First Born

A Novel

By: Will Dean

Narrated by: Susie Riddell

Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

From the acclaimed author of The Last Thing to Burn, a psychological thriller about the dark secrets that emerge when a woman’s twin sister is murdered, with his signature “intense, gripping, taut, terrifying, moving, and brilliant” (Lisa Jewell, number one New York Times best-selling author) prose.

Sisters. Soul mates. Strangers.

Molly Raven lives a quiet, structured life in London, finding comfort in security and routine. Her identical twin, Katie, living in New York, is the exact opposite: outgoing, spontaneous, and adventurous.

But when Molly hears that Katie has died, possibly murdered, she is thrown into unfamiliar territory. As terrifying as it is, she knows she must travel across the ocean and find out what happened. But as she tracks her twin’s final movements, cracks begin to emerge, and she slowly realizes her sister was not who she thought she was and that there’s a dangerous web of deceit surrounding the two of them.

©2022 Will Dean. All rights reserved. (P)2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited. All rights reserved

MapQuest of NYC

Really, really good, but then somewhat frenetic for me. Might be a better read than audio.

I was distracted by the bad NY accents. Sometimes the NY accent bled into the British accent of the main character. Kudos to the narrator in that there were a lot of characters to cover, so I'll give her that.

There were several really good twists and turns. The first major one really blew me away and I had to re-listen. The final one was equally as WOW! However, this is the second book I have read recently that had a very similar twist at the end. It's unique until it's not. Always fall back on the sociopath, or maybe multiple sociopaths, I guess.

I think the story could have been trimmed down by not getting into the minutia of NYC streets, boroughs, midtown, uptown, locations, points of interests, free attractions, restaurants. Too much and not necessary.

I found the characters to all be unsympathetic with the exception of dad and mom whose characters were well-written, but sad.

Riveting murder mystery

I had a hard time turning away from this story, as it unwound. A twin sister, the more dynamic one, is dead. Will the other sister come from London to New York City to help her visiting parents cope? Great scope of possible suspects. A surprise turn that makes it even more compelling. Recommended!

Many twists and turns

Fun book with many twists and turns. Some things a little over the top….but an interesting and entertaining listen with good narration.

Twisty Indeed

I really enjoyed this book! Rekindling my love for psychological thrillers. Plenty of twists & turns!

Great plot

Twisty, but I was able to follow and greatly enjoyed the whole story and characters.

Wow

Lots of twists and turns I did not expect!!! Creepy yet very enjoyable!
Love Audible books while I working in my garden!

Sick!!!

No spoilers, but wow! This book gave me anxiety. More twists than Chubby Checker.

Great narration, although there could have been a bit more variation in pitch for different characters.

What a story!!!!

This was such a great story. I was hooked from the beginning to the very end!

The reader did a great job of voicing the characters. The author was wonderful with all the nuances of a person who lives on the spectrum.

I don't want to say much about the story itself because I do not want to give anything away, but let's say, this story will stay with me for a bit.

Great twist.

This book was hard to keep with. The first few chapters that were used to set up the main character droned on, but when it ended, the story started. The storyline kept me interested enough to keep going to the end. The last few chapters were great. And the ending, I admit, surprised me.

Overall, I like the book enough to recommend it. Just hang in at the beginning.

Oh! And if you’re a New Yorker, you may or may not be pleased with the setting. I’m not from there so it would be interesting to learn how well the author did in navigating the city within the story.

Very enthralling plot.

I was fascinated by the planning and research, depicted in this story. The mental aspect, spoke to much of our societies insecurities and hubris, salted amongst the sheep-le, emerging from a pandemic.