I Will Find You

Read the book that's soon to be a Netflix series! In this breathtaking thriller, an innocent father serving life for the murder of his own son receives evidence that his child may still be alive―and must break out of prison to find out the truth.

David Burroughs was once a devoted father to his three-year-old son Matthew, living a dream life just a short drive away from the working-class suburb where he and his wife, Cheryl, first fell in love―until one fateful night when David woke to discover Matthew had been murdered while David was asleep just down the hall.

Half a decade later, David’s been wrongly accused and convicted of the murder, left to serve out his time in a maximum-security prison―a fate which, grieving and wracked with guilt, David didn’t have the will to fight. The world has moved on without him. Then Cheryl’s younger sister, Rachel, makes a surprise appearance during visiting hours bearing a strange photograph . . . in the background, just barely in frame, is a boy bearing an eerie resemblance to David’s son. David just knows: Matthew is still alive.

David plans a harrowing escape, determined to achieve the impossible–save his son, clear his own name, and discover the real story of what happened. But with his life on the line and the FBI following his every move, can David evade capture long enough to reveal the shocking truth?

With over 80 million books in print worldwide, Harlan Coben is the #1 New York Times author of thirty five novels including WIN, THE BOY FROM THE WOODS, RUN AWAY, FOOL ME ONCE, TELL NO ONE and the renowned Myron Bolitar series. His books are published in 46 languages around the globe.

Harlan is the creator and executive producer of several Netflix television dramas including FOOL ME ONCE, STAY CLOSE, THE STRANGER, SAFE, THE FIVE, THE INNOCENT and THE WOODS. He is also the creator and executive producer of the Prime Video series Harlan Coben’s SHELTER, based on his young adult books featuring Mickey Bolitar. Harlan was the showrunner and executive producer for two French TV mini-series, UNE CHANCE DE TROP (NO SECOND CHANCE) and JUST UN REGARD (JUST ONE LOOK). KEINE ZWEIT CHANCE, also based on Harlan’s novel, aired in Germany on Sat1.

Harlan’s novel TELL NO ONE (NE LE DIS A PERSONNE) was turned into the renowned French film, directed by Guillaume Canet and starring Francois Cluzet. The movie was the top box office foreign-language film of the year in the USA, won the Lumiere (French Golden Globe) for best picture and was nominated for nine Cesars (French Oscar) and won four, including best actor, best director and best music.

Winner of the Edgar Award, Shamus Award and Anthony Award – the first author to win all three – international bestselling author Harlan Coben’s critically-acclaimed novels have been called “ingenious” (New York Times), “poignant and insightful” (Los Angeles Times), “consistently entertaining” (Houston Chronicle), “superb” (Chicago Tribune) and “must reading” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

In his first books, Coben immersed himself in the exploits of sports agent Myron Bolitar. Critics loved the series, saying, “You race to turn pages…both suspenseful and often surprisingly funny” (People). After seven books Coben wanted to try something different. “I came up with a great idea that simply would not work for Myron,” says Coben. The result was the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller TELL NO ONE, which became the most decorated thriller of the year. Two books later, Bookspan, recognizing Coben’s broad international appeal, named NO SECOND CHANCE its first ever International Book of the Month in 2003 – the Main Selection in 15 different countries.

Harlan was the first writer in more than a decade to be invited to write fiction for the NEW YORK TIMES op-ed page. His Father’s Day short story, THE KEY TO MY FATHER, appeared June 15, 2003. His essays and columns have appeared in many top publications including the New York Times, Parade Magazine and Bloomberg Views.

"Coben plays out the suspense with a master craftsman’s impeccable technique."―CrimeReads

"Harlan Coben is one of our greatest living thriller writers, and instantly engaging hooks like the one in I Will Find You are a big reason why."―BookPage

"I Will Find You bristles with the irresistible storytelling nous that is Coben’s purview."―Financial Times

"Compelling . . . A fantastically breakneck prison break/fugitive adventure story."―The Guardian

"A real winner . . . just begs to be put in line for the same cinematic treatment that so many of Coben’s other novels have received.”―BookReporter.com

"An exceedingly complex and intriguing murder mystery.”―Winnipeg Free Press

"I Will Find You by Harlan Coben is a classic Coben novel (fast-paced and twisty)."―AARP

"Contains all the Coben hallmarks that long-time fans have come to expect, and new readers will love: propulsive action, characters facing extreme stakes, dramatic family dynamics, and plenty of twists . . . A great summer read;
a stay-up-all-night tale that could be another screen hit."―Deadly Pleasures

"A series of twists and turns highlights another Great Harlan Coven novel. Nobody writes these kind of novels better than him. This is one you will not want to put down."―Red Carpet Crash

"Coben excels in interesting secondary characters and I especially liked the two special agents that are after David Burroughs. They deserve a mystery all their own."―TheMysterySite.com

I Will Find You by Harlan Coben is a fast-paced, emotional thriller about a father condemned for the murder of his own child, who suddenly receives a tiny spark of hope and turns it into a desperate, relentless mission. The story centers on David Burroughs, a man serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison for killing his three‑year‑old son, Matthew. The crime was so horrific and the evidence appeared so overwhelming that even David’s own family and closest friends believed he was guilty—and over time, David himself stopped fighting, crushed under grief and trauma. He lives in a kind of emotional numbness, barely surviving day to day, until one encounter cracks everything open and gives him a reason to live again.

