Well, I wasn’t expecting that and I am not going to tell you what I was not expecting because that would spoil the book. I will, however, give you a brief outline of the plot. Molly and Katie (KT) are identical twins. Molly lives in Camden and Katie lives in New York, where she is studying at Columbia University. The story starts with Katie being murdered. Her parents, Paul and Elizabeth, had been visiting Katie. Molly flies out to New York. There are four suspects as far as Detective Martinez is concerned. There is Scott Sbarra, the boyfriend, who is a fellow student at Columbia and a member of the University rowing team. There is Shaun Bagby, the rather creepy downstairs neighbour, wo makes his living from a vlog. There is Professor Eugene Groot, who behaves inappropriately towards his female students, including Katie. Finally, there is Katie’s best friend, Violet Roseberry, who has issues of her own. There is also James Kandee, a billionaire philanthropist, hovering in the background and a private investigator with the unforgettable name of Bogart DeLuca. One other thing that you will soon discover is that Katie was the extrovert and Molly the introvert. Molly is also terrified of possible disasters, and as bizarre strategies for the avoidance of any kind of risk. She is therefore paranoid about moving around in New York, seeing potential threats everywhere. But she has to move around New York, making contact with the people who knew Katie if she is to find answers. The whole book revolves around this search and the strange things that happen as we, the readers, learn more and more about Molly and Katie’s past. We also learn suspicious things about Scott, Shaun, Eugene and Violet, making them all likely murderers. James Kandee’s role is mysterious and deeply suspicious and Bogart DeLuca is not to be trusted. Katie had links to all of them and any one of them could be the killer. Will Dean has written an extraordinary thriller, with more twists than a corkscrew. I guarantee that you will not be able to work out who the murderer is until it is revealed in the last part of the book. I also guarantee that you will not be able to put this book down. To say that it is a page turner does not do it justice. One piece of advice: do not read this in bed before trying to sleep. You will not be able to stop until you have finished the book, and this means that you will not get any sleep at all. Just curl up in a comfy chair, and read from cover to cover. You will not regret it.

I was enthralled by The Last Thing to Burn so was delighted to be given the opportunity to read First Born. This story was a tale of two halves. In the first half we follow Molly - an identical twin - so different in every way to Katie (KT). Molly lives a very insular life. She is frightened of everything and the reader learns how she sees risk in everything and lives her life accordingly - in the shadow of Katie. Katie does the unthinkable and moves to America - she is fearless, popular, daring, outgoing. Molly receives a phone call from her parents informing her that Katie is dead - died in suspicious circumstances. Molly must swallow her fears and fly to be with her parents. The second half of the book is so totally different. Molly has to face her fears and researches all Katie's relationships searching for a murderer - and so a whirlwind mystery begins. Molly changes completely. The change of pace is startling. Clever, original, compulsive reading. Another 4.5 stars rounded up to 5! Many thanks to Netgalley for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to the publishers for this early review copy, having previously read his series and standalone 'last thing to burn' I was very keen to see what he had written now. This is another standalone, without spoilers we have twin sisters Katie & Molly, a family in financial trouble and murder! Good tension throughout, excellent characters, the big question who can be trusted? Who is the murderer and why have they done it? All set in New York, a place not all the family are familiar with. Very happy to recommend this on to other crime readers.

Will Dean knows how to pack a punch and First Born is no exception. Brilliantly paced with such strong and complex characters, its definitely going to be in my top ten reads of this year. Molly has a twin sister KT who is older than her by three whole minutes . Those three minutes make the world of difference to Molly but not so much for her sister. Like most identical twins Molly and KT share a unique bond and growing up they often switch roles to confuse their parents and like many twins they have their own secret language. Molly is the more quiet and cautious of the two and has to analyze the risks before embarking on anything new. KT on the other hand just loves loving life and makes the most of every opportunity. When KT announced that she has a sponsorship and is leaving for New York Molly is devastated to say the least but KT is determined to leave London and her behind. Whilst their parents were visiting KT in New York Molly receives the most devastating phone call of her life. They tell her that KT is dead, not only that but she has been murdered. Knowing tha she has to put her fears aside Molly travels to America to be with her parents. Once there she is determined to find out exactly what happened to her sister and will stop at nothing to discover who killed her. First Born will have you clinging to the edge of your seat and it has so many surprises that you definitely won't see coming.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘First Born’ by Will Dean in exchange for an honest review. This is Will Dean’s latest standalone thriller. In the last couple of years I have read all four of Dean’s Tuva Moodyson novels as well as his last standalone and been impressed by all of them. So, I was very excited about ‘First Born’. Molly lives a quiet, contained life in London. She is risk averse and gains comfort from security and structure. Her identical twin Katie is her exact opposite: outgoing and spontaneous. They used to be inseparable, until Katie moved to New York a year ago. Yet Molly still speaks to her daily without fail.

In the opening chapter Molly learns that Katie has died suddenly in New York. Katie joins her parents there as they were visiting Katie. Needing to know what happened she tracks her twin's last movements. It quickly becomes apparent that nothing is what it seems. …. I came to ‘First Born’ with little prior knowledge of its plot as I trust Dean’s abilities to craft an engaging thriller and find that such novels are best read cold. Once started I found ‘First Born’ impossible to put down. It was a brilliantly twisty, rollercoaster of a novel. Will Dean has now become a ‘must read’ author for me. Highly recommended.