Format: Hardcover, 448 pages
Release Date: July 20, 2021
Publisher: William Morrow
Source: Publisher
Genre: Mystery / Suspense
Karin Slaughter's False Witness tells the story of two sisters’ whose ordinary lives are connected by a terrible incident from their past. The story is narrated by Leigh and Callie. The story begins in the Summer of 1998 where Callie is a babysitter for the family known as the Waleski's. Buddy is a bad man, and I will freely say he was a pedophile who took advantage of both Callie and her sister Leigh. Callie ended up in a fight with Buddy when she found out that he was recording her and sharing with other known pedophiles, including some who taught at her High School.
While defending herself, Callie ends up cutting Buddy's femoral artery. Stunned and in a panic mode, Callie tries to call the police, but reaches out to her sister Leigh instead. They were able to make the monster disappear. 23 years later, Leigh Collier has grown up to be a tough-as-nails high-priced lawyer who has moved on from defending criminals who have no means to help themselves, to working for corporate elites who look after the rich folk. Callie is a drug addict who has all but destroyed her own body.
Leigh could never imagine that her past would come back to destroy her in ways she never imagined. One day, she's assigned/volunteered to lead a case by her boss to represent a man who is accused for rape. The man’s name is Andrew Tenant and he insists he knows her. He does. He's the boy Callie and Leigh once babysat for. Trevor is now a man who has been accused of raping a series of women. Trevor is a car salesman by day, a sexual predator by night, and a highly manipulative monster. A man without a moral compass.
Trevor knows that he has Leigh over a barrel. He know exactly what happened to his father. He has enough blackmail material to believe he will be found not guilty as long as Leigh does exactly what he decides. She has no choice but to reach out to her estranged sister, Callie, for help. Callie knows that Leigh has taken bullets for her more than once before trying to find a way to live her life without that one horrible night. Callie also know that if Leigh goes down, her daughter and ex-husband will be next.
The sisters could blame their upbringing on their mother who was abusive. Leigh protected her sister because she was the oldest in the family, and Callie was the baby of the family who saw too much, and experienced something no one of her age experienced. To this day, Leigh has compartmentalized everything that she's ever done. She and her ex-husband are divorcing. They have a 16-year old daughter who is in that stage where mom is overbearing and not needed. Meanwhile, Callie is likely two steps from shaking hands with the Grim Reaper for years of abuse with drugs and alcohol.
This is a hard book to review. I don't normally put trigger warnings in my reviews since it's pretty much a given that if you read a Karin Slaughter novel you are going to get punched in the face with disturbing images. I will say that if you do choose to read this book, be prepared for the opening chapter. All the characters in this book are deeply flawed, troubled, and yes authentic. The one character I most felt for was Callie. I think that if Leigh was her mother, she wouldn't have allowed Buddy to do what he did to her. She wouldn't have dug her life so deeply into drugs, and other dark, and disturbing things.
While reading the author's note, I came to the conclusion that this author doesn't write for an audience. She writes for herself. She tends to step up on a soapbox and preach to the choir of like minded individuals. And, if you're not one of those like minded individuals, her stories are not for you. This is one of the few books that I have read where Covid was a major player in the book. It even touched on both of the main characters who were lucky to survive even if one of them had destroyed her bodies with a variety of hard drugs. Since there's not escaping it, unless you read exclusive fantasy novels, you can either like it, or rate the book lower.
