I Will Find You

Harlan Coben is hands down, one of my favourite authors. I eagerly await every new book. And then despite my plan to savour it slowly - I end up binge reading late into the night. This latest book, I Will Find You is no exception!

Coben gives us a protagonist who, on first glance, looks like he should be the antagonist. David Burroughs has been in prison for the last five years for killing his three year old son, even though he swears he’s innocent. A chance picture of a boy who looks like young Matthew raises David’s hopes. Could his son be alive?

I’m always behind a premise like this, where it’s David and Goliath battle. Can an everyday guy beat the odds? Prove his innocence? And in this case, find his son?

The tension starts in show more the first pages and just never lets up. Prison breaks, gangland bosses, shady wealthy families, old friends and foes, tendrils from the past and more is all woven into a non stop, edge of your seat, heart pounding plot. Did I mention the twisty turns that change the narrative? I was surprised every time!

And I have to mention the dialogue between the two FBI agents. It's a rapid patter that is actually quite funny.

Over the top? A wee bit, but just go with it - it’s such a great read.

Coben fans will enjoy the cameo of Hester Crimstein from the Wilde series. I can see this one coming to a screen. show less

Four stars for the latest installment by Harlan Coben, but I might be biased. I like, pretty much, everything this author writes. Novels, TV series, I dig it, so take this review with a grain of salt.

This is not his best work, but it's still very good. One of the best things Coben does is to entangle several stories and angle in a mesh that seems it can't possibly be resolved coherently, and then, he resolves it making total sense.

This story follows that pattern; although, the beginning is a bit rough. There are some things at the beginning that make you second guess whether this story is going to be at the level of other Coben's work. Fortunately, after that initial hump, the story picks up and keeps you engaged all the way to the show more end.

If you're a fan of Coben, you surely will read this book, but even if you're not, you should. show less

Best-selling author Harlan Coben relates that the inspiration for his latest stand-alone book, I Will Find You, was a sentence that popped into his head. "I'm serving the fifth year of a prison sentence for murdering my own child. Spoiler alert: I didn't do it." He thought to himself, "What if I opened the book with the man, who is accused of murdering his own child and is in prison for it, finding out his child may still be alive right away?" Deciding that would be a "cool opening," the story developed from there. Remarkably, given the intricate and shocking plot twists for which Coben is known, he insists that when he sits down to write, "I know the beginning, I know the end, I know nothing in between. So it's like travelling from my show more home state of New Jersey across the country to L.A. -- I may go Route 80, I'll maybe go via the Suez Canal or stop in Tokyo, but I always end up in L.A."

Coben says he enjoys "playing with the idea of a perfect life, and the outside forces that could change any aspect of it." And does just that in I Will Find You. As noted, the first-person narration begins with David Burroughs explaining his circumstances and why he did not protest his innocence more vehemently when he became a suspect in the murder investigation: guilt. He felt that he had failed the son it was his job to protect. "Guilty or not guilty of the actual murder, it is my fault and thus my sentence to serve." Three-year-old Matthew was murdered in his own room and David discovered his lifeless child in his bed wearing his Marvel-Hero-themed pajamas. From that moment on, David explains, he was constrained to a "metaphorical life sentence" irrespective of how the legal proceedings played out.

David loved his son. Like any parent, he was not a perfect father. He and his wife, Cheryl, were struggling to make their marriage work. Cheryl had just completed her residency in general surgery and was working a night shift, so David was alone with Matthew. "Three-year-olds can be tough" and David was preoccupied, tired, and decided to put Matthew to bed without reading him a bedtime story. He didn't hold his liquor well, and after drinking more than he should have, he passed out without ensuring that the doors were locked. If Matthew's killer(s) made any noise entering the house, David didn't hear it, nor was he awakened by any screams coming from Matthew's room. He woke up at 4:00 a.m. and instantly knew something was wrong in the quiet house. When he went to check on Matthew, he discovered his beautiful son had been bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat. A baseball bat on which only David's fingerprints were found that elderly Mrs. Wilson testified she watched David bury in the woods separating their houses. There was no evidence that David had been drugged, no discernible motive, no other suspects, and he had a history of night terrors and sleepwalking. It didn't take the jury long to return a guilty verdict and David accepted his fate, even though he knew he did not kill his own son. Unless . . . Could he have killed Matthew while in a fugue state and have no recollection of committing the crime?

