Karin Slaughter – False Witness

‘False Witness’ by Karin Slaughter is her latest psychological thriller to be released. One of my very favourite authors I was crossing everything that I could be a part of this tour. I always look forward to a new book from her and expect extremely high standards too. I needn’t have worried at all. Karin Slaughter has brought a story that is dark, possibly darker than any other book of hers I have read before.

Leigh and her sister Callie are not bad people – but one night, more than two decades ago, they did something terrible. And the result was a childhood tarnished by secrets, broken by betrayal, devastated by violence.

Years later, Leigh has pushed that night from her mind and become a successful lawyer – but when she is forced to take on a new client against her will, her world begins to spiral out of control.

Because the client knows the truth about what happened twenty-three years ago. He knows what Leigh and Callie did. And unless they stop him, he’s going to tear their lives apart …
Just because you didn’t see the witness … doesn’t mean he wasn’t there.

Leigh is meeting her new client but the successful defence lawyer ends up face to face with someone who transports her back twenty-three years. To the night that Leigh and her sister Callie did something terrible. Something they have done their best to forget but he knows they did it and is determined to make them pay.

A Karin Slaughter book is always a happening. She writes the darkest, deepest, most twisted and sometimes brutal books. She does not spare anybody’s feelings and she delves into subjects that are what could be classed as ‘untouchable’. ‘False Witness’ brings this and even more.

She has created a story that has evil at the heart of it. It spreads through the story, slowly and it has the power to make you feel uneasy. This may not be the book for you if you are a tad faint-hearted. What I will say is, it may be dark, but Karin Slaughter has superbly balanced it out with the emotional storyline too.

As always with this author, it is a fast-paced read in which it builds up the tension and atmosphere slowly until you are almost biting your nails in expectation. Another thing to mention is that Covid is very present in this book which, I thought, made it all the more real for me. In retrospect, I feel that including Covid made the storyline that little more horrifying as I was kept in the moment.

Another superbly crafted book from one of the most skilled thriller writers of today and one not to miss.

Thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours and Harper Collins for my beautiful copy of the book.