When Emily asks Stephanie for the simple favor of picking up her son at school one day, Stephanie is happy to do it. After all, Emily's son, Nicky, and Stephanie's son, Miles, are best friends. So are Stephanie and Emily, for that matter. This simple favor is not one that has not been requested in the past so it is not surprising.
Stephanie picks up both boys at school that afternoon and all seems normal. At least until Emily does not show up to get Nicky.
As it turns out, Emily seems to have completely vanished from the earth. A distraught Stephanie reaches out to Emily's husband and together they try to find Emily. The two are both devastated when Emily's body is found. It seems that Emily is dead.
Or is she?
A SIMPLE FAVOR is one of the most enthralling books I have ever read. It is filled with twists and turns that will make your head spin. Just when you think you have it figured out, you find out that you could not be more wrong. Making things even more tense and suspenseful is the fact that Emily has been hiding lots of secrets from her husband and her best friend. These are dangerous secrets that hold the key to her fate and have been kept for many years.
If you begin to read A SIMPLE FAVOR at night, be sure that you have plenty of lights on and close your blinds or curtains. Doing those things might make you feel a little safer as you read. A SIMPLE FAVOR is a must read. The characters are all pretty three dimensional and you can almost see them acting out each scene right in your home.
Filled with suspense, tension, mystery and even a little romance thrown in, A SIMPLE FAVOR must have a prominent place on your To Read List. You will not be sorry as this one has an ending that will make your hair stand on end.
"Riveting and brilliantly structured, A Simple Favor is an edge-of-your seat domestic thriller about a missing wife and mother that relies on a rotating cast of unreliable narrators to ingeniously examine the cost of competitive mom-friends, the toll of ordinary marital discontent and the fallacy of the picture-perfect, suburban family."—Kimberly McCreight, New York Times bestselling author She’s your best friend. She knows all your secrets. That’s why she’s so dangerous. A single mother's life is turned upside down when her best friend vanishes in this chilling debut thriller in the vein of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. It starts with a simple favor—an ordinary kindness mothers do for one another. When her best friend, Emily, asks Stephanie to pick up her son Nicky after school, she happily says yes. Nicky and her son, Miles, are classmates and best friends, and the five-year-olds love being together—just like she and Emily. A widow and stay-at-home mommy blogger living in woodsy suburban Connecticut, Stephanie was lonely until she met Emily, a sophisticated PR executive whose job in Manhattan demands so much of her time. But Emily doesn’t come back. She doesn’t answer calls or return texts. Stephanie knows something is terribly wrong—Emily would never leave Nicky, no matter what the police say. Terrified, she reaches out to her blog readers for help. She also reaches out to Emily’s husband, the handsome, reticent Sean, offering emotional support. It’s the least she can do for her best friend. Then, she and Sean receive shocking news. Emily is dead. The nightmare of her disappearance is over. Or is it? Because soon, Stephanie will begin to see that nothing—not friendship, love, or even an ordinary favor—is as simple as it seems. A Simple Favor is a remarkable tale of psychological suspense—a clever and twisting free-fall of a ride filled with betrayals and reversals, twists and turns, secrets and revelations, love and loyalty, murder and revenge. Darcey Bell masterfully ratchets up the tension in a taut, unsettling, and completely absorbing story that holds you in its grip until the final page.
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