The Request
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
When a man agrees to do a favor for a friend, he gets more than he bargained for as he becomes embroiled in a woman’s murder in this new thriller from the USA Today bestselling author of Layover.
Ryan Francis has it all—great job, wonderful wife, beautiful child—and he loves posting photos of his perfect life on social media. Until the night his friend Blake asks him to break into a woman’s home to retrieve incriminating items that implicate Blake in an affair. Ryan refuses to help, but when Blake threatens to reveal Ryan’s darkest secret—which could jeopardize everything in Ryan’s life—Ryan has no choice but to honor Blake’s request.
When he arrives at the woman's home, Ryan is shocked to find her dead—and just as shocked to realize he knows her. Then his phone chimes, revealing a Facebook friend request from the woman. With police sirens rapidly approaching, Ryan flees, wondering why his friend was setting him up for murder.
Determined to keep his life intact and to clear his name, Ryan must find the real murderer—but solving the crime may lead him closer to home than he ever could have imagined.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
One evening after work, happily married businessman Ryan Francis, the narrator of this tense if unsubtle thriller from Bell (Layover), runs into his best friend from college, Blake Norton, whom he hasn't seen in some months. Blake, "Butch Cassidy crossed with Bluto from Animal House," asks Ryan to break into his mistress's house and retrieve certain items that could implicate him in the affair and wreck his forthcoming wedding. Ryan reluctantly agrees after Blake threatens to reveal the devastating secret Ryan has been hiding that could ruin everything he has worked so hard for. When Ryan breaks into the woman's house he finds her dead. Then he gets a Facebook request on his phone from the dead woman. Has he been set up? He runs away when he hears police sirens. Bell keeps the twists coming, but unconvincing dialogue that too often telegraphs what's going to happen next undercuts the suspense. Readers who don't mind a high level of contrivance will best enjoy this action-driven effort.
