Need spoilers, the ending explained, a character list or a plot summary for I Will Find You by Harlan Coben? You’re in the right place! Here’s my Spoiler Discussion for I Will Find You. I Will Find You is coming to Netflix on June 18 2026 and I have updated this post to reflect some of the changes.
Spoiler Discussion for I Will Find You
Table of Contents:
- Character List
- Full Plot Summary for I Will Find You
- What Happened to Matthew in I Will Find You?
- The Ending of I Will Find You, Explained
- Spoiler Discussion for I Will Find You
Check out my other Harlan Coben book discussions:
Character List for I Will Find You by Harlan Coben
- David Burroughs: has been in prison five years for the murder of his three year-old son.
- Matthew Burroughs: David’s son
- Cheryl Burroughs Dreason: David’s ex wife
- Lenny Burroughs: David’s father, a former cop
- Rachel: Cheryl’s sister
Philip Mackenzie: prison warden and friend of David’s father
Tom and Irene Longley: couple whose picture of Matthew at Six Flags kicks everything off
Ross Sumner: serial killer inmate
Adam Mackenzie: David’s best friend and Philip’s son
- Hilde Winslow: witness who said she saw David burying Matthew. Changed her name to Harriet Winchester.
- Ellen Winslow: Hilde’s daughter who has a gambling problem
Ted “Curly” Weston: prison guard
Nicky Fisher: a semi-retired mobster with a connection to the Burroughs
Tim Doherty: reporter helping Rachel
Catherine Tully: victim that took her own lifer after Rachel pressured her to come forward on a #MeToo story.
Max Bernstein: FBI agent investigating David’s prison break. (Max Williams in the Netflix show)
Sarah Jablonski: Max’s FBI partner (Sarah Greer in the Netflix show)
Lauren Ford: works for Boston CIU and was part of the original investigation into “Matthew’s” death
Gertrude “Pixie” Payne: rich lady somehow contacted to Matthew’s disappearance. She’s also related to Win Lockwood from other Coben books.
Hester Crimstein: Rachel’s lawyer (crossover character).
Hayden Payne: Gertrude’s grandson.
The Fisher family: criminal family from Revere Beach, where David grew up. (Kyle “Skunk” Fisher, and his father Nicky Fisher)
Full Plot Summary for I Will Find You by Harlan Coben
This is a LONG book so I will try to be succinct. Leave questions in the comments!
David has served five years of a life sentence for the murder of his three year old son.
On the night of his son’s death David remembers drinking and passing out. The murder weapon, a baseball bat, had his fingerprints on it and was found buried in his yard. He had a history of sleepwalking.
One day David gets a visitor: his wife’s sister, Rachel. She says her friend went to Six Flags and showed Rachel their photos. In one of them, a child who looks exactly like Matthew is holding an adult male’s hand.
David asks to see the warden, Philip Mackenzie, who was his father’s best friend. He asks for a few days leave to investigate the possible sighting of Matthew. Philip refuses.
David gets into a fight with another inmate, Ross Sumner. Sumner tries to get a prison guard to help him attack David. Sumner suggests he’s not working alone.
The Prison Break
After the attempt on David’s life, Philip agrees to help David escape.
David (disguised as Philip’s son Adam) and Philip leave the prison in a car and Philip allows David to escape.
The FBI comes to investigate the prison break. They think Philip is lying about being taken hostage by David. They know that Rachel visited David in prison and was staying near the area where David disappeared.
The Payne family have Matthew
The action moves to Rhode Island and the very rich Payne family. Gertrude Payne is the cousin of Win Lockwood from another Coben book.
The Payne family somehow knows David Burroughs. Gertrude and her grandson Hayden discuss what they should do about David.
An eight-year-old child named Theo suddenly appears. Theo must obviously be the missing Matthew.
The FBI Come to Track David Down
Max and Sarah from the FBI talk to Rachel, who has been helping David but plays dumb. The FBI tells Rachel that her car was spotted near the outlet mall and that David used Adam’s credit card to purchase survival gear.
