SPOILER FREE REVIEW!
I love Linwood Barclay books and this is no exception! Thrillers with twists and turns and some creepy evil characters - but not so much as to affect my sleep. I had to stop reading some authors as I can get a lot of nightmares. So these are great for me. Find You First is a fun and fast paced read that is out in February and definitely worth reading.
This story catches you very quickly and doesn’t let you go til it’s done!
I know you wouldn’t like any of the plots in thrillers to actually happen but this book only lost a star because of something that happens at the end that was, in my opinion, just a bit too much of a stretch of reality... I’m sure others will love it though.
I found the topics really interesting, with genetics and DNA playing a big role, and what really makes a family?
You do really need to read this one!

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

miles is a self made man, he has everything he has ever wanted and then some...but things are about to change when he gets the results back from some tests... he has a debilitating illness that is going to lead to his death but the worst part is it can be passed on to his children...

officially miles does not have any children...but years ago when he was struggling to live he went to a clinic and donated his sperm...

and now his conscience is getting the better of him...can he find them and tell them the news, its a race against time..

this story has several layers and red herrings galore but once you have the characters sorted in your head its a brilliant read that keeps you on the edge of your seat

This was an entertaining and fast-paced story about tech-billionaire Miles Cookson who, after receiving some terrible news, sets out on a mission to find any children that came of his sperm donations he made back before he made his fortune. But before he can get to his unknown offspring, they are dying or disappearing.

It is a very far-fetched thriller, but if you can suspend your disbelief for long enough, it is still enjoyable.

I’ve read all of Linwood Barclay’s books and enjoyed them all including his latest, Find you First.
The story centres around Miles Cookson a billionaire tech wizard who owns his own company. Miles, in his forties, receives the devastating news that he has Huntingtons disease, a life limiting illness. Miles, when he was in his early twenties donated sperm to a clinic to raise money to help him start his career, He now feels compelled to track down any offspring born as a result of his sperm donation. What Miles doesn’t envisage is the chain of events arising from his quest to find these people. Miles brother, Gilbert, who works for him feels offended that Miles feels it necessary to divide most of his vast wealth between these children thus leaving Gilbert nothing but a trust fund, all because Miles does not like or trust Gilbert’s wife Caroline, with good reason. The story engages you from the start and you want to know how it unfolds. Miles meets Chloe, one of the people on his list of potential offspring. she is funny and smart and she and Miles like each other and get along well. They are both well depicted characters who I could actually picture.. There are a number of different threads to the story, greed, malice, corruption, wealth and power to name but a few.. The story picks up pace as Miles, aided by Chloe, begin to try and track down the other 8 potential offspring only to find that some of them are disappearing. It becomes a race against time to find them. The plot and it’s numerous twists and turns keep you guessing to the end as all the different threads come together. Another sparkling book from Linwood Barclay. My thanks to NetGalley and HQ for this ARC in Retford my honest revew

Loved this book and couldn't put it down.. This ranks as one of Linwood Barclays best books to date. Fast paced thriller incorporating enslavement, corruption and fertility issues. I couldn't put it down as I was so keen to see what was going to happen next.

As with all of Linwood Barclay's thrillers this is fast-paced, hugely entertaining and thoroughly satisfying. An extremely rich man was a sperm donor in his earlier life and, as death looms, he is determined to track down the children he fathered and bestow wealth on them. At the same time, these children are being hunted down by a killer. I enjoyed it very much but just found that some of the coincidences and plot twists stretched credulity too far!

I found this to be a good read although I much preferred the earlier books from this author. It did keep me involved in the story line but, for me personally, it wasn't an edge of seater.

Most of the characters were good and the story line was well written.

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you to Netgalley, HQ and Linwood Barclay for my arc of Find You First in exchange for an honest review.

