The Favour by Nicci French

In the summer between the end of A levels and the start of university Jude Winter falls madly in love with Liam Birch. After an accident Liam simply ghosts Jude.

Eleven years later and Jude is now a doctor, engaged and soon to be married to Nat, when Liam suddenly reappears. Liam asks Jude for a favour, to drive his car to a remote cottage and he will join her later and explain everything. Jude feels that she can't refuse Liam's request. Later it's not Liam that turns up at the cottage but the police to inform her that Liam has been murdered. Everyone is convinced she was having an affair with Liam and her life begins to unravel.

Writing team Nicci French have produced one of those stories that hooks the reader and gradually draws you in, you keep turning the pages wanting to know more. Although this is a murder mystery it's far more about the characters populating Liam's life. We see very early on that Jude is entranced by the bohemian lifestyle they appear to live, a lifestyle which is in complete contrast to her own organised and normal life. Jude is obviously asking herself those "What if Liam and I hadn't split up?" questions and wondering where her life would be now.

I was very conflicted by the character of Jude Winter. Intelligent, driven and committed. A successful doctor and about to be married. I couldn't come to terms with why she would agree to carry out a favour for someone she hadn't seen in eleven years (although we do find out why as the story progresses). Liam wasn't "the love of her life" or "the one that got away", he was simply the boy she was in love with at one stage in her life and now she's moved on. I was even less impressed with her attraction to the people Liam used to live with. Yes they were very different to her normal friends but she seemed to be more repulsed by them than attracted to them, yet she couldn't stay away from them.

About two-thirds of the way through I began to lose interest as I felt Jude was going round in circles, intent on punishing herself for having failed Liam in some way. Towards the end, as the murderer was revealed, the pace did pick up and the story was even finished with a slightly sinister tone.

The Favour by Nicci French will be published on 13th October 2022 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster UK for a review copy.