Find You First - Linwood Barclay

 Egad, but he certainly knows how to write ‘em doesn’t he?! Surely he is master of the convoluted plot that on the surface defies credibility but once the reader becomes enmeshed within the storyline and the narrative they are completely enveloped into the situations. I found the desire to unravel the shady goings on in this story became almost obsessive and I fairly raced through it. I always find it fascinating when I read a book of  500 odd pages much more quickly than a book half that length. I think it’s because, no matter how complicated the plot might be, it’s very easy to read.

‘It’s a deadly race against time…

Tech billionaire Miles has more money than he can ever spend, and everything he could dream of – except time. Now facing a terminal illness, Miles knows he must seize every minute to put his life in order. And that means taking a long hard look at his past.

Somewhere out there, Miles has children. And they might be about to inherit both the good and bad from him – possibly his fortune, or possibly something more sinister.

So Miles decides to track down his missing children. But a vicious killer is one step ahead of him. One by one, people are vanishing. Not just disappearing, every trace of them is wiped.

Number One Sunday Times bestseller Linwood Barclay returns with his electrifying new thriller, Find You First.’

It’s a pretty big cast of characters and easy to get muddled with some of them. In fact I did spot one place where the author, himself, got muddled and his editor didn’t spot it either. Slapped wrists. But it just shows you how on the ball you have to be to keep up with everybody. With this many characters it can become hard to engage with any of them fully. I guess ultimately you’re rooting for both Miles and Chloe and it isn’t that you don’t care about the others it’s just that their roles within the story tend to be more functional.

This is reading for entertainment. There may be readers who get picky about the realism and the plausibility of the plot. I admit it’s far-fetched and, if I’m honest, a little unsavoury. But does it matter? I was entertained. It’s a thriller. You can’t produce a good thriller by sticking to the ordinary. There are twists and turns. People you thought you could trust you find you can’t. People you thought were instrumental in bringing about a certain outcome you suddenly find they weren’t. And, of course, the conclusion -  full of excitement and tension. So suspend your belief, settle back, strap yourself in because this is a white knuckle ride of a book and probably perfect for the lockdown situation.

My thanks to HQ stories because I won this copy!