The Favor
A Novel
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this twisty new stand-alone novel from internationally bestselling author Nicci French, a young woman agrees to do a favor for her first love—but when things go horribly wrong, one small task turns into a murder investigation that completely upends her life, ensnaring her in a deadly web of secrets and lies.
It’s a simple enough favor.
Jude hasn’t seen Liam in years, but when he shows up at her work asking for a favor, she finds she can’t refuse. All Jude has to do is pick Liam up at a country train station—without telling anyone. So what if she has to lie to her fiancé? Jude is still committed to him and their imminent wedding, even if she and Liam were in love once.
She owes him.
After the car crash that changed everything years ago, bright, ambitious Jude went to medical school, back on the path she had planned before meeting moody, artistic Liam. Meanwhile, he never fully recovered from the dark stain the accident left on his record.
Now he’s gone.
When the police show up at the station instead of Liam, Jude realizes that she knows nothing about the man he’s become. Now she’s tangled up in his life, the last person to have seen him, and maybe the only one who can uncover the truth about what went wrong—even if she destroys her own life in the process.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
London physician Jude Winter, the protagonist of this slow-moving suspense novel from the pseudonymous French (The Unheard), is planning her wedding when, after 11 years of no contact, her first love, Liam Birch, comes to see her and asks for a favor. All she has to do is drive his car to an Airbnb in Norfolk, where he has already left his luggage and will join her. "I wouldn't ask you to do anything wrong," he assures her. While she waits for him to arrive, the phone in Liam's bag rings. It's the police, who have bad news about Liam. At this point, Jude's life begins to unravel. The police believe that she was involved in some scheme with Liam and was establishing an alibi for him. This version of the story is leaked to the media. Hounded by the press, shunned by her colleagues, berated by her angry fiancé, and constantly scrutinized by the police, Jude decides to find out who her teenage sweetheart really was. Illogical plot points, such as an educated woman like Jude agreeing to Liam's request, make suspending disbelief difficult. Dyed-in-the-wool French fans will stay the course, others will not.
