False Witness – Book Review

AN ORDINARY LIFE…

Leigh Collier has worked hard to build what looks like a normal life. She’s an up-and-coming defense attorney at a prestigious law firm in Atlanta, would do anything for her sixteen-year-old daughter Maddy, and is managing to successfully coparent through a pandemic after an amicable separation from her husband Walter.

HIDES A DEVASTATING PAST…

But Leigh’s ordinary life masks a childhood no one should have to endure … a childhood tarnished by secrets, broken by betrayal, and ultimately destroyed by a brutal act of violence.

BUT NOW THE PAST IS CATCHING UP…

On a Sunday night at her daughter’s school play, she gets a call from one of the firm’s partners who wants Leigh to come on board to defend a wealthy man accused of multiple counts of rape. Though wary of the case, it becomes apparent she doesn’t have much choice if she wants to keep her job. They’re scheduled to go to trial in one week. When she meets the accused face-to-face, she realizes that it’s no coincidence that he’s specifically asked for her to represent him. She knows him. And he knows her. More to the point, he may know what happened over twenty years ago, and why Leigh has spent two decades avoiding her past.  

AND TIME IS RUNNING OUT.

Suddenly she has a lot more to lose than this case. The only person who can help is her younger, estranged sister Callie—the last person Leigh would ever want to drag into this after all they’ve been through. But with the life-shattering truth in danger of being revealed, she has no choice…

Content Warning:- Rape, Sexual Assault of minors, Murder, Mutilation, Drugs and substances

I have been a fan of Karin Slaughter’s books and this is her fifth book and her second standalone novel I have read, having read Will Trent books. So I ordered this book and was glad I got hold of this book. The story starts with two sisters–Harleigh and Callie who gets involved in a murder of a pedophile named Buddy Waleski. Buddy had been raping and beating Callie and at the same time was recording the incident. The two sisters killed Buddy, in such a way and destroyed all the evidence and thought they were able to get away.

But they were wrong. Many years later now, Leigh is working as a lawyer and Andrew Tennant asked Leigh to be his lawyer over a violent rape case committed by him. Leigh knew Andrew–he was Buddy’s son whom Leigh and Callie had been babysitting. But Andrew, who they thought were sleeping when they committed the murder seemed to be the witness that fateful night.

I will start with the good things–the story was sent during the COVID pandemic, the regulations set in courts due to pandemic is realistic. Slaughter’s writing is engaging and at times, there were emotional and heartbreaking parts as well. I do like the strained sisterly relationship between Leigh and Callie, their estranged relationship with their mother, most of Slaughter’s books are based on estranged and dangerous relationships. Callie’s drug addiction is seemed to realistic and disturbing to read as well.

The bad thing is, again, the descriptions of the murder case is at times too disturbing to read–which is I supposed Slaughter’s work. And the book was a bit too long that I got bored at some parts.

Overall, it was a fast paced thriller–worth five stars!