That moment comes when Rachel, David’s sister‑in‑law and a journalist, visits him in prison with a photograph. The picture was taken at a theme park, and in the background is a little boy playing—who looks exactly like Matthew would look now, years after the supposed murder. The boy has the same distinctive birthmark and features, details that Rachel and David cannot ignore. Seeing the photo shatters David’s resignation. If the child in the picture is truly Matthew, it means two things: David did not kill his son, and someone has been hiding the boy all this time. The possibility that Matthew is alive awakens David’s determination and his deepest instinct as a parent: protect his child at all costs. From that point, the novel shifts from quiet despair to urgent action.

Driven by this new hope, David realizes he cannot simply sit in prison and wait for the system to reconsider his case. He decides he must escape—something nearly impossible from a high‑security facility, especially for a convicted child killer whom no one is eager to help. The escape sequence is one of the book’s most tense and gripping sections, showing David’s resourcefulness and the risk he is willing to take. Coben keeps the stakes high at every turn: David knows that if he fails, he will likely be killed or spend the rest of his life locked away; if he succeeds, he becomes a fugitive hunted by law enforcement at every level. Yet the thought that his son might be out there and possibly in danger makes any risk worth taking.

Once free, David is thrust into a world that has moved on without him. His ex‑wife, Cheryl, has remarried. His family members are divided—some still believe he is a murderer, others aren’t sure what to think. Rachel becomes one of his few allies, helping him piece together clues and trace the origins of the photograph. Together, they begin to ask hard questions: Who took Matthew? Why was David framed? How did the evidence become so clear against him if he is innocent? The investigation forces them to revisit old relationships, re‑examine the original case, and uncover secrets that were hidden or ignored the first time around.

The emotional core of the book lies in David’s internal struggle. He has spent years told that he is a monster, slowly accepting a reality where he might have done something unforgivable during a blackout moment of grief or rage. The shock of seeing the photo doesn’t instantly erase that trauma; instead, it sends him on a painful journey of recollection and self‑confrontation. As he retraces the night of Matthew’s supposed death and the events leading up to it, he realizes how much was distorted by grief, confusion, and the authorities’ eagerness to close the case. His quest is not only to find his son but also to reclaim his own identity—to prove to the world and to himself that he is not what the conviction made him out to be.

As David and Rachel dig deeper, they uncover layers of deceit and motive. The book reveals how powerful people, institutional pressure, and personal weaknesses can combine to create a falsely neat narrative around a crime. There are those who benefited from David’s conviction, those who took shortcuts, and those who chose to look away from inconvenient details. Coben explores how a seemingly solid case can lean on assumptions, partial truths, and manipulated evidence. This gives the thriller a strong investigative thread: every new discovery reshapes what the reader believes, and the past keeps coming back in surprising ways.

Alongside the investigation, the book maintains constant tension as David is pursued. Law enforcement views him as extremely dangerous, particularly because of his conviction. Detectives and agents must decide whether to trust any of the emerging evidence suggesting he may be innocent, or to treat him solely as an escaped prisoner to be captured at any cost. This conflict creates a cat‑and‑mouse dynamic: David races to find Matthew and the truth, while investigators race to stop him before he can do what they fear he might do. The more David uncovers, the more his actions draw attention—and the more perilous his situation becomes.

Family plays a major role throughout the story. Cheryl’s position is especially painful: she has spent years grieving a dead child and living with the belief that her husband killed him. Now she is faced with the possibility that Matthew is alive and that everything she thought she knew about that night is wrong. The novel shows how trauma can fracture relationships, how blame settles into a family, and what happens when those foundations are shaken. David’s extended family members each react differently—some cling to the original story, others are willing to entertain doubt, and some are torn between their love for David and their horror at the alleged crime.

One of the strengths of I Will Find You is the way it combines high‑octane suspense with emotional depth. This isn’t just an escape‑and‑chase story; it’s about a father’s unwavering belief that his child is alive and his refusal to accept the narrative that has destroyed his life. Coben writes David as ordinary in many ways—before the tragedy he was not a superhero or a criminal mastermind, just a man with a family—but extraordinary in his persistence once he has a purpose again. The promise embedded in the title, “I will find you,” is not a thriller slogan; it is the expression of a parent’s absolute commitment.

As the story approaches its climax, the pieces of the puzzle begin to lock into place. The truth about what happened to Matthew and why David was blamed involves both personal betrayal and broader corruption. The resolution brings intense confrontation, danger, and emotional reckoning—David must face those who wronged him, those who doubted him, and the reality of what his family has endured. The final revelations rebalance the moral scales, but they also show that even when the truth finally comes out, the damage done by lies and premature judgment cannot be simply erased.

By the end of I Will Find You, the novel delivers both the satisfaction of a mystery solved and the lingering ache of lives forever altered. David’s journey from broken prisoner to determined seeker of truth is complete, but the scars remain for everyone involved. The book underscores themes of parental love, the fallibility of the justice system, and the way a single night can shatter countless lives when handled wrongly. It’s a story about how far someone will go to rescue not just a child, but the possibility of a future—and about how dangerous and necessary it can be to question what everyone else has accepted as fact.