A review by jayneyh314
False Witness by Karin Slaughter

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Despite not having the most conventional upbringing, Leigh and Callie were good people, trying to make changes to their lives for the better until one night, over 20 years ago, they did something terrible and everything changed. 

Now a successful Lawyer trying to get through the pandemic, Leigh has buried what happened deep inside her until she gets a new client pushed on her at short notice and he knows things about that night, all those years ago, that he shouldn’t.  Can Leigh and Callie save themselves from this new threat and what will it cost them this time?

“False Witness” is due to be published on 24 June by Harper Collins and I was given a free e-arc via NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. 

I’m pretty new to the work of Karin Slaughter but the few of her books that I have read, I’ve really enjoyed so I was very excited to be approved for the e-arc of “False Witness” and I wasn’t disappointed. 

Initially, I was surprised by the pandemic setting. It’s not integral to the plot so isn’t mentioned in the official synopsis of the book but I felt like it grounded the plot in current times and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. 

Slaughter’s characterisation is excellent and she deals sensitively but realistically with Callie’s struggles with addiction. I really related to Leigh and the way she portrayed herself as quite tough but deep down had a really sensitive side and would do absolutely anything for her family. 

As you would expect with a book of this genre there were plenty of twists along the way and although I did predict a couple of them there were some absolute jaw dropping moments too. 

I really enjoy Slaughter’s writing style, “False Witness” is fast paced and kept me absolutely gripped from beginning to end. There’s a comment that Callie makes towards the end of the book that reminded me of the timeframe that we had been dealing with and there is definitely a lot of action packed into quite a short space of time. 

Slaughter’s writing always feels very realistic to me. It’s a fictional story but I’m sure there are people who are brought up in exactly the way Leigh and Callie were. Andrew Tennant is also one of the creepiest villains I’ve come across in a while, precisely because he’s so realistic. Give me a clown down a storm drain and I won’t even flinch but violent misogynists are truly terrifying. 

I would say this book should come with trigger warnings for rape, paedophilia, murder, addiction, drug taking, PTSD and violence (mostly against women). Whilst Slaughter doesn’t glorify any of these actions and is no more graphic than she needs to be some passages could be quite triggering for some people and, as I’ve said above, the realism of her writing that is one of the things I love would make these passages especially triggering. 

I honestly couldn’t find a single fault with this book and as long as you take into account the trigger warnings above I would highly recommend to any lovers of the thriller genre. 
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