You are going to be hearing a lot about A SIMPLE FAVOR. Debut author Darcey Bell manages to cram a lot of living, if you will, into a standard-length novel with some extremely contemporary, “right-now” elements and enough sordid episodes and surprises to fill a couple of books. Bell also infuses her story with a cinematic narrative, so it’s no surprise that the book was optioned for film development even before it was published.

A SIMPLE FAVOR is told in three parts from three different, occasionally alternating viewpoints. Chief among them is that of Stephanie, a widowed suburban mom who writes a mommy blog, of which many of the entries form a part of the book’s narrative. The blog posts provide a nice counterpoint to Stephanie’s own narration, which goes a bit deeper, and with more accuracy, into what is really occurring in her life. The plot is simple enough, at first. Stephanie’s son, Miles, is best friends with his kindergarten classmate, Nicky. When Stephanie meets Nicky’s mom, Emily, the two women become best friends. Emily seemingly has it all: a beautiful home, a glamorous job in New York, and Sean, her highly successful British husband.

"Debut author Darcey Bell manages to cram a lot of living, if you will, into a standard-length novel with some extremely contemporary, 'right-now' elements and enough sordid episodes and surprises to fill a couple of books."

Naturally, everything isn’t quite as it appears, and as Stephanie and Emily gradually bond, they tell each other some very closely held secrets. It develops that Emily’s life isn’t entirely perfect and that Stephanie has an extremely interesting past. The two moms also take turns hosting sleepovers for their children and even have keys to each other’s homes. Bell sets things up nicely. You know these women, or ones similar to them. You may even be one of them, up to a point.

Things change drastically when one day Emily asks Stephanie to pick Nicky up from school because she has to work late in the city and Sean is out of the country on business. She promises Stephanie that she will pick him up that evening. Stephanie is happy to do what she describes as a simple favor for a friend. Emily, however, never shows up to retrieve Nicky. Worse, she is not answering any phone calls or texts. She also has told different people conflicting stories about what she would be doing or how long she would be gone. Stephanie manages to convince herself that she possibly misunderstood her friend.

When Emily fails to appear after a couple of days and still does not answer any messages, Stephanie is afraid that the worst has happened. She asks her blog followers for assistance, but it is not until Sean comes home that the search for Emily truly begins. Absent any evidence of foul play, the police are inclined to believe that Emily simply decided to take a sabbatical from her life. That theory is shattered, though, when what is identified as Emily’s body is discovered in a lake close to a cabin owned by her family. Stephanie and Sean are devastated by their respective losses and gravitate towards each other. Then everything changes with a simple phone call, and the story turns upside down. You will come to doubt everything you know before the book reaches its conclusion.

While it is tough to predict such things, it is a good bet that you will be seeing Bell’s novel stuffed in a lot of beach bags this summer. It is engrossing, fascinating in parts, and very real-world in spots, enough so that someone reading it may hesitate to let a new person into their world, or bare their soul to him or her should they do it. A SIMPLE FAVOR is an entertainment, for sure, but is also a cautionary tale that urges the reader to keep oneself to oneself.