I am a huge fan of Will Dean’s first standalone thriller (the phenomenal The Last Thing to Burn - read it if you haven’t!), so I had exceptionally high expectations for First Born. I can categorically say that these were more than met! First Born is another absorbing thriller that is completely addictive to read. It blends Dean’s skills as a writer of evocative place, exquisitely drawn character and a perfectly constructed, dark and sinister plot. All of these elements are blended together with a true stroke of masterpiece, meaning this novel is a brilliantly layered book that evokes a whole range of emotions and thoughts from its readers. If you enjoy books that thrust your into a place, giving you a true sense of being there amongst the characters and in their world, then this book is for you. If you enjoy books that give you a deep dive into a character’s psychology through first person prose, as well as a cacophony of additional characters that are vividly bought to life, then this book is for you. Finally, if you enjoy a book that has a brooding, unsettling plot that builds to jaw dropping twists at completely surprising moments, letting you think you know what is unfolding only to rip that away, then this book is for you. I was completely absorbed by the lead character, Molly. She is a fascinating protagonist, who suffers from anxiety and an extreme form of risk assessment in her daily life. Dean captures her difficulties and the way she finds everyday situations or actions unsettling so well that I felt the anxiety leaking off the pages and became completely consumed by it whilst reading. It really helped to weave tension through the entirety of the book in a way that not all thrillers deliver. Molly is a complex character and I really enjoyed the dive into twin psyche and the mental and emotional link between her and her sister Katie. It’s very hard to review this book without revealing too much, but Molly is an absolute onion of a character and I was totally invested in peeling those layers away to discover her core. Needless to say, as it’s a Will Dean novel, those peeled back layers delivered surprise after surprise after surprise. The supporting characters are equally multidimensional and bring so many different facets to the plot. They are constructed in a clever and devious ways, meaning that I suspected everyone of Katie’s murder at least once (including her own Dad! That man is S H A D Y!!). Dean delivers a plethora of red herrings, casting doubt and suspicion across the cast, but I defy anyone to claim that they can work out the truth - it’s so clandestine! The final aspect of this novel that stood out for me is the character that New York itself played. Dean describes the various locales in minutiae, which really transports the reader to the locations in the book. As someone fortunate enough to have visited Manhattan a couple of times, I could really picture where things were taking place. However, even if you’ve only seen New York in a film or television series, you will completely find yourself walking it’s sidewalks and frequenting it’s hotels and eateries. Dean describes these locations in such evocative detail that this novel literally comes alive with the hustle and bustle of life in the city that never sleeps. It also helps to ramp up the tension: this is an unforgiving and dangerous place. However, I also found that it symbolised retribution. New York will chew you up and spit you out. But with a little planning, you might just take New York and all it stands for on…and win! Delivering shocking revelations like a brick to the face on multiple occasions, I can’t recommend this to my fellow thriller fans more!

'm off work, the sun is shining, I have sexy new garden furniture...what more do I need? Ah yes! The latest Will Dean! So, by page 6 there is a death (it's not a spoiler!). So straight in there! The story is very linear with occasional references to the (not very distant) past. All told from one person's perspective so very easy to follow. Characters are fleshed out well and all are significant to the story. There are no wasted words in this book. The twists start coming about half way through. I'm gutted to have predicted the end twist, but actually it didn't spoil the read at all. I only put the book down to eat, sleep and to paint my toenails (priorities and all that!) so it definitely kept me gripped. Take it on holiday, read it in your garden, on your way to work (if travelling by public transport, obviously

