barclay before and enjoyed them and this did not disappoint.
Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy.

I downloaded this book as an easy read for lockdown but really struggled to get further than 16%. I have read other Barclay books and have quite enjoyed them but this really fell wide of the mark and sadly I couldn’t be bothered to finish.
Thanks to Netgalley and HQ for the chance to read though.

When you open a novel written by this author, you know you’re in for a terrific read, well plotted, strong characterisation and enough twists to leave your head spinning.

From the opening pages, you’re grabbed and dragged along at a breathless pace, which makes it hard to put down and do normal things eg eat/sleep etc!

A masterclass in how to write a crime thriller- it only lost a glass of bubbles as I found the characters a bit cold for my liking.

Find You First is the masterful, scintillating new standalone thriller from bestselling psychological suspense writer Barclay. I have to agree with Stephen King, too, that it is his most compulsive to date with a concept that has you excited from the very beginning. Billionaire app developer Miles Cookson, who made both his name and money running Cookson Tech, can afford anything in this world that can be bought with money; yachts, multiple houses in the most luxurious areas, fancy cars by the hundred, you name it. But the one commodity he really wishes he could purchase more of is time. At a hospital in New Haven, Connecticut he has just heard the news from Doctor Alexandra Nyman that he is dying. He feels he should inform his children both of his terminal illness diagnosis and the fact that it can be genetic so there's a chance they may have it too. Two decades ago, a young, struggling Miles was a sperm donor. Somewhere out there, he has kids—nine of them. And they might be about to inherit both the good and the bad from him—maybe his fortune, or maybe something much worse. There is also the small issue of the donor records being sealed but he hopes money, as always, will remedy that, especially with the situation being so time-sensitive for him.

As Miles begins to search for the children he’s never known, aspiring film documentarian Chloe Swanson embarks on a quest to find her biological father, armed with the knowledge that twenty-two years ago, her mother used a New York sperm bank to become pregnant. When Miles and Chloe eventually connect, their excitement at finding each other is bestseller overshadowed by a series of mysterious and terrifying events. One by one, Miles’s other potential heirs are vanishing—every trace of them wiped, like they never existed at all. Who is the vicious killer—another heir methodically erasing rivals? Or is something even more sinister going on? It’s a deadly race against time... This is an addictive, heart pumping and thoroughly addictive game of cat and mouse and right from the first few pages it opens by throwing you in at the deep end. Make sure you set aside some time to devour it as this is certainly what I call a single sitting scintillator. Not only is there is the race against time for Miles to find his offspring but so too to put a stop to the killings so we get a double whammy and following the clues for both plot lines had me hanging on the author's every word. Full of action, twists, wicked misdirection as well as being chock full of mystery, intrigue and endless drama this is a fantastic thriller. Highly recommended.

This is an immersive, intense and intricate psychological suspense. Miles, a successful app developer, discovers he has a degenerative inherited condition. Time is running out he wants to find his possible children, warn them and let them share in his wealth. There are numerous conflicts to this aim, but some surmounted with money, but why are his heirs disappearing?

This story has multiple characters, and points of view, which gives the reader an omnipotent view of events but no not every point of view is trustworthy, and this story has plenty of false leads. The suspense builds throughout, and the ending delivers shocks and surprises. The answers are in the story but well disguised by clever plotting,
and fast pace.
.
It's a story that draws on contemporary themes and resonates.

I received a copy of this book from HQ via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I was gifted my copy for the blog tour.
I have been a big fan of Linwood Barclay for a while now and i was super excited about this one. Let me tell you - He takes you on a journey, i was so exhausted by the end of this book but it was incredible!
It was full of complex twists and turns, relationships you didnt know existed and betrayals left right and centre. So - whats it all about? Well, Tech billionaire Miles has just received some devastating news, he has a terminal illness so now is time to consider what he is going to do with his affairs and get them in order. The other issue is that the condition he has is genetic and years ago he donated some of his sperm to a fertility clinc and now he feels that he should warn any children he has that they could also have this condition.

However, its not as simple as that, confidentiality prevents it and Miles needs to find a way to get the list of potential children but as he is starting to discover them, someone else is also looking for them and one by one they are going missing - but who and why and what on earth is happening?

This is where the narrative gets fantastic because we are following several different perspectives of all different situations all occurring around the same time. I loved seeing how it would all fall into place and there was no way i could of figured anything out. It was so fast paced and i felt physically drained by the end of the read itself. I was so invested and just found it such a rewarding read. This is dramatic, tense and so much more than it first seems. With complex characters, in depth plots and a rollercoaster journey this is one you will remember.

Generally love this author, this not so much, although it’s interesting when talking to a friend about it, who wasn’t keen on ‘Elevator Pitch’ ( his last book ) that I loved and they didn’t, they had really enjoyed this one, thus going to prove that we all like different things at different times
The beginning felt fiddly, confusing and clunky to me with lots of characters to meet and I kept getting them mixed up and almost gave it up as a bad do but carried on and after about 15% got into the swing of it and it did improve and turned into a kinda fascinating story but for me remained fairly far fetched and not plausible
Based around a fraud that comes back to the instigator and those that were fooled and also 9 individuals who are now going to pay the price for that fraud the book is never slow and leads to a high energy finish and does keep you wanting to know the outcome
All round was ok, look forward to his next book

6/10
3 Stars

I have been a huge fan of Linwood Barclay ever since his first novel, so gave a squeal of joy when I was approved to read his latest offering, 'Find You First'. He's one of my favourite authors, and I immediately add his books of my list to buy for my library service. Unfortunately, I must say that I've been left disappointed and it actually pains me to only give this book 3 stars.

The book starts off in an intriguing way. Miles, a multi-millionaire, sets out to meet his 9 biological children after being diagnosed with Huntingdon's Disease. He meets his daughter, Chloe, and the two of them set out to meet the others. However, they soon realise that some of Miles' children have mysteriously disappeared without a trace in the last year or so, and others have suddenly vanished since Miles set off on his journey.

If you take the farfetchedness of the plot with a pinch of salt, this book is a good read. It's definitely more of a suspense/drama, rather than a thriller with lots of twists and turns. However, in my opinion, it doesn't meet Barclay's usual, incredibly high standards. The plot was predictable from about a third of the way in, it lacked any shocking twists and it took me a full week (compared to the normal 1 day for his other books) to finish this book.

If you've never read Linwood Barclay before, please don't me out off by this review. It's still a good, fast-paced read; it's just not the first title that will spring to mind when I continue to recommend his books!

Tech millionaire Miles Cookson has more money than he could ever spen, and everything he could ever dream of - except time, He has recently been diagnosed with aterminal illness, and there's a 50% chance that he could have pssed it on to the next generation. Two decades ago, a young, struggling Miles had been a sperm donor. Somewhere out there he could have kids. They might be about to inherit both the good and the bad from him


This is a dark and gripping roller coadter read. Miles Cookson has just been diagnosed with Huntington's disease. He decides to find out if he ever fathered a child from the sperm he had donated. Chloe is the first child he finds and their bond is immediate. Bu t other children on his list have suddenly vanished without trace. The story is told in alternating chapters from Miles, Chole and media mogul jeremy Pritkin's perspectives. I love Linwood Barclay's books. They never disappoint. Full of twists, this is a cleverly crafted story.

I would like to thank #NetGalley, #HQ and the author #LinwoodBarclay for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Miles has it all - fortune, success, happiness - deadly terminal illnesses. Without a family of his own, Miles has nobody to pass all his riches down to, but at least he won't pass down this deadly problem too.

Or that's how it looks anyway.- but there are nine potential heirs out there in the world somewhere from a past life when a broke Miles donated Sperm to get by. Time is running out, and with aspiring documentarian Chloe they start their desperate search for the missing children ... but now, they're not just missing. There's no trace of them anywhere.

Something dangerous is happening and they don't have long to find out who's behind it.

Chilling and uncomfortable tense, Barclay always has a way of taking standard thriller ideas like the 'race against time' and turning it on its head. Fast paced, exciting and twisty right till the end.