Find You First: From the international bestselling author of books like Elevator Pitch comes a gripping crime thriller

Somewhere, in the toolbox of the top-class thriller writer, there's a make-a-good-character kit. This useful tool creates characters who live, breathe, carry the narrative AND have an existence apparently independent of their creator's intricate plot.As far as plot is concerned, Linwood Barclay has the kit and took the classes: he learned about Advanced Cliff-Hangers, Plausible Coincidences and Amusing Payoffs.Alas, he missed Character; in fact, he appears to have goofed off during Character 101.But wait! He's an international best-seller! He gets a front cover endorsement from Stephen King!Yes, King.Now King knows all about The Double: the writer who can plot AND create believable, rounded characters to work their way around same. There are relatively few of these, so few that the best of them are acknowledged literary masters: Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene... great writers who have millions of fans.Stephen King can lay claim to being one of their few inheritors: the popular writer with a touch of depth and class.Linwood Barclay belongs strictly to the David Baldacci school: plots are fair-to-medium, at times clever (not in this case, though) and the characters... well, the characters don't exist. They are ciphers, puppets working their way around a story already planned, with moderate skill, by their creator.Why is this important? To millions of readers, it probably isn't. They want to enter the fairground and have a go on the machinery and that, of course, is fine. But it's a lot more fun to ride the roller-coaster of a great thriller in the company of OTHER HUMAN BEINGS. For this, try Maugham, Greene, Scott Fitzgerald and handful of contemporary writers like King plus, alas, very few others. So few, in fact, that we're forever waiting for another one to come along.Could it be you? Look at Barclay: his plotting (here at least) vin ordinaire, his characters insipid — yet he actually has a book deal and a following! Puzzled? Me too. But, on the bright side, I'm inspired and newly-motivated. I'll be sharpening my pencils, and my wits.

Once again, it's a page turner with a twist! Linwood Barclay has never disappointed me yet with his books, he is a master in what he writes. I'd waited a long time for his new release, and sat and read it in one sitting. Fantastic. Thank you, I just have to wait another 12/18 months for the next one!!! 😀😀

I’ve been a fan of Lynwood Barclay for many years but felt that his recent books, although good, were not as good as earlier ones. However I still like him enough to pre-order them and I am so glad I did with this latest one. I loved this. Although the idea of surrogacy has been done many times this was a totally original take. I won’t go into the story and spoil anything but as expected there are twists and turns along the way and an exciting ending. Yes sometimes you have to suspend belief and stretch the imagination but when it’s as good as this I don’t think that matters. It wrapped up at the end in a satisfying manner. Welcome back to the top Lynwood!!

This was an absolute blast from start to finish. With the intrepid Chloe as the protagonist along with the help of “new father” Miles it’s a race against time for them to find their biological relatives before a pair of hitmen or should I say hit persons find them first.This has fantastic characters on both sides of the spectrum. From good guys Chloe, Miles and Travis to my personal favourites the hired hitmen, who really reminded me of the pair in The Umbrella Academy, the seedy Jeremy and the supremely entitled Caroline.Not only is this a cat and mouse chase it is also thought provoking around sperm donation, the nature vs nurture debate, dna and playing god using human beings as test subjects.While I had worked out most of the reveals there was a nice shocker that I didn’t suspect at all. None of it detracted from my enjoyment and it was perfectly wrapped up at the end in a fun and action packed finale.This was my first book by this author and judging by this it will be the first of many.

I was really looking forward to this book, but found it disappointing. I follow Linwood Barclay on social media and a while back he said that his new book wasn't quite finished and needed some more work. Well in my opinion it still does. The characters seemed a bit two dimensional and the plot a bit woolly. The end 'action' sequence was quite frankly unbelievable and a bit silly, but maybe this was deliberate. There was also too much use of the 'F' word for my liking (effin this effin that) , so all in all not one of his better ones. Hopefully this is just a glitch as all his previous books have been excellent.

Really disliked this book. Not a patch on his earlier publications which I thought were great. I didn't much like the subject matter and totally failed to engage with any of the characters. Hope he improves in the next book!!