In his new standalone thriller, Dean gives us a tense, twisty story focussed on the relationship between twins Molly and Katie ('KT' to her sister) Raven living respectively in London and New York. As the book makes clear, supposedly identical twins can turn out to be very different. One of the two prefers 'monozygotic'. Identical is 'a blatant lie. A travesty...' We see this in the contrast between staid, nervous Molly, living her restricted life in London and painfully aware of all the threats inherent in everyday life, and Katie, who has spread her wings, won a scholarship and jetted off to the Big Apple to study. I thought at first that Dean was going to show us a Molly panicking, unable to function, a fish out of water as she's forced to travel abroad when things go wrong, but I should have known that he's a much more subtle writer than that. Molly is perfectly capable of facing her fears, even while regaling the reader with the relative risks of a phone charger or a poorly cooked restaurant meal. While her obsession seems to consume mental energy and throw up obstacles, she's adept at addressing her concerns and planning around them ('This is a classic Molly raven risk-reward situation') which then provides her a margin of safety, a heuristic, when she moves into a dangerous new arena. Because it seems that there was more going on in Katie's life than her parents and sister thought. When Molly joins Paul and Elizabeth in New York - slumming it in a budget hostel because family fortunes are actually not too good right now - she decides to investigate what has been going on, a course of action that will test her planning and strategising (whether in improvising weapons or passing without being noticed) to the limit. I really felt that Will Dean was having fun with First Born. While his last thriller The Last Thing to Burn was grimly realist, First Born just lets rip with a sizzling "What if...?" scenario in the pair of twins and with the idea of one investigating what happened to the other. Yet Dean makes its all so plausible, with the cool assessments of risk grounding the story as we move from one challenge to another - even as the tension screws tighter and tighter. It all culminates in a race for survival as New York braces for a hurricane (more disaster planning needed, of course). The sense of a narrator who is, in effect, in enemy territory (there are some real shocks I didn't see coming which underpin that - just what DID Katie do?) nudges things into thriller, rather than simply crime, territory, but take it form me, this is much more complex than your typical psychological thriller. As things spiral out of control the story becomes more and more of a rollercoaster but Dean keeps events rooted in the relationship between the twins, cleverly articulating both what they share and the deep differences between their characters. We hear from both of them, with their wildly differing perspectives on shared events providing clues to what has gone wrong - but will there be enough clues for even the most rational, the most calculating, student of risk and payoff to plot a way through the maze? A really entertaining, fast-paced thriller that both contrasts with The Last Thing to Burn and confirms Dean's ability to hold his audience entranced.

Phew, what a read! I was really enjoying this story and thought I had a thorough grasp of what was happening. Then I reached 50% and read 15 little words that stopped me in my tracks. ‘I must have misread …’ I thought. So I checked and double-checked, and I hadn’t misread at all. From that point on things got a bit complicated, and very near the end of the book another few little words shocked me to the core. I don’t pretend to understand everything that happened here but the work and thought that has gone into the excellent writing of this book is just incredible. Highly recommended for those thriller lovers who think they can always follow the plot and understand all the twists. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this fantastic ARC in return for an honest review.

I’ve just finished First Born by Will Dean, and all I can say is “Wow!” I’ve been a fan of Will’s writing since reading the incredibly tense and atmospheric, “The Last Thing To Burn” last year. First Born tells us of a family tragedy, the death of Katie, a much loved daughter and identical twin. What follows is the story of the family coming to terms with this very sudden death, while on foreign soil, and helping the New York Police with their investigations. For the most part, the focus is on Molly, Katie’s identical twin, for whom visiting the US for the first time, is incredibly hard, for many reasons. Will seems to have a talent for looking at the lives of people, the people whom some might be judgemental of, those who might be overlooked, and seeing right into them. Seeing why they are who they are, what makes them tick. I read another review of First Born, the reviewer called Molly crazy, which she isn’t. She is a very loving and loyal person, who cares so deeply for those she loves, that she desperately wants to keep them safe. This love, when it is filtered through her anxiety, leads to certain behaviours, which some will see as crazy, but that isn’t a fair analysis. You may feel at the start, that it is a slow burning book, but I really enjoyed this part. We really get to know both Molly and Katie, and develop many possible theories surrounding Katie’s death. Then there is a massive gear change in the story, just one of the twists, that will have you completely drawn in, desperate to continue reading. Just in case you weren’t sure, this is definitely 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me. If you’re looking for a book that will keep you gripped, and have you resenting the times that you have to stop reading, you should really read First Born. Having said that, I highly recommend that you should read any, and all of the author’s books. I now need to settle back, and wait patiently for the next Tuva book, because I really need to know what happens next, after the last page of Bad Apples.