I WILL FIND YOU

5 stars out of 5

Granted, this one stretches the believability factor past its upper limit, but so what? It's definitely worth sitting back and enjoying the ride, and hey - this is fiction, after all. At the heart of the story is David Burroughs, five years into his life sentence in prison after being convicted of murdering his young son Matthew. He and his wife Cheryl are divorced, Cheryl is remarried and pregnant and he's refused to see any visitors ever since his first day of incarceration. From Day One, of course, he's insisted that he's innocent.

Suddenly, his entire world - or what it has become - is turned upside down. He gets a visit from Cheryl's sister, Rachel, who brings a photograph that brings them both to tears; taken at a theme park, it's a current photo of a boy roughly eight years old who is the spitting image of Matthew. What's more, he has the same distinctive birthmark on his face as David and Cheryl's beloved - but years-ago dead and buried - son. With just one look, David and Rachel are convinced that the mangled body David found on the day of the murder wasn't Matthew. So now what?

The what, of course, is what the rest of the story is about. For openers, there's David's plan to escape from prison (ah, whatever could go wrong with that), followed by the intent to visit the witness whose testimony sealed the jury's verdict and learning who the real victim and killer were and - most important - finding Matthew. Standing smack-dab in David's way are FBI agents Max Bernstein and his partner, Sarah - characters who can be somewhat amusing in a work of fiction but in real life would be two of the most obnoxious, reprehensible officers of the law I'd never want to meet.

From that point on, it's an action-packed chase - but I can't reveal any of the details without spoiling it for other readers. I'll just say it kept me turning the pages (well, thumbing my Kindle) right up to the end that comes with a well-deserved twist. Very enjoyable, and many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for giving me the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

I Will Find You by Harlan Coben (Grand Central Publishing, March 2023); 336 pp.