The Favour

Leah Dawson and McKenna Hawkins had a lot in common, but they had never met.

They are smart, professional women living in the same sunny, prosperous neighbourhood in lovely houses with picket fences and beautiful gardens. And they were both married to successful, good-looking men who both seem bent on having ‘the perfect wife’. They don’t – ever – find themselves in the same train carriage or meet accidentally at the gym or in the coffee shop. And they don’t – ever – discuss their problems and find common ground. But they do cross paths. And they see something each recognizes in the other. That they are living in hell. Neither narrator is unreliable. They always tell us the truth. And their truth hurts. A lot. Because these two attractive, intelligent professional women are living in a hell of their husband’s making. And there is no way to get out of hell. Is there?

Author Biography

Nora Murphy attended law school in Washington, D.C., where she was an editor of Law Review and participated in two clinics, through which she studied the legal issues facing, and represented survivors of, intimate partner violence. She also studied ‘professional’ perpetrators of domestic abuse – those with high-profile careers or respected positions in society, and the unique challenges faced by their victims. Nora currently practices family law. A voracious reader, avid writer, sometimes sanctimonious vegetarian and devoted animal lover, Nora resides in Maryland with her husband, young son, three cats and two dogs.