Night Swim (Rachel Krall, 1)

True crime podcaster taking on to stories at once.

Megan Goldin's debut psychological thriller, The Escape Room, established her as a clever and creative suspense writer. Her second novel, The Night Swim, is equally compelling and, indeed, haunting.

The Night Swim focuses on two crimes committed twenty-five years apart. Both female victims, Kelly and Jenny, were just teenagers when they were targets of heinous behavior. The story focuses on them, along with Rachel and Hannah. Jenny's sister, who insists that Jenny did not drown after jumping off a jetty and hitting the rocks below, but was, rather, murdered.

Goldin relates that her goal in writing The Night Swim was to illustrate the "many parallels between these types of cases, and they repeat themselves over and over again throughout history, effectively." At its core, The Night Swim is an indictment of a justice system that treats victims differently, depending upon their socioeconomic status and connections to power.

Jenny and Hannah were the daughters of a single mother struggling to raise her daughters in a small town where everyone knows everybody else, and money equates with the power to dictate who will succeed and who will fail. who will be given opportunities, and who will continue struggling and dreaming about a better life. At sixteen, Jenny becomes the target of local rough boys, initially due to their mother's reputation but earning her own, as Hannah, six years younger and powerless to help, watches. They claimed that Jenny went night swimming, joined by local boys. And one night she got drunk, jumped off the jetty, and hit her head. Accidentally drowned. Case closed.

In present-day Neopolis, Kelly left a party, opting to walk home alone. But she never made it there. Were it not for her grandfather's stature in the small town, her case would probably have been given as little attention as Jenny's. Instead, Scott Blair, the son of the wealthiest family in town is about to stand trial. His college scholarship has been revoked and he is suspended from the state swim team, prohibited from participating in the national competition that could lead him to a shot at Olympic gold. Scott will always be known as the boy who was accused from rape, whether or not he is convicted.

Goldin says she sought to explore how both girls were "marginalized due to sexual assault. They were marginalized socially . . ." Goldin effectively depicts how the citizens form alliances, as Kelly is subjected to victim-shaming and her parents are ostracized. She demonstrates just how much has changed in the past twenty-five years, as well as how much things have remained the same. In Jenny's case, her family's status and reputation ensured that the case was never properly investigated. In Kelly's case, a thorough investigation can't protect her and her family from suffering because she came forward.

At the heart of it all is Rachel, the reporter who knows she should be focused on the trial that is taking place, but cannot turn her attention away from Jenny's case. "Curiosity was Rachel's kryptonite. Always had been. Always would be." She is determined to learn whether the elusive Hannah, who continues pushing her to look into the case, but refuses to meet in person, is just a grieving sister who cannot come to terms with the truth about Jenny died or if she is right when she insists that Jenny was denied justice.

How the story plays out is far less important than the themes Goldin explores. But she delivers a fast-paced, engrossing, and disturbing narrative that seamlessly alternates between two time periods. Goldin never flinches as she explores the two crimes with sometimes brutal frankness and raw honesty. Rachel proves herself a competent investigator and reporter, dedicated to finding the truth and determined to help Hannah, herself a victim of what actually happened on the night twenty-five years ago when Jenny's life ended. As Rachel inches closer to discovering what really happened and the manner in which the two crimes are connected, she and Hannah find themselves in grave danger. Goldin ramps up the dramatic tension until the story's explosive conclusion. And leaves the door open for possible sequels featuring Rachel.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.

This is my first novel by Megan Goldin, but it will not be my last. My typical measure of a good thriller is that I cannot guess the ending. I am not measuring this novel in that same way, and let me explain why. This isn't so much a thriller, as it is a mystery novel imo. In a thriller there is some measure of danger for the protagonist or the narrator. It involves figuring out the clues for the safety of somebody typically. This book is all about things that happened in the past, and how the truth unravels itself in the present day. It's been a while, other than Agatha Christie, since I've read a true mystery novel and not a thriller. I do enjoy both genres though so I am happy either way. The protagonist of this novel, Rachel, is an investigative journalist and true crime podcast host. She's got a couple of seasons under her belt now and she's traveling to a small town in the Carolinas to cover, in real time, a rape trial. Goldin does a really good job of setting the scene here, you really feel like you're in this small Carolinas town. I like how intricately she explains that when somebody says everyone knows everyone, they're not joking. These towns are everywhere, we've all been there on a vacation at some point or another, it looks quaint from the outside but inside not so much. We are taken through present day spliced with descriptions of the past. The present day goes through the rape trial, it details what happens to a rape victim, what that girl has to go through in order to even bring it to trial. It goes through the trial, and we find out how justice plays out. The chapters detailing the story from the past, are told in the voice of the victim's younger sister. She writes to Rachel begging for her help, as she believes the 'drowning' death of her sister was not an accidental drowning, and was actually foul play. She details how she was witness to the people she believes hurt her sister hurting her sister over a span of time, and I hate to say this but with the way that the world treats rape victims, victims of assault, and any victim with trauma, I am not surprised that the cops get these cases so wrong. There's also special circumstances involved in this specific case that I won't mention because it's a spoiler, but suffice to say this story is not outlandish and inconceivable. Sadly women are treated like this all the time. This book makes me both angry, and sad. I feel this way because my own personal experiences with the world have told me that the things in this book are sadly a thousand percent true. If I, some nobody special girl from the Midwest, have been treated this way repeatedly in so many different places and settings by men, even when I was a child men said inappropriate things to me, I know that I'm not the only one and I know that the majority of women experience this because we talk about it now. I wish we've always talked about it, but I'm happy that we're finally talking about it now. Goldin has easily become one of my favorite authors, not only because the subject matter moved me, but also the way she wrote. I was sucked in from the very first part, she had me invested in the characters easily, and even though I was able to assume who the perpetrator was, his associates were unknown to me and the circumstances by which things happened were not clear until the very end, I enjoyed this mystery.

This was my first book of the thriller/suspense genre and I loved it. I thought there was enough going on to be keep my attention and not give away the killer right away.

I really enjoyed this book because of the interesting premise. I don't know what it is, maybe it is because I enjoy podcasts that the idea of a book featuring one was intriguing. So, we have the main character Rachel who receives a mysterious letter asking for her help. She's not sure what to make of it because she has tried hard to keep herself anonymous and out of the public view so how did this person find her? She finds herself in town because of the trial that she has centered her current season of her work around. The idea of intersecting story lines is a bold move, but eventually I stopped caring about her current case and just wish she focused on the cold case solely. I will admit that both cases did hit some sensitive nerves so maybe that's why the past case kept my attention better because it was "over" and whatever the reader learned was to help find peace for Hannah, the sister of the victim. Although I do like the twist that was thrown in. One thing that irritated me was how in both cases the victims were made out to be the reason for their situations. I understand that the author took this idea from real life cases, but I don't know I guess part of me hoped that for once the victims got justice and the ending gave me mixed feelings on this end. I would recommend this book to adult readers, but I would caution that it will play with your mind and your emotions. I can't wait for the next book in the series!