Title: The Favor
Author: Nicci French
Narrator: Imogen Church
Publisher: HarperAudio
Synopsis:
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.
My review:
The Favor is an interesting read. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but I did enjoy it all the same.
Right from the start, the book presents an intriguing premise. I was curious to find out why Liam had asked Jude to do this peculiar and mysterious ‘favor’ mentioned in the synopsis. I was anticipating more twists and suspense, but the majority of the story delved into Jude’s relationship with Liam’s family and her struggle to process the grief and shock of losing someone she once knew so well. We eventually find out more about the ‘favor’ towards the end of the book, so if you’re looking for a thrilling mystery, you might be a bit disappointed because it leans more towards a character study of Jude. The crime and mystery elements almost take a backseat.
There were moments in the novel that felt a bit prolonged, but overall, I genuinely enjoyed reading it. It didn’t grip me as much as other Nicci French novels I’ve read, but listening to it on audiobook was a good experience. The expressive narrator and the unhurried pace of the story allowed me to easily catch up if I missed some details while listening. (I often find myself a little distracted during audiobooks and have to rewind to catch up on what I missed…)
The story does make you wonder if you’d behave in the same way as Jude. I don’t think I would, but who really knows until it actually happens to them?
All in all, I do recommend The Favor. It didn’t completely blow me away, and it isn’t my favorite book by this crime-writing duo, but it did provide enough entertainment to make it worth the read (/listen!)