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Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Review: The Request by David Bell

The Request 
by David Bell

Thank you GetRedPR and Berkley for this free copy!


Publisher: Berkley
Publish Date: June 30, 2020
Paperback
416 Pages
Standalone
Genres: Mystery, Thriller

Ryan Francis has it all--great job, wonderful wife, beautiful child--and he loves posting photos of his perfect life on social media. Until the night his friend Blake asks him to break into a woman's home to retrieve incriminating items that implicate Blake in an affair. Ryan refuses to help, but when Blake threatens to reveal Ryan's darkest secret--which could jeopardize everything in Ryan's life--Ryan has no choice but to honor Blake's request.

When he arrives at the woman's home, Ryan is shocked to find her dead--and just as shocked to realize he knows her. Then his phone chimes, revealing a Facebook friend request from the woman. With police sirens rapidly approaching, Ryan flees, wondering why his friend was setting him up for murder.

Determined to keep his life intact and to clear his name, Ryan must find the real murderer--but solving the crime may lead him closer to home than he ever could have imagined.

My Review:


If Bell writes it, I'm going to read it!  His short chapters and writing style lead to the perfect binge reads.  The Request is definitely a binge worthy read and easy to fly through so if you're looking forward to a thriller to fly through, this is a good one to add to your TBR.

Now, I've read several Bell books and they have ranked across the board for me... as expected when you read quite a few from the same author.  This one I am torn with. It started strong and pulled me in immediately though I wanted to yell at Ryan to just freakin' talk to his wife about it all! *insert scream*  But hey, without all these flawed characters, we wouldn't have such fun reads now would we? *wink*  Consider if one of your closest friends whom you shared a terrible secret with, asks you to do them a solid... you probably would do it right?  No matter how insane and weird it seemed? Wouldn't you? Yes, no?  Well say you choose yes - Ryan did and it probably wasn't his wisest choice.
The thing with this story is that while I enjoyed the pacing and unfolding of secrets, it got a bit convoluted at the end.  It was predictable in some parts and other parts, while not *too* predictable, felt a bit unnecessary.  Sometimes that added oomph really isn't needed to keep the story engaging.  There was also the underlying lesson of social media and the all to transparent world of ours that we put out there... that while fun, can be a detriment if anyone wants to use it against you.

Bell is a favorite author and I love how he pulls readers right in. Thriller lovers should absolutely read his novels.  I've read several and while they cross the spectrum, they are all engaging and quite entertaining and I'll continue to read anything he puts out for us.

★★★

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