But David makes clear that his story won't be about his innocence being proven and his freedom restored. Because "my son would still be dead."

Rather, his story is about a chance sighting of a young boy in the background of a photograph taken at an amusement park by a vacationing family. The photograph is shared with friends, as routinely happens countless times every day. But the photograph in question depicts a boy, in profile, about the age Matthew would be now who bears a congenital hemangioma -- a port-stain birthmark -- that is significantly similar to the one that Matthew was born with on his cheek.

By the time Rachel, David's sister-in-law, engineers a visit with David, she has had a forensic examination of the photograph conducted. Age-progression software has concluded that the photograph is a match to one taken of Matthew, but Rachel has not revealed the discovery to Cheryl, who has remarried and is pregnant. Rachel is a journalist whose career recently imploded after her ethical choices came under scrutiny. But she still has sources and connections, yet David knows that if she takes the photograph to the police, they will not institute a new investigation. They will write it off as a coincidence because, after all, the perpetrator was caught and convicted. The case of Matthew's murder is closed.

So David decides he has to escape so that he, with Rachel's assistance, can conduct his own investigation and find his son. Because David is convinced Matthew is the boy in the picture.

At this point, readers with any knowledge of how prisons operate must suspend their disbelief and accept that David is housed in a facility where the warden, Philip Mackenzie, is not just the former partner of David's father, a retired police officer, but his father's best friend and David's godfather. (Ostensibly, these family connections constituting a major conflict of interest, were overlooked by officials when the warden sought to have David housed in the prison he ran in order to ensure David's safety.) Moreover, Coben never explains why David, who would have been charged with murder under the criminal statutes of and serving his sentence in a state prison, is instead housed in a federal penitentiary. No federal crime is described, thus the F.B.I. would have no jurisdiction. Nonetheless, the warden not only believes David's contention that the boy in the photograph is likely Matthew -- after all, he never believed David was capable of committing such a heinous crime -- but agrees to risk his own life and career in order to help David escape. And enlists the assistance of his son, a police officer. Together they plan and carry out an elaborate escape that is as harrowing, fast-paced, and entertaining to read as it is implausible.

Coben can be forgiven for taking dramatic license because he needed a mechanism to get David out of prison so the real adventure could begin. With assistance from Rachel, David begins his quest by going home to visit his dying father and his aunt who cares for him. The bedside scene is poignant and wrenching, even before Coben reveals his father's history. David also returns to his old neighborhood where many of the guys he grew up with remain. Some are eking out an honest living while others are still affiliated with gangs and engaged in criminal endeavors. Step by step, David starts gathering clues to why Matthew was targeted while maneuvering in ways that permit him to continue eluding the F.B.I. And the two agents assigned to the case, Max Bernstein and his partner, Sarah Jablonski, are fully developed, intriguing, and frequently hilarious characters who deserve to be the main protagonists in one of Coben's thrillers. Max insists he is a funny guy and that's why they're referred to as "the F.B.I. Desi and Lucy," but Sarah is convinced the nickname stuck solely because she is a redhead. Their banter is crisp, but their sixteen-year partnership is tested when Max begins to question David's guilt and Sarah is adamant about their role in the case. They are assigned only to apprehend a fugitive, not re-open an old murder case.

Coben intersperses chapters featuring Gertrude "Pixie" Payne, the eighty-two-year-old matriarch of the Payne family, heirs to the Payne Kentucky Bourbon dynasty. Pixie is the cousin of popular Coben character Windsor Horne Lockwood III or "Win." The Paynes are wealthy, influential, powerful, and very used to getting exactly what they want. Coben gradually reveals that Pixie may be getting on in years, but she is still a forceful, decisive woman who manages her family and its assets. She has spent her life surrounded by men who have engaged in despicable behavior and has done whatever was necessary to keep the family's secrets buried, scandals avoided. She's currently doing whatever is required to protect her grandson, Hayden, who has arrived for a visit with his son, Theo.