Published: 4th February 2021

Tech millionaire Miles Cookson is at the height of his career, his life. Uber fit, Uber rich with a successful app designing company. He has it all. Except for time because he's just received a devastating diagnosis. He has Huntington's Disease and his life has been changed irrevocably. But his mind has also turned to the past. As a young man desperate to get started in business he donated at a sperm clinic to get some easy cash and now somewhere out there are 9 children, his offspring who are now at risk of getting Huntington's later in life. At the same time Chloe Swanson is searching for her birth father, and when the two collide their excitement is overshadowed by some terrifying and mysterious goings on. One by one the other heirs are disappearing every trace gone....

I've loved Linwood Barclay books for a while and this one delivered once again. I felt like there was a blip with Elevator Pitch which I didn't love as much but this one definitely felt like his older works and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Fast paced and thrilling it was a race across the pages to find out what is happening with Miles heirs, there are several possible suspects and the reader has various carrots dangled in front of them with no real answers until it all comes to a head at the end. Exactly the kind of thriller I love!

What do you do when you discover that you have a terminal genetic illness, and realise that you have children out there from a sperm donation made for cash when you were young, who could have the same faulty gene.
This is a real dilemma now that DNA tests are much more freely available, and people can be much more easily traced via the internet.
Tech millionaire, Miles Cookson faces this problem, and decides to try to contact these young adults.
Chloe Swanson was conceived by sperm donation, and is trying to find her father.
And then someone starts killing Miles’s offspring……….

A media mogul ( Jeremy Pritkin), who has friends in very high places , and a very suspect private life is also somehow involved, and as the story races along, with alternating chapters from Miles, Chloe, and Jeremy’s views, with a few others thrown in, the reader is drawn in, and doesn’t question too much the unlikelihood of parts of the plot.

A great roller-coaster of a read!

Thanks to Netgalley and HQ Stories for the opportunity to read this book.

A thrilling read. Captured my attention from the start. An intriguing scenario and the twists just kept on turning..

I always enjoy Linwood Barclay’s thrillers and this new is one definitely a great addition to his catalogue!
When Computer billionaire, Miles discovers that he has a degenerative illness it makes him reassess his life. He has no direct heirs and although he works with his brother, he cannot stand Caroline, Gilbert’s wife so he is not keen to leave all his fortune to them as he fears Caroline will waste it and ruin the company.
However when Miles was young he donated sperm at an IVF clinic to make some money and he is worried that his “ children” may have inherited his disease. He decides to trace them, tell them the truth about their genetics and leave them part of his fortune in his will.
Unfortunately at the same time as Miles starts to seek them out, killers are trying to assassinate them, in a few cases succeeding before he can get to them and reveal the truth about who he is. Miles must move quickly to save them and work out who is behind the plot to kill them.
This is a very twisted story with lots of action as well as the interestingly modern theme of genetics and DNA. It examines the need for children to know where they came from and find their biological relatives; hence the current popularity of ancestor seeking websites that use DNA samples to reunite people.
Miles is a great character, always trying to do the right thing in very difficult circumstances. I also liked Chloe, one of the biological children. She is intelligent and sparky with a lot of heart and desperate to find her real father.
Once I picked this book up I just couldn’t put it down until I reached the final page- it certainly entertained me mightily over a lockdown weekend. I’m not sure I’d have wanted to go out even if somewhere was open as I was so engrossed in this exciting and twisty thriller. Definitely a five star read and highly recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

A fun ride.
Not so much a whodunnit,as a whydunnit.
By the time I got to the end of the book,I was pleased to see how nicely everything had been stacked up from the beginning.
Barclay never fails to deliver an entertaining plot,that has your heart beating a tad too fast in a few spots.

Best book I’ve read this year. This book is exciting, fast paced and unputdownable.
Miles finds out he has a life limiting disease and, with no wife or children, decides to leave his brother an allowance (due to not trusting his sister-in-law) and to share some between the people who were a result of his sperm donations as a younger man. Only they start to disappear, one by one. As the books goes on, we realise there could be several people behind the disappearances as we are pulled into webs of secrets. A few sections made me gasp out loud. I have recommended this book to everyone I know. An easy five stars.

My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for my early ecopy of Find You First. As usual Linwood Barclay delivers a fast paced, seemingly complex plot that keeps you engag ed from start to finish.