Rachel stops cooperating and calls Hester Crimstein.
Max thinks that the survival gear is a red herring.
Max is right. David is actually in New York City. He has come to talk to Hilde, now known as Harriet Winchester.
What actually happened to David: he switched the license plates on Rachel‘s car. He bought the survival equipment to throw the police off and then had Rachel drive him to New York City.
David goes to confront Hilde/Harriet, the witness whose lies got him convicted. She tells David she testified against him because of her daughter’s gambling problem. A guy with a white streak in his hair came to visit her and told her that if he testified against David he would help her daughter with her problem.
David Makes a Daring Escape
The police show up and David climbs down the fire escape. He makes it to the roof, then jumps to another roof and gets away.
No surprise: Gertrude is behind all the attempts on David’s life. She and her minion Stefano (Days of Our Lives?) discuss the fact that Sumner failed them and debate what to do next.
David takes the Amtrak to Boston. He goes back to his hometown of Revere Beach to look for Kyle “Skunk” Fisher, the guy with the white streak in his hair. David knew the Fishers growing up and thinks they kidnapped his son and set him up.
Hester Crimstein is on the case
Hester tells Rachel to go to New York City, cut her hair and dye it red. She also sets up fake ID for Rachel and a new car. Then Rachel heads up to Revere to meet David.
It’s DNA time! Uh oh…
David reveals that he and Cheryl had fertility issues. Fortunately, David had some minor surgery that cleared matters up on his end.
BUT he was shocked to get an anonymous tip that Cheryl secretly researched donor sperm when they had trouble getting pregnant. Uh oh! Remember all the DNA confusion in The Match?
Back then, Cheryl owned up to this but swore to David she did research on fertility treatments but didn’t have any procedures.
The FBI get a tip through facial recognition that David is in Revere Beach. He’s visiting his dad
Rachel meets up with David. She has found every photo tagged at Six Flags amusement park at the same time the photo of Matthew was taken. They realize that the day the photos taken, there was a Six Flags corporate event for Merton Pharmaceuticals.
Merton Pharmaceuticals owns the reproductive institute that Cheryl used for her donor. David is convinced that Rachel is hiding something from him.
Back to Gertrude and Theo. Apparently Theo spent most of his life at boarding school. He is eight years old what!?!? OK, is Theo is Hayden’s son?
Rachel is keeping a secret about Cheryl and the fertility clinic.
David goes to meet the Kyle the skunk guy and they get into a fight. The police show up.
Rachel is Friends with Hayden
Rachel meets with … Hayden. Well, that is an interesting twist.
David has now been kidnapped and is on a plane. He’s been taken to Florida to meet Nicky Fisher.
Nicky Fisher was friends with David’s father. Nicky ran a crime syndicate and David’s father was a cop. Nicky’s son Mikey died in prison after David’s father put him there.
Nicky thinks that David did kill his son and that David’s father tried to protect him by planting the bat in the woods. So Nicky got Hilde Winslow to testify that she saw David burying the bat. Huh? This is a bit far-fetched, but okay.
David tells the sad story of how he was actually framed and Nicky, the retired crime boss, believes him decides to let him go. What?
We get the very weird story of Rachel and Hayden
Rachel was assaulted in college by a professor and Hayden saved her. Hayden is in love with Rachel. Rachel wants Hayden to get her the pictures of the corporate event at Six Flags.
Rachel tells Hayden that Cheryl made the appointment at the fertility clinic under Rachel’s name. OK now I’m really confused. Hayden was in love with Rachel? Did he tell the clinic to use his DNA to get her pregnant?
Max finally realizes that maybe David is trying to clear his name.
Philip offers to help Max if he will give Adam immunity.
David gets put back on a plane by Nicky.
Max asks the Boston crime lab to run a paternity test comparing “Matthew” to David’s DNA. I explain this more in comments below, but it’s a bit unclear as to what was actually done with the original DNA in the case.
Will we finally get some DNA answers … that make sense?
