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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
May 2022, 288 pages
Paperback:
May 2023, 288 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Norah Piehl
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A gripping debut domestic suspense novel, Nora Murphy's thrilling The Favor explores with compassion and depth what can happen when women pushed to the limit take matters into their own hands.
Leaving would be dangerous. Staying could be worse.
Leah and McKenna have never met, though they have parallel lives.
They don't―ever―find themselves in the same train carriage or meet accidentally at the gym or the coffee shop.
They don't―ever―discuss their problems and find common ground.
They don't―ever―acknowledge to each other that although their lives have all the trappings of success, wealth and happiness, they are, in fact, trapped.
Leah understands that what's inside a home can be far more dangerous than what's outside. So when she notices someone else who may be starting down the same path she's on, she pays attention. She watches over McKenna from afar. Until one night she sees more than she bargained for. Leah knows she can't save herself, but perhaps she can save McKenna.
Leah and McKenna have never met. But they will.
NOW
FRIDAY, MAY 3
Leah
The key is to go to a few different stores. I used to always go to Jerry's Liquors on Bonifant Avenue. I was a regular. Too regular. Jerry's mouth started to form a thin line when I'd come in. I could see the conflict on his face. He was glad for the business, but judgmental about the frequency of my visits.
Don't make this hard on me, his face seemed to say. Don't make me feel bad for you.
Jerry, like so many others, didn't want to be bothered with sympathy.
Now, I don't go to Jerry's anymore. I have five other stores I frequent, all within a fifteen-mile radius of my house. They all think I'm a regular. A devoted and loyal customer.
They're all right.
Typically, I stop by each one once a week. One store per day, Monday through Friday. I like to go in the early afternoon. Always after three, but usually before four.
My favorite store is Pine View Liquors on Main Street. My Friday store. It's a little bit bougie, amid the boutiques selling clothing of the ...
Murphy, a lawyer who has studied intimate-partner violence, effectively illustrates how even the most high-achieving people can find their self-confidence and their freedom eroded bit by bit at the hands of a manipulative and controlling spouse. The Favor is propulsive and morally compelling. Though it lacks the plot twists seasoned readers of thrillers might be expecting, it nevertheless offers plenty to chew on and debate...continued
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(Reviewed by Norah Piehl).
B.A. Paris, New York Times bestselling author of The Therapist
Taut, compelling and deliciously dark, I tore through The Favor. Gilly Macmillan, New York Times bestselling author of The Long Weekend
A brilliant, gripping, dark and superbly written debut. I was transfixed by Leah and McKenna and the deftly woven plot that connects them. Nora Murphy is one to watch. Mary Dixie Carter, author of The Photographer
Nora Murphy's The Favor is a tense and gripping read about the tacit sisterhood between two unlikely vigilantes. At once strangers and soulmates, these women reflect one another—each trapped in a dark and spiraling descent behind the closed door of a seemingly lovely home. With echoes of Big Little Lies and Strangers on a Train, Nora Murphy's The Favor is impossible to put down.
If the premise of Nora Murphy's The Favor — two unconnected strangers conduct revenge by proxy in what should be a perfect crime — sounds familiar, that might be because of its parallels to the plot of a classic book and film.
Strangers on a Train might be best known as a 1951 noir film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, but its screenplay (co-written by Raymond Chandler) was based on a 1950 Patricia Highsmith novel of the same name. In both the book and the film, two men strike up a conversation on a train trip, bonding over the difficulties (especially the difficult people) in one another's lives.
In what seems at first to be a thought experiment, one of the men suggests that if each killed off the source of the other's ...
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