As seems to be the case all too often these days there's evidence of lazy proofreading/editing but this doesn't get in the way overall.

I totally recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a thriller with a happy (soppy) ending.

Great thriller by Linwood Barclay. One list but two people trying to find those on the list and what a difference it makes on who finds you first.
Absolute page turner this book by Mr Barclay, thoroughly enjoyed this and couldn't put it down.

Linwood Barclay does it again! A real page turner that had me hooked form the outset! It contains all the elements that Barclay typically has in his books to keep the reader enthralled and wanting to know what happens next. It contains corrupt characters, as well as mixture of other diverse characters who get mixed up in events that they had no idea they were actually linked to. The story is told in the third person, but each chapter narrating various events of different main characters in the book, with each chapter keeping you intrigued and wanting you to read on and find out more. We are first introduced to one of our main characters, Miles Cookson, a billionaire who owns a technology company. He sadly finds out he has been diagnosed with Huntingdon's disease. He has no actual children that the gene causing this may have been passed on to. However, he knows he donated his sperm many years previous to fertility clinic in New York, and so becomes concerned about the children his sperm may have help to create, and worries that they too may be at risk of this disease. He learns that nine children have been created from the use of his sperm. He seeks to find these 'offspring', but as he does so, he finds out that some of these have 'accidentally' been killed, with more to follow. He realises this is more than just coincidence and so seeks to find them in order to protect them, whilst eventually unravelling the final truth of the matter, and who is setting out to get rid of these people. Whilst this is well told, with gripping characters, an interesting plot containing a few twists, making it a real page turner, there were a couple of things that let it down for me. I did find myself guessing the end of the book correctly as events unfolded - maybe I've just read too many of Barclay's books. Also, whilst Barclay loves to include some action in his novels, the end you need to accept is slightly far fetched to an extent, and I'm not sure the final chapter really worked for me with two key characters. Other than that, another great thriller from Linwood Barclay which I would most definitely recommend. My thanks go out to Harper Collins UK and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this.

Excellent thriller as you would expect from the talented Linwood Barclay, a bit gruesome and unlikable villains but an interesting storyline and it kept me hooked .

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

Barclay always delivers fast paced thrillers and this one did not disappoint. The many characters introduced at the start were cleverly woven in together throughout the story and it was easily to actively dislike some of them, for example Jeremy Pritkin who had clear parallels to Jeffrey Epstein. Just when I thought that I knew where the story is going it took another twist which was great as it kept me guessing. I can’t wait to read his next piece of work.

I would like to thank Netgalley and HQ for an advance copy of Find You First, a stand-alone thriller set in around the Eastern Seaboard.

Tech entrepreneur Miles Cookson discovers that he has a fatal disease and decides to look for any children he might have to let them know about their inheritance, both genetic and financial. Unfortunately a killer is also looking for them and seems to be one step ahead. What happens after that is a deadly hunt.

I enjoyed Find You First which is a mixture of modern technology and good old fashioned murder and mayhem with a few good twists along the way. It is told from various points of view, including Miles, his newly found daughter, Chloe Swanson, the killer, various victims and other assorted characters with input. The upside to this is that the reader gets a wide view of various agendas and malfeasance, but the downside is that the constant change in the point of view and frequent introduction of new and fringe characters makes the read choppy, especially in the first half when the reader isn’t quite sure of the story arc. I found it difficult at times to work up any enthusiasm for for Miles’s quest when it got so buried in other vignettes. As an engrossing read I would rate the novel at 3* but I liked the plot, events, characters and stirring finale so I’ve gone for 4*. It is clever and I like that the motive behind the bad guys’ actions is concealed, encouraging the reader to carry on for an explanation. I thought the twists were quite good, surprising this reader and taking the novel in a different direction.

I enjoyed the characterisation. I’m not sure that they necessarily have the reactions of real people but they add a warmth and a glint of humour to proceedings.

I can recommend Find You First as, ultimately, a good read.

Linwood Barclay has done it again. A suspenseful thriller that gripped me from the first page right through to the end, and boy, what an ending!