In his signature style, Coben melds a large cast of fascinating characters (even criminal defense attorney Hester Crimstein makes an appearance as Rachel's lawyer) and surprising plot twists into a cohesive, absorbing, and decidedly contemporary tale. The story's gait is set from the first page when David reveals his circumstances and never slows for even a beat. In fact, Coben notes that I Will Find You may well be his fastest-paced book to date. Indeed, I Will Find You moves at breakneck speed, with revelation after revelation demonstrating just how adept Coben is at weaving a clever, complex mystery without ever sacrificing character development. It is never readily apparent how Coben is going to pull the numerous loose threads of the plot together . . . until he again manages to seamlessly do so. Which is why I Will Find You is such a compellingly good story. Considering that Coben does not know what direction the plot is going to take when he sits down to write, his ability to concoct believable details that illustrate the ways in which the characters' lives are intertwined, why they made the choices they did, and the dramatic impact upon their lives of those choices is nothing less than awe-inspiring and unparalleled.

And I Will Find You is an emotionally resonant story. Coben credibly conveys the guilt and grief that David has lived with for more than five years, as well as his self-doubt in light of what appears to be uncontroverted evidence that hebrutally took his own child's life (his fingerprints on the baseball bat, an eye witness who positively identified him, the dearth of any evidence pointing to intruders entering the home while he slept). Cheryl's grief at losing both her son and her marriage, and her commitment to carrying on her important work as a transplant surgeon and starting over with a new husband and child, are heartbreakingly realistic, as is Rachel's relatable need to uncover the truth about her nephew's fate and, perhaps, reclaim her dignity, self-esteem, and professional standing in the process. Max and Sarah squabble about their ethical and moral roles and responsibilities, and readers will want to see justice done once the whole truth is revealed.

I Will Find You proves yet again that Coben is one of America's best storytellers. It is another must-read novel from the acclaimed author that will undoubtedly be touted as one of the best thrillers of 2023.

Thanks to NetGalley for an electronic Advance Reader's Copy of the book, as well as to Grand Central Publishing for a paperback copy of the book via Novel Suspects. show less

I WILL FIND YOU is another Harlan Coben book written in his usual style. That might sound negative, but it's not. I love Coben's style and so do an awful lot of other readers. So why change a winning formula?

Almost all of I WILL FIND YOU is a chase. David, who is in jail for killing his son, Mathew, manages to escape with the help of friends. He didn't do it and is convinced his son is alive. So now the chase is on as FBI detectives and police go after what they think is an armed-and-dangerous child murderer. And David gets closer and closer to learning the truth of what really happened.

As usual with Coben's books, you need to suspend your disbelief at times. Do that, and you will enjoy the heck out of I WILL FIND YOU.

David is serving a life sentence for killing his three-year-old son. He says he is innocent, but the evidence says otherwise. Five years after his son’s death, his sister-in-law shows up at the prison with a photo taken at an amusement park. Off to the side in the photo is a boy, a boy who looks like his son. This begins a wild adventure with David escaping prison, eluding police, and seeking old witnesses, hoping somehow it will lead to his still-living son. This thriller will keep you flipping pages. The narrator, David, isn’t unreliable, but nearly everyone else is. Intriguing, exciting, and gripping, this story is quite an adventure. Somewhat contrived, it is still quite entertaining.

David is in prison, convicted of killing his 5 year old son and believes he was responsible although not the one who ,killed him. Suddenly his world is turned upside down when he realises his son is actually alive. A clever plot with the usual Coben twists before the final reveal. Guest appearance from a Marlon Bolitar character!

Harlan Coben always writes a great thriller. In this one, David is 5 years into serving a life sentence for murdering his child. He believes he is innocent, but is resigned to spend life in prison without his son. When his former sister-in-law, Rachel, visits him with a recent picture of Matthew, he is determined to find his son. The warden and his son help orchestrate a break-out. Then, David is chased across the country while searching for his son. David and Cheryl divorced due to the strain of fertility / pregnancy troubles, and Cheryl's deceit. This is also a story of paternity, wealth, and secrets.
Another exciting book by Coben.