Rachel confesses to David that Cheryl used Rachel’s name and ID to go to the fertility clinic. Also, she was the one who tipped David off that Cheryl was at the clinic. What? Why does she agree to let Cheryl impersonate her, and then rat Cheryl out to David? This makes no sense.
More DNA Revelations!
Now back from Florida, David sneaks to the hospital to meet with Cheryl, who admits that she actually DID do a fertility procedure with donor sperm. WHAT???!!!
David has to flee the hospital because the FBI is onto him.
Max tells Cheryl that based on a DNA test, David was not the father of “Matthew” the tragic victim. Cheryl realizes that David is right: the victim was not Matthew, so maybe Matthew is still alive.
David confronts Rachel: did she know that Cheryl went through with the fertility procedure? She says no.
Hayden adopted a terminally ill child so he could switch him with Matthew. UH …NO WORDS.
Rachel and David go to look at the original Six Flags photos. Rachel recognizes a ring on the hand of the man with the boy they think is Matthew. It’s a school ring from the college that Rachel went to.
Like the rest of us, Max and Sarah try to figure out what’s going on with the DNA situation. Does the fact that the paternity test showed that David wasn’t Matthew’s father mean a) the victim wasn’t Matthew or b) just that David wasn’t Matthew’s father.
Why don’t they run ANOTHER test comparing “Matthew” to Cheryl? NO, Harlen Coben loves to torment us with his DNA plots.
Sarah is still convinced that David found out he wasn’t Matthew’s biological father and committed the crime.
Rachel tells Hayden that she knows that he has Matthew.
Hayden thought Rachel wanted to have a baby with donor sperm so gave the clinic his sperm and then waited years to kidnap his baby? This is BANANAS.
Hayden fell in love with Rachel and thought he was secretly getting her pregnant with his sperm.
Then when he realized that (oops!) the fertility patient was actually Cheryl, not Rachel, he decided to make a plan to steal the baby.
He adopted a terminally ill child from another country, then waited for his chance to switch the kids.
Rachel and David head to the Payne compound to get Matthew.
The Payne family security comes at David. He holds Hayden hostage and shoots the security guards. Then he and Rachel run into the house to find Matthew.
Pixie Payne tries to stop them and says that Theo is her great-grandson.
But David says that Hayden is NOT Matthew/Theo’s father.
David found out that Cheryl had gone to a fertility clinic, but she claimed she didn’t go through with the donor insemination. But (at that time) she was lying to David. David didn’t believe her, so he ran a paternity test that showed that … YES, David is Matthew’s father.
Hayden did think that Matthew/Theo was his son. His mother Pixie lied to him. They’d already kidnapped Matthew and she told Hayden that he was Matthew’s father.
Pixie has some long analogy about chickens and how it was better to have a tragic short life than no life at all. Okay Pixie, that was weird.
What Actually Happened the Night Matthew Disappeared?
David says that night, Cheryl was working the night shift at the hospital.
Hayden says he drove Milo, the terminally ill orphan, to David’s house. He gave Milo a sedative and Matthew a sedative, and put an even stronger sedative in David’s whiskey.
David drinks the whisky and passes out. Everyone is passed out.
Hayden puts Matthew’s pajamas on Milo and then hit Milo with the bat.
David wakes up and is horrified to find a body that he thinks is Matthew.
An investigating police officer finds the baseball bat in the basement. David’s father plants the bat in the woods because he thinks this will direct the investigation away from David. (I didn’t really follow this logic so feel free to explain it to me in the comments.)
Nicky Fisher, who still blames David’s father for the death of his son in prison, blackmails/threatens Hilde to testify that she saw David burying the bat.
Hayden brings Matthew to his mother and confesses what he did four years ago. She does the paternity test and lies about the results. Together they concoct a story about Hayden having a child with an Italian actress and send “Theo” to boarding school.
Epilogue to I Will Find You: Eight Months Later
David’s father dies.
Philip and Adam both get fired.
The FBI is working on a case against Gertrude and Hayden Payne. Nicky Fisher also has some plan.
Cheryl has a daughter and she and David share custody of Matthew.
