The Request

By: David Bell

Narrated by: Tristan Morris

Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

When a man agrees to do a favor for a friend, he gets more than he bargained for as he becomes embroiled in a woman's murder in this new thriller from the USA Today best-selling author of Layover.

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.

©2020 David Bell (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Tge Request

This story is amazing. You have a man that's well established, supposedly a great family man. Now you have a person from his past has made a request of him. He has history information that can disturb his life. He wants to refuse but due to the secret he keeps he cannot. You're on the edge of your seat in this fast paced book that will keep your interest and you will not want to put the book down. You need to read this book to see how messed up it becomes. I highly recommend this book.

didn't love the narrator

My husband and I listened to “The Request” by David Bell, narrated by Tristan Morris. Unfortunately, we were not a big fan of Morris as a narrator for this novel. Saying that, we listened to all twelve hours and six minutes of the story. In addition, the protagonist is one of the most idiotic characters I’ve come across. I’m not sure if Bell intended for the protagonist to be such a fool, and maybe it was the narrator’s voice that added to the stupidity. Another factor that could have affected our opinion was that we had just listened to a James Patterson novel with a pitch-perfect narrator for the main character. Our standards were high.

Again, we remained involved in the story despite all the reasons not to. What held us is Bell’s twists and turns. Yes, the protagonist Ryan Francis made mistake after mistake. He deserved all of his problems. Even driving, we would say aloud “how can he be that stupid!!” And yet, we continued to listen. So I ask myself, why?

Well, David Bell paced the story perfectly. The twists and turns had impact. Ryan, the main character, finds himself involved in a woman’s murder. He has a ‘great” friend who anyone with a sane mind could see that the guy is manipulative, deceitful, and untrustworthy. Yet, Ryan continues to do his bidding and gets himself into deeper water.

I do give up on stories that I don’t like. In this one, I think I liked the story, but hated the characters. Could the story work with a more likeable protagonist? I am not sure. It was like watching a bad traffic accident that you can’t take your eyes off of. The characters in the novel gain no sympathy or empathy. Yet the storyline is one that maintains interest.

Narrator

I wanted to so bad but i just cant ... his voice. I want to poke myself in the ears. Did he not want to work when he recorded it?!?