I Will Find You: How Showrunner Robert Hull Adapted Harlan Corben’s Crime Novel for Netflix

I Will Find You follows David Burroughs, a man convicted of killing his son Matthew, who is confronted with photographic evidence the boy may still be alive.

The series, a Harlan Coben adaptation of his 2023 novel by showrunner Robert Hull, unravels as a lean, location‑driven crime drama mystery starring Sam Worthington as Burroughs and Britt Lower as Rachel Mills, the reporter who forces the case back into the light.

The TV series was adapted for Netflix through an unusual collaborative process between Harlan Coben and Robert Hull while the novel was still being written. The result is a riveting eight‑episode crime drama mystery that tightens Coben’s novelistic twist plot devices for television, while deepening the emotional stakes around a missing child, and a desperate father determined to get him back.

Despite Hull’s structural acrobatics in his adaptation, he thematically honors Corben’s novel. Where the novel can linger in internal monologue and extended backstory, the series converts those beats into visually-kinetic scenes — interrogations, stakeouts, and public confrontations that reveal character through action. A number of pages in the novel are reduced into a single scene or sequence to ensure the momentum of I Will Find You didn’t waver.

“First and foremost, I’m a custodian of the novel and I was first and foremost a fan of Harlan’s and a fan of the novel. The DNA is there and the heart of the show is there if you read the book,” Hull declares.

As is often the case with novel to television adaptions, supporting characters were given more screentime in the series to further explore their arcs. Furthermore, many investigative and courtroom proceedings were compressed in the series to maintain the tight pacing.

Those changes make the show leaner and more cinematic, but they also shift some of the novel’s interior moral ambiguity into performance challenges — actors must carry subtext that the text once supplied.

Agent Max Williams (Chi McBride) and Agent Sarah Greer (Logan Browning) Photo courtesy of Netflix

I Will Find You: How the Novel Was Adapted for Netflix

The parallel track novel and series writing allowed Corben and Hull to design the main story beats in the show alongside the book’s plotting. This made the key character and plot revelations more stark and deliberate rather than randomly finding clues leading to Matthew’s (Matthew Cressman) whereabouts.

Coben and Hull met while the author was drafting the novel. Hull’s enthusiasm led them to pitch the project to Netflix before the manuscript was complete. That early buy‑in gave both the showrunner and the author room to co‑create the story world in their respective media, rather than simply translate and adapt the finished text. This allowed the rhythm and flow, the act breaks, and the episodic cliffhangers to retain their desired forms.

While each format respects the other, this creative process allows an organic story development in the series.

This dual track approach also spilled over into the writers’ room. Corben’s novel was the story bible which guided the creative process and put the series back on track when it started to drift. There are definitely tradeoffs in the storytelling since each medium caters to certain aspects of the story. The novel can lean more into the interior emotionality of the characters, while the series can make full use of visual storytelling.

Harlan Coben revealed his favorite character changes in the adaptation. “I think the characters of Max (Chi McBride) and Sarah (Loan Browning) are different from the book. Also Adam (Jonathan Tucker). I kind of like what we did with them.”

The novel’s story structure was significantly altered for television. The TV series uses multiple parallel investigations with different character subsets pursuing the same information simultaneously. This creates obligatory exposition-heavy dialogue.

Hayden Payne (Milo Ventimiglia) Photo courtesy of Netflix

Related: Harlen Corben and Robert Hull – I Will Find You Interview

Robert Hull’s Showrunning Choices and Craft

Hull’s credits ranging from Gossip Girl, Once Upon a Time, Quantum Leap, and Gotham prepared him for balancing serialized plotting of a crime drama with richly-textured character arcs. He has repeatedly emphasized location shooting and practical sets as a deliberate aesthetic and storytelling choice. “We are out and about in the real world almost all the time,”  he argues. Real locations keep the world tactile and the stakes immediate. The intimacy of the locations also molded the conspiratorial undertones in the series.

Each episode is carefully manicured in terms of pacing and cliffhangers.

Hull has spoken about designing each episode to end on a meaningful mystery escalation rather than a throwaway beat without consequence. That’s why the series seeds red herrings early — corrupt officers, a philanthropic heiress with dark secrets, shifting suspects and motivations, and institutional players. Hull then pays them off across the episodes to sustain momentum.

Related: “Cross” Ben Watkins On Adapting The Beloved James Patterson Crime Novels For Television

Casting: What Sam Worthington and Britt Lower bring

Sam Worthington’s casting as David Burroughs reframes the protagonist from a purely sympathetic wrongly-imprisoned man into a physically present, morally complicated father. In his eyes, his only crime was not being there to protect his beloved Matthew. He knows he didn’t kill him and rejects the notion of having to prove his innocence. He’s driven by hope and the existential question of “Where is Matthew?” More importantly, wherever his son is, David will find him. That is his singular mission.

Britt Lower brings Rachel Mills to life as the audience’s eyes and ears tracking every step of the mystery. Her shifting motivations test her morality. As a fired newspaper reporter from The Boston Globe, she wants her old job back. All she needs is to break an exclusive bombshell story before the other outlets. Her underlying reasons for finding Matthew cause friction with David despite her repeated claims of searching for the truth and wanting to help him.

Matthew Cressman (Ashton Cressman) Photo courtesy of Netflix

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Navigating Crime Mystery Plot Mechanics

I Will Find You relates to both Matthew’s disappearance and plot-hungry backstory and exposition.

Hull instills discipline into Corben’s abundant twists and turns for television audiences.

The first half of the series introduces multiple viable suspects amid a creaking international adoption system easily prone to abuses. Like classic mystery stories, each revelation clarifies what was previously set up to correct narratives audiences previously believed to be true.

There’s deliberate misdirection, false highlights, delayed and destroyed evidence, and earth-shattering confessions to drive the mystery. The craft is to infuse each plot point with emotional stakes and character development.

FBI agents Max Williams and Sarah Greer pursue David and Rachel as fugitives, mirroring The Fugitive‘s plot structure.

Related: Ian Brennan Discusses Our Morbid Fascination With True Crime Stories

Balancing Mystery Mechanics with Emotional Stakes

Harlan Coben aims to making the audience’s heart race as much as their mind. This remains the series’ North Star.

The series keeps the investigation’s machinery visible: clues, timelines, and forensic reveals are presented clearly so viewers can follow the logic. But the writers never let solving the crime eclipse the human emtional toll: David’s guilt, Rachel’s career loss and moral risk, and the ripple effects on family and the wider community.

The relentless twists are carefully orchestrated emotional redirections to reshape how the audience feels about the characters. Is Hayden Payne (Milo Ventimiglia) truly a villain or a pitiable wretch? What about his mother Gertrude Payne (Madeleine Stowe) posing as a philanthropist? Is she simply protecting her feckless son or does an evil streak run through her soul?

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by Staff Writer

From our in-house editorial team.