Find You First
A Novel
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4.1 • 213 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The New York Times bestselling author of Elevator Pitch and master of psychological suspense returns with a riveting thriller in which the possible heirs of a dying tech millionaire are mysteriously being eliminated, one by one.
“Find You First starts with a bang and ends with an even bigger one. . . . It’s the best book of his career.” — Stephen King
Tech millionaire Miles Cookson has more money than he can ever spend, and everything he could dream of—except time. He has recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and there is a fifty percent chance that it can be passed on to the next generation. For Miles, this means taking a long hard look at his past . . .
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.
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 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 . . .
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this scalpel-sharp thriller from best-selling Canadian author Linwood Barclay, the twists and turns are as unpredictable as they are exhilarating. When tech millionaire Miles Cookson gets a devastating diagnosis, he starts thinking about his legacy—and the cash he earned for donations at a fertility clinic more than two decades ago. What should he do with the time he has left? Does he have children out there in the world? Miles’ dogged quest for answers proves increasingly treacherous for everyone he loves. Fast-paced, masterfully plotted, and always surprising, Find You First shows what can happen when cutting-edge science collides with personal vendettas.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of this suspenseful, expertly paced thriller from bestseller Barclay (Elevator Pitch), two people identifying themselves as police bang on the door of 21-year-old Todd Cox, who runs phone scams targeting the elderly out of his trailer home near Springfield, Mass. Eager to appear innocent, Cox lets them in, only to discover they're frauds. The fake cops inject Cox with a lethal drug before sealing him in a body bag and sanitizing the place and the surrounding area. One of them comments, "Two down. Seven to go." Flash back three weeks. Miles Cookson, a Connecticut software millionaire, has been diagnosed with incurable Huntington's disease. As Huntington's is genetic, Cookson decides to use his affluence to bribe a desperate employee of the sperm bank he donated to decades earlier to trace any possible children, both to warn them that they may carry fatal genes and to name them in his will. The list he gets contains nine names, including Cox's, hinting at a link to the initial homicide. Barclay makes even secondary characters feel real. Fans of Daniel Palmer will be pleased.
Customer Reviews
Made me laugh out loud
A few characters that were hard to care about, but the plot and accelerating pace kept me reading. I laughed out loud, the end is equally violent and hilarious.
Good premise, crappy writing
First chapter sample was good enough to spring the audio book, but by the next chapter, the author’s bro personality took to the fore and was irritating enough to turn it off mid-dogwalk.
Wooden characters meandering plot
Not sure why Tom Nolan of the WSJ recommended this. Fantastical coincidences, desperate facsimile of famous disgraced financier don’t make this book any less tedious