Review: The Favor by Nora Murphy

The Favor by Nora Murphy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided a print arc and an audio arc of this book via Netgalley and the publisher.  This book releases on May 31, 2022.  Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Minotaur Books for the ARC.

I thought the two female narrators did a great job with Leah and McKenna.  It was nice to have two distinct voices for both women.  I wasn't so sure about the addition of the male narrator for Detective Harrison.  While the narrator did a great job, his presence as a narrator doesn't appear until about 40% into the book and he isn't a constant narrator.  While skeptical about this addition to the audiobook, Detective Harrison's part was actually very well done and thought out.  I thought his perspective was crucial to providing the outsider's view to theses women's lives.

This follows Leah and McKenna two very intelligent, beautiful women who don't know each other.  They happen to shop at the same liquor store one evening, but other than that their paths have never crossed.  Unbeknownst to either of them, their lives are more similar that they can ever know.  They both are married to very charming, handsome, successful men who on the outside appear to be the perfect husbands.  Behind closed doors McKenna and Leah know differently.  Very quickly their lives are about to become entangled in a way neither of them expected.

I found this to be more of a police procedural as Detective Harrison tries to uncover the truth as opposed to a thriller.  There really aren't any big twists and turns that you would expect from a thriller, and the guilty party is known to the reader all along.   

If you are triggered by domestic abuse, verbal abuse, alcoholism,  and the mention of miscarriage I'd stay away from this one.  

While I enjoyed this book and thought it was well written, the abusive husband trope is not something I enjoy reading as a preference.  That is a heavy focus of this book.  I thought the author did a very good job discussing the topic of coercive control when it comes to abuse and how very well educated women become victims in abusive relationships.  They are slowly manipulated into believing they have no other choice and o  one would believe them if they claimed their husbands were abusive.  Unfortunately this is a very real problem.  As an outsider looking in, it is easy to say "why didn't she just leave?", but it isn't that easy as Detective Harrison uncovers through his investigation of both women as suspects.  I've seen several reviews almost victim shaming the two main characters for not leaving sooner or drinking too much to cope with the terror they face every day.  This too is a very real problem that women face in reality.  Battered and abused women don't deserve your criticism, they deserve your kindness and support.

Overall, this is a solid debut from the author.  You can tell that her experience as a lawyer specializing in domestic violence aided in crafting this novel.   While Leah and McKenna were fictional, the author's note goes on to explain the harsh reality that real women face daily. 

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