The opening exchange of text messages between Dani and someone she doesn’t know, but who clearly knows a lot of intimate details about her, feels immediately chilling and disturbing. This very effectively sets the scene for a prologue which reveals that shortly after receiving them she was admitted to the hospital emergency department with serious injuries having crashed her car. Sara Linton is the doctor on duty and as she examines Dani the young woman claims that she’d been drugged and raped, and that although she had no recollection of how she’d ended up behind the wheel of the car, what she does know is that she was trying to escape when she had the accident. Dani’s distress triggers visceral memories for Sara of when she was raped fifteen years earlier and, as she fights to save Dani’s life, she makes an unspoken promise to her that she ‘would do everything possible to stop the man who’d raped her’.
The story then fast-forwards three years, when Sara is called as an expert witness in a civil court case in which Dani’s family are trying to bring her alleged rapist to account. However, they find themselves up against a powerful family determined to use their considerable social and financial influence to protect their twenty-two-year-old son from being held accountable. Although Sara has known the parents, Mac & Britt, for more than twenty years, from when they were all medical students together, for reasons which gradually emerge, she hasn’t kept in touch with them and her feelings towards them are, to put it mildly, rather less than positive! However, after giving her evidence she has a chance encounter with Britt who suggests that there is a connection between the assault on Dani and what happened to Sara all those years ago. Although there’s no evidence to trigger an official enquiry, Will and his work-partner, Faith, begin to investigate, gradually uncovering a deeply-disturbing pattern of assaults which have taken place over many years. These have been carried out by a group of privileged white men who are arrogantly confident that their wealth and social position not only entitles them to behave in this way, but also to believe that they will never have to face being held accountable for their actions.
Because of some of the dark places this fast-paced story takes the reader into, I found that there were many moments as I was reading when the highly-evocative descriptions of assaults, and their aftermaths, felt almost unbearable to read. This wasn’t because I felt that the author was exaggerating the horrors faced by victims of rape, rather it was because what she was describing felt all too credible. With her sensitive portrayals what she did was put a ‘human face’ on the shocking statistics about why so few perpetrators are brought to justice, the many reasons why this is the case, and the impact this has on the women involved. Her explorations of misogyny, toxic masculinity, sexual violence, abuse of power and coercive behaviour were central to the story and I imagine that this would be an even more difficult read for anyone who has faced sexual assault.
I thought that the many twists and turns in the team’s complex investigations always felt credible, never requiring the sort of suspension of disbelief that can spoil a ‘seamless’ reading experience … and I loved that my suspicion about one of the characters was confirmed towards the end of the story! Her multi-layered character portrayals (of ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’!) were equally convincing, making it easy to understand the reasons behind their reactions and interactions, as well as what motivated their decision-making.
Although I’ve read, and enjoyed, a few of Karin Slaughter’s stand-alone stories, as I hadn’t read any of the earlier books in her Will Trent series, I did wonder whether my lack of knowledge about the dynamics of the backstories of such well-established characters would be a frustrating distraction, perhaps interfering with my ability to fully-engage with the unfolding story. However, although there were moments when I realised that some prior knowledge would probably have enhanced my reading experience, ultimately I found that there were enough clues to enable me to begin to understand why these main characters had come to forge such strong, supportive relationships.
The story then fast-forwards three years, when Sara is called as an expert witness in a civil court case in which Dani’s family are trying to bring her alleged rapist to account. However, they find themselves up against a powerful family determined to use their considerable social and financial influence to protect their twenty-two-year-old son from being held accountable. Although Sara has known the parents, Mac & Britt, for more than twenty years, from when they were all medical students together, for reasons which gradually emerge, she hasn’t kept in touch with them and her feelings towards them are, to put it mildly, rather less than positive! However, after giving her evidence she has a chance encounter with Britt who suggests that there is a connection between the assault on Dani and what happened to Sara all those years ago. Although there’s no evidence to trigger an official enquiry, Will and his work-partner, Faith, begin to investigate, gradually uncovering a deeply-disturbing pattern of assaults which have taken place over many years. These have been carried out by a group of privileged white men who are arrogantly confident that their wealth and social position not only entitles them to behave in this way, but also to believe that they will never have to face being held accountable for their actions.
Because of some of the dark places this fast-paced story takes the reader into, I found that there were many moments as I was reading when the highly-evocative descriptions of assaults, and their aftermaths, felt almost unbearable to read. This wasn’t because I felt that the author was exaggerating the horrors faced by victims of rape, rather it was because what she was describing felt all too credible. With her sensitive portrayals what she did was put a ‘human face’ on the shocking statistics about why so few perpetrators are brought to justice, the many reasons why this is the case, and the impact this has on the women involved. Her explorations of misogyny, toxic masculinity, sexual violence, abuse of power and coercive behaviour were central to the story and I imagine that this would be an even more difficult read for anyone who has faced sexual assault.
I thought that the many twists and turns in the team’s complex investigations always felt credible, never requiring the sort of suspension of disbelief that can spoil a ‘seamless’ reading experience … and I loved that my suspicion about one of the characters was confirmed towards the end of the story! Her multi-layered character portrayals (of ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’!) were equally convincing, making it easy to understand the reasons behind their reactions and interactions, as well as what motivated their decision-making.
Although I’ve read, and enjoyed, a few of Karin Slaughter’s stand-alone stories, as I hadn’t read any of the earlier books in her Will Trent series, I did wonder whether my lack of knowledge about the dynamics of the backstories of such well-established characters would be a frustrating distraction, perhaps interfering with my ability to fully-engage with the unfolding story. However, although there were moments when I realised that some prior knowledge would probably have enhanced my reading experience, ultimately I found that there were enough clues to enable me to begin to understand why these main characters had come to forge such strong, supportive relationships.