A Simple Favor: A Novel

Darcey Bell

Mar 2017 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

"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. Don't miss the film version starring Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively and Henry Golding!

Ratings and reviews

The characters lack depth. The writing is cheesy. Despite its very best efforts the plot is not provocative. The ending is the most unsatisfying thing I've read in a long time. I am astounded that someone saw fit to publish this and adapt it to film.(I'm getting the impression that the film is better) The most interesting parts of the book are when the protagonist is not speaking. This is Darcy Bell's first novel and it shows. This novel is boring and reads like a first draft. This is a Gone Girl knock off

i wish I had read the reviews before spending precious time and money on this book. None of the characters are interesting, the plot has irrelevant layers to make it seem deeper than it is but that never go anywhere, and the ending is silly. It's okay to pass the time if, say, you're trapped in an elevator, but it isn't even close to being the deep dark thriller that it tries to be (and that sooo many people are trying to write these days). Publishers everywhere, please, Gone Girl was great, no question, but it can't be reproduced and writers (and readers) would be better served if they just moved on.

This book starts out strong, characters are just ok, story line is good but it becomes too fake, Stephanie really was a weak character. Emily is a nut and ppl including cops believe her stories. The ending was dumb. I finished this book bc I had to see how it ended. Dont waste your time!

About the author

Darcey Bell was born in 1981 and raised on a dairy farm in western Iowa. She is a preschool teacher in Chicago. A Simple Favor is her first novel.