David is with Rachel.
Spoiler Discussion for I Will Find You
What did you think of I Will Find You?
I liked the twists and turns for the most part but 1) am AGAIN confused about DNA, just like in The Match and 2) found the Hayden storyline a little wacky.
Please someone help me piece together this DNA timeline in I Will Find You.
At least there’s no genealogy chart this time!
Okay, so Cheryl visited the fertility clinic without telling David. Then later he found out (through Rachel’s anonymous tip) but Cheryl told him she didn’t go through with the procedure.
He didn’t believe her did a DNA test anyway. Matthew was his son.
But after David’s prison break, Cheryl confesses she was lying: she actually DID go through with the procedure.
Did Cheryl know if Matthew’s father was David or the donor? She seemed genuinely shocked when Max told her that the child who died was not related to David. She also seemed relieved that David wasn’t a murderer. So did she know that David was Matthew’s father? Help me in comments!
Hayden is some kind of crazy/stupid stalker to come up with this harebrained plan.
He is in love with Rachel (with the “interesting” face) so instead of just asking her out, he:
a) tries to sneakily get her pregnant through the fertility clinic
b) spends YEARS looking for just the right terminally ill child
c) swaps Matthew for the terminally ill child
d) gets rid of the adopted child
e) confesses to his mother
f) sends the child away to boarding school
g) STILL is no closer to getting with Rachel. He’s not the smartest, is he??????
This book has a lot of coincidences:
Rachel just happens to be a crack investigative reporter who just happens (by total coincidence) to be shown a picture that has Matthew in it.
Philip, the prison warden, just happens to be a friend of David’s father. Even though David is in prison in Maine and David grew up outside Boston.
Plus, all the connections between the people and the geography were confusing and a little loosy-goosy.
Nicky, the crime boss from Boston, is able to frame David, who’s accused of murder in New Jersey.
Pixie, who lives in New York and Rhode Island, is able to bribe a prisoner to kill David in prison in Maine.
Do you have questions, comments, corrections, or ideas? Leave a comment! I read and respond to all.
This is exactly what I needed to help me finish this book! I much prefer to know the ending so I can relax without the suspense. Big thank you
So glad it was helpful!
thanks for this review. I LOVE me a good thriller that leaves me in shock & confused but this one went too far I fear. I just don’t get “it”
Did I miss whatever happened to guard “Curly” Weston? FBI did not believe his story but no mention of any consequence of his attempted murder of David! Not mentioned in last chapter wind up 🤷♂️?
Hi Marty! I have the ebook and did a search and didn’t find any resolution to that. So I don’t think you missed it!
Are you watching the adaptation of his older book Fool Me Once on Netflix? It comes out tomorrow and I will be posting about the book vs the series. The post is here!
Who killed the orphan boy in the bed?. If David did…then he is still a murderer.. or was the kids dead already from Hayden?
No David didn’t have any part in what happened to the orphan. The book suggests that Hayden knowingly adopted Milo, a terminally ill child, so that he could kill poor Milo and switch him for Matthew.
A bit late to the party here…but Ive just finished this book and im confused with one thing in particular…the DNA stuff is generally confusing but the the DNA tests revealed that the victims (the ill child Haydem swapped) father was actually Cheryls new husband? In which case, was this meant to be another plot that went no where or have a missed something? Ahhh!
omg when HC does a DNA plotline I always think my head will explode.
I read an early copy of this but don’t see anything about Ronald (Cheryl’s new husband) being the father of Milo (the ill child that Hayden adopted overseas and swapped for Matthew.)
I’m guessing what you meant is that at one point toward the end, Max (FBI guy) tells Cheryl that DNA tests on Matthew’s remains showed David was not Matthew’s real father. Then Max asks Cheryl if Ronald could be Matthew’s father (suggesting that was she having an affair with Ronald, which could give David a motive for murder).
Of course, the reason “Matthew’s” DNA didn’t match David’s is because it wasn’t Matthew’s DNA being tested, it was Milo’s, because of the child switch that Hayden pulled off.