Skip to main content

Editorial Content for The Favor

Book

Reviewer (text)

Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

Judith Winter is a geriatric medical doctor who works in a hospital. One day, when her shift is over, she is greeted by her first love, Liam. Jude is flabbergasted to find him waiting for her and has mixed feelings about his showing up at her place of employment.

Jude and Liam were teenagers when they started a relationship and have not seen each other in 11 years. They parted ways after surviving a horrific car accident for which Liam took the blame. Jude sustained a head injury and was hospitalized for days. She suffers from migraines yet still manages to work, despite the pain. Now she is engaged to marry Nat and is looking forward to embarking on a whole new life.

"Readers will find themselves on the edge of their seats following the clues and red herrings, leading to a surprise ending that this reviewer did not see coming."

But Liam has an agenda: he needs Jude to do him a favor. She feels obligated to help him after he explains what he wants her to do. Her immediate task is to take his car, go to a secluded cottage he rented, and pick him up at the train station that night. That is the only information she is given.Unfortunately, he never shows up at the station.

Later that night, Liam’s phone rings, and Jude answers it cautiously. It’s the police, and they inform her that Liam has been stabbed to death. Detective Inspector Leila Fox and Sergeant Brendan Patterson are on the case and don’t leave her alone. They come to her house and call her to the police station for questioning multiple times. No one believes Jude’s story, which makes her quite depressed. She still cannot fathom what the favor was that Liam wanted.

As the days slowly pass, Liam’s will surfaces. Jude learns that she and Liam’s brother, Dermot, have been named executors. They are shocked by this turn of events, and everyone is now convinced that Jude and Liam were romantically involved. After all, why would he have given her such a responsibility if she wasn’t special to him in a vital and personal way?

Jude consults her accountant brother to help her decipher the chaos of Liam’s business and personal files. He tells her to recuse herself from the task because she is not equipped to resolve his mess. Although she does not heed his advice, she does allow him to look further into Liam’s finances and bequests, which are many.

As the narrative of THE FAVOR unfolds, author Nicci French (the pseudonym of Nicci Gerrard and her husband, Sean French) reveals plenty of secrets. Readers will find themselves on the edge of their seats following the clues and red herrings, leading to a surprise ending that this reviewer did not see coming.

Teaser

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.

Promo

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.

About the Book

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.

Audiobook available, read by Imogen Church