A Simple Favour

A Simple Favour is a twisting free-fall ride filled with betrayal, reversal, secrets and revelations, love and loyalty.

Darcey Bell ratchets up the tension in a taut, unsettling, and completely absorbing thriller that holds you in its grip until the final page.

You look after her child. What if she doesn't come back?

It starts with a simple favour - an ordinary kindness mothers do for one another. When her best friend, Emily, asks Stephanie to pick up her son after school she happily says yes. Their children are classmates and best friends. And five-year-olds love being together - just like she and Emily do. As a widow and stay-at-home blogger mum living in suburban Connecticut, Stephanie was lonely until she met Emily, a glamorous and successful PR executive. The trouble is that Emily doesn't come back. No matter what the police say, Stephanie knows that she would never leave her son. Terrified, she reaches out to her fellow mummy bloggers. And she also reaches out to Emily's husband offering her support.

“A psychological thriller that is as hip and relevant as it is gripping. . . . I couldn't stop reading about these two truly terrifying moms!”

A compellingly creepy female protagonist who kept me guessing right up to the end -- Michelle Frances, number one bestselling author of The Girlfriend
Fast-moving, readable and packed with betrayal, secrets and plenty of twists and turns The Telegraph
Darcey Bell tackles a nightmare scenario brilliantly in A Simple Favour Good Housekeeping
Sly, satirical, subversive: a deliciously poisoned cupcake of a story -- L.S. Hilton, author of Maestra
-- Plum Sykes, author of Bergdorf Blondes
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, author of international bestseller Reconstructing Amelia
An intense, captivating, and astonishing thriller ending in an unforeseen and surprise ending; the premise: Be careful who you trust New York Journal of Books
Bell’s edgy first novel is chock-full of dirty little secrets, lies, and manipulations. Gone Girl devotees should reserve an advance copy and carve out uninterrupted time for this juicy read Library Journal
Debut-novelist Bell ramps up suspense with authority in this domestic thriller, in which actions seem as inevitable as they are chilling. The audience that made Gone Girl a publishing sensation is likely to take to this one, too Booklist (starred review)

Darcey Bell was raised on a dairy farm in western Iowa and is currently a preschool teacher in Chicago. She was born in 1981. Her debut novel is A Simple Favour, a tense psychological thriller set in Connecticut.

It starts with a simple favour - an ordinary kindness mothers do for one another.When her best friend, Emily, asks Stephanie to pick up her son from school, she happily says yes.Their children are classmates and best friends. And five-year-olds love being together - just like she and Emily do. As a widow and stay-at-home blogger mum living in suburban Connecticut, Stephanie was lonely until she met Emily, a glamorous and successful PR executive.The trouble is that Emily doesn't come back. No matter what the police say, Stephanie knows that she would never leave her son. Terrified, she reaches out to her fellow mummy bloggers.And she also reaches out to Emily's husband - just to offer her support.What Stephanie hasn't shared is the secrets she has buried in a murky past.'Sly, satirical, subversive: a deliciously poisoned cupcake of a story'L. S. Hilton, bestselling author of Maestra 'A compellingly creepy female protagonist who kept me guessing right up to the end'Michelle Frances, bestselling author of The Girlfriend 'Darcey Bell tackles a nightmare scenario brilliantly' Good Housekeeping

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