False Witness

A Novel

By: Karin Slaughter

Narrated by: Kathleen Early

Length: 18 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

He saw what you did.

He knows who you are....

From the New York Times best-selling author of Pieces of Her and The Silent Wife, an electrifying stand-alone thriller.

An ordinary life...

Leigh Collier has worked hard to build what looks like a normal life. She has a good job as a defense attorney, a daughter doing well in school, and even her divorce is relatively civilized - her life is just as unremarkable as she’d always hoped it would be.

...hides a devastating past...

But Leigh’s ordinary life masks a childhood that was far from average...a childhood tarnished by secrets, broken by betrayal, and finally torn apart by a devastating act of violence.

...but now the past is catching up...

Then a case lands on her desk - defending a wealthy man accused of rape. It’s the highest profile case she’s ever been given - a case that could transform her career, if she wins. But when she meets the accused, she realizes that it’s no coincidence that he’s chosen her as his attorney. She knows him. And he knows her. More to the point, he knows what happened 20 years ago and why Leigh has spent two decades running.

...and time is running out.

If she can’t get him acquitted, she’ll lose much more than the case. The only person who can help her is her estranged younger sister Callie, the last person Leigh would ever want to ask for help. But suddenly she has no choice....

©2021 Karin Slaughter (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Wait, is this a thriller, CNN special report or Surgeon General Warning?

Every possible liberal political agenda is dripping through every chapter. It’s not that I disagree with all of it, but it’s really heavy. And for heaven’s sake, let’s be kinder & more accepting, but assume all women with money are “Birkin bitches”. I don’t own a Birkin, so no skin off my Coach crossbody, but just something to think about (I actually didn’t even know how to spell “Birkin”).

This is petty of me, but I didn’t want to hear all the “mask” talk either. We’ve all spent over a year wearing them, forgetting them, sweating in them, stressing about them, debating them, hating one another over them... I want to escape all of that when I listen to a book, not trigger PT😷D.

I used to LOVE Karin Slaughter, but I returned her last book because I was so turned off by the social and political theme early on, and I feel like this is going down the same way. I can’t even focus on what it’s about.

Too many Covid references. Politics has entered her books.

I have loved Karen Slaughter’s works so far but this one is my least favorite. Too many political references. It’s like we can’t get away from it. Fiction should just be fiction. Disappointed.

Stunning!

I just finished this audiobook, and perhaps I should apologize to family members and dogs who have needed my attention over the last couple days. Wow. This is a powerhouse novel by Slaughter, who grabs your attention from the get go. She never fails to shock and dazzle with her knowledge of abuse, the law, anatomy and drug use. Thank goodness she knows how to insert humor, wit and charming characters to bring us some relief. I don’t usually cry while reading or listening to her books- but I did this time. It was rich with relationship nuance and real life complexity stemming from trauma.

And while I am being thankful, let me thank the author for continuing to employ Kathleen Early. I do think this is a literary -Oscar performance for Early. She is incredible. She seamlessly moves from character to character.. while other books require multiple actors.

My only regret is that I will have to wait for her next novel- to get my own personal fix…

Returned before 1st chapter ended

I usually like Karen Slaughter, but this book is so over the top with covid lecturing the story became secondary. I didn't even finish the 1st chapter I was so tired of hearing lectures about masks, vaccines and entitlement. Really disappointing.

Had to return

I love Karin Slaughter books! She is one of my favorite authors. However this book. Holy cow. I think if you take out all the references to COVID and masks half the book would be gone. If I wanted to read about COVID I would just go to the cdc website or get on Facebook and read people bickering. I wanted a good thrilling story to get away from all that stuff. It’s fine for an author to have a preference or lean one way or another, but this entire book is about what kind of masks the people are wearing, whether it’s pulled over their nose, when they take it off, when they put it on. Seriously. I read some of the earlier reviews and I thought they were exaggerated and it couldn’t be that bad. After all her books are usually so good. Trust me it’s that bad. If you want a book about masking during COVID, then this is the one for you.

alright already... I GET IT! YOU ARE AN ADDICT.

I am moving on before I get to chapter 3. Your obsession with all that is shooting up gets tedious in chapter one and that is 55 minutes long..I never actually got to the story. Endless descriptions of herione and its paraphernalia reminds me of of a bad 12 step meeting with addicts wallowing in the glory of their habit. Blah Blah... if you have any experience with recovery it is all that dull.

Too Woke To Handle

This story started out by pushing all of the major liberal talking points, it didn't take long to realize that the entire book was likely to continue in this fashion. A true disappointment as I have loved Karins previous work and was very excited to binge this one as well, though I ended up returning it. Most people are drawn to this genre to get away from the ever present drama of politics, it's sad to see that it has infiltrated this (as our lib friends would call it) "safe-space" as well. I wish I had read the reviews first as many of them clearly address this same issue but unfortunately I was too eager to get swept away in Karins latest work. I will be more cautious about my purchases in the future.

-A disappointed former fan

WHAT A READ!

I've read/ listened to all of Karin Slaughter's novels, with the Will Trent series my favorite until now. I very much love this novel. I highly recommend!!!

Topics taken right from the headlines!

What a sad story this is. Two women both of them abused by a pedophile when they were young teenagers. The girls took care of him permanently.
With a horrible home life they told no one. As they became adults, the older sister took the high road and became an attorney. The other became an addict. The pedophile’s son grew up also. He didn’t fall far from that tree. When he contacts the law firm employing the sister who became a lawyer to defend him in a rape case he hints that he knows what happened to his father and can prove it. The story goes on to become a cat and mouse game that begins taking lives.
This novel is based on brutality and at times could be difficult for some to listen to.
Karin Slaughter is certainly an expert in her choice of topics. The characters and scenarios are truly believable.
Kathleen Early does an outstanding job narrating.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
If you found this review helpful please indicate so.
Thank You.

Non stop Covid preaching ruined a GREAT story

Slaughter is a great writer and I normally love her work. I was looking forward to reading this, but I really had to force my way through it at times. I almost stopped at chapter two. The constant covid verbal vomit was just too much. The first two chapters, usually devoted to back story and character development, was 90% covid preaching. It got better after the first few chapters, but covid was still woven into everything in the story. Every single time a character entered a room she made a point to tell the reader they put on their mask. The characters stood 6 feet apart. She pushed the elevator button with her elbow. Was all that really necessary? Would she normally mention that a character picks up and takes her purse every single time she leaves a location? No, because it’s irrelevant information unless the book is about a serial purse snatcher. Spoiler alert, it’s not. People read fiction because they want to escape reality for a while, to enter a world different from their own, to relax, unwind and get caught up in a great story. Everyone is tired of the stress of the last 1.5 years and the entire covid debacle. We have to read about it in the news, hear it on the radio, see it on the TV, live with it every single day in our professional and personal lives. Do we really need it in our fictional novels too? Novels like this are meant for entertainment, not political “enlightenment”. Wrong genre entirely. The story is great. The characters, the plot, the pace, it’s all great and I would have loved this book and recommended it to everyone, if not for the CONSTANT covid references on nearly every page. It became so redundant it lost all meaning and seriously took away from the story. I’m not completely giving up on the author just yet, but if her next book is this overwrought with political agenda I’m done.