A really taut court-room drama that has a strong storyline and characters. A life of privilege leads some Oxford undergraduates to not understand the word "no", whatever they want they take and never mind the fall-out. And some never do learn. A very clear illustration of the difference between dangerous, risky but complicit sex and when the line is crossed. This is a real page-turner and very timely, a great read.

I was given an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and independent review.
A fascinating insight into the elite world of the privileged set against a court room case of rape. The characters are excellent and the author deals with sensitive issues with great empathy.
I could not put the book down, it was thrilling and tense. Highly recommended read.

For me, deciding whether or not I like a book varies subjectively. Some books take a third or half to kick in. This book took all of 2 minutes for me to realise I would really enjoy it. Superb book, superb story line and superb character descriptions. Never protracted and always has you wanting to read on and on. Doesn't take too much to work out who Holly is but I did spend the first half of the book trying to work out whether Olivia or James was telling the truth. I could not put this down. But why only 4 stars then? Well, I was disappointed with the ending in the last few pages - difficult to see how anything could be proven by the police about the death 23 years before other than what Sophie had been told. I would have much preferred to have seen Sophie and Holly/Kate meeting up and coming up with a clever way of trapping James for rape. Still - an excellent book and well worth reading

A topical subject at the moment in British Politics! This is a well written book with genuine well developed characters. It shows just how different men and women perceive the truth. The story moves from a privileged life at Oxford to a life within politics with all the 'old boy' networks in place. When he is charged with rape the whole system swings into action. You always feel that the suave politician will get his comeuppance. This will be a good book for discussion for a book club. Not a unique plot line but a good story non the less.

Wow. What a fantastic book. And in the current climate, with the ever increasing tales of sexual harassment, and worse, in the field of politics, this could not be more relevant.
The characters are beautifully realised and the writing is superb. Although there is lots of drama and many twists and turns, it never becomes melodramatic or sensationalised.
Definitely one of the best books of the year.

Very interesting thriller. Much of the book is centred on Kate, the prosecuting Q.C.
It also tells about student life at Oxford and how the privileged, rich students behave.
Also gives some insight into the House of Commons.
11 minutes ago

I have been reading this book whilst in the press various MPs have been accused of sexual harrassment and I started to wonder whether the author had some sort of insider knowledge! Real life appears to be stranger than fiction!
This is the story of James Whitehouse a privileged MP who is accused of a terrible crime. He is prosecuted by barrister Kate who is desperate to get a conviction. It is told by Kate in the first person as she prepares for the trial and by Sophie, James’s wife who believes in his innocence. There are also flashbacks to the 1990s when James was at university in Oxford and several secrets from this time frame are gradually revealed as the plot progresses.
All three main characters have their faults: James is arrogant, amoral and completely unsympathetic; Sophie is just gullible in my opinion. and Kate seems bitter but determined to get a conviction for her client whom she believes implicitly.
This is a dark novel which examines rape and the meaning of sexual consent as well as how wealth and power can sometimes make justice blind.
It was a compelling and gripping read made all the more interesting by the sexual scandals happening in Westminister at the moment. This is a well written novel with a clever plot and I would recommend it to people who enjoy psychological thrillers with excellent characterisation. I fully expect this to be the must-read of 2018 when it is published in January.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks for the advance copy!

I really enjoyed this, the plot was so well paced and the sections that switched between past and present were masterfully done. The plot was compelling and I was invested in the characters. I loved that it handles privilege and class in a very subtle but insightful way and felt that these views were clearly understandable without being preachy. The insight into the court system was fascinating, I think for any fans of Law and Order or other crime procedurals!

Overall I found this a slow building but compelling novel, and one that has stayed with me in the days since I finished it.

Thank you to Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest opinion! I was delighted to finally get my hands on this book as I'd heard so much about 2018's next must read!

The book starts with Sophie's high ranking politician husband James, being late home for a dinner party at their neighbours. The cause of his delay: a newspaper story has broken, he was caught having an affair with a junior member of staff, on public property and public time. This scandal soon turns to an allegation of rape and a court case unravels. Kate a QC barrister is on the prosecution and she is out for blood.

The story is told from a number of different points of view and over two different time lines, the current court case and Oxford 1992.

I enjoyed this book and the overall plot, but I found that some parts were too drawn out. Some parts made for highly addictive reading and some parts I found myself skimming or daydreaming as I read.

I enjoyed the different POVs and piecing together the story. I think it's a very relevant book with all the historical allegations coming out against powerful and privileged people! It it's deffo worth the read!

This is a new author for me. I found her descriptive narrative easily readable and refreshing. The development of characters and timelines intermingled with sex scandals and the behaviour and power of a privileged background makes the novel addictive reading especially in today's environment.

Thoroughly enjoyable novel addressing some difficult and emotive topics such as rape, drugs, power, privilege and determination.

Kate is a forthright, determined barrister and takes on a case against a prominent politician, James, accused of raping a work colleague. The nuances of the encounter could leave doubt about the verdict until additional information is revealed. There are clever twists and turns and I enjoyed the manner in which the character of Sophie, James' wife, developed. Would recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this book. The fact that it had its background in the murkier end of the UK political system is what immediately drew me to this book. Coupled with a picture of a privileged debauched existence at Oxford University in the era I myself was a student only added to the intrigue.

In light of the recent allegations of sexual harrassment and abuse within UK politics, this could not be a more timely novel. The court scenes are excellent and the whole book had me gripped, moving between past and present as well as flitting between "behind closed doors" and the public facade of a politician's life.

Highly recommend, and although it's a great thriller, to my mind its greatest strength is how it paints a picture of the lasting damage of the consequences of sexual assault and the hurdles faced by those making the accusations.

Anatomy of a Scandal is a compelling story about how we can never truly know someone else; how even after twelve years of marriage, a wife might not know everything about her husband.

Kate Woodcroft is a London barrister for the prosecution of crimes of violence and a sexual nature. When she is assigned the high-profile case of a charismatic member of Parliament and Tory Junior Minister, James Whitehouse, who is accused of raping his assistant, who he admits he had a short affair with. When does consensual sex cross the line into rape? This is the question at the heart of this breath-taking novel.

The story is told from alternating points of view: those of the MP, his wife and the prosecuting barrister, the story moves between 1993 and the present, when James and other characters were students at Oxford. We see why Kate is now the way she is. Meanwhile, James', faithful wife Sophie, must endure the agony of being a wife who stands by her man. Or will she, or does she? You'll feel her pain.

James is a loving father, and yet he stands accused of a terrible crime.

Sophie is convinced he is innocent.

Kate is certain James is guilty and is determined he will pay for his crimes.

Who is right? James Sophie or Kate?

Brilliant, shocking, and gripping, once I started, I couldn't stop reading. If you liked Apple Tree Yard you will love this.

This read like a novel written by a journalist, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, only it felt somewhat too closely-aligned with the whole Bullingdon Club, David Cameron's Tories and that took me away from the novelistic escapism I was looking for. That being said, it was a recognisable story and it made me consider the characters in a newspaper scandal that often get overlooked when we focus on the salacious details rather than the collateral damage they cause.

I liked the descriptions of Oxford especially, andf university life in the 90s; those chapters were more vivid and gripping to me than the rather cold courtroom scenes. I can't say that many of the characters were terribly sympathetic though, regardless of their victimhood, which suprised me, portrayed as they are by a clearly empathetic female writer. I found the women generally difficult to warm to - the harassed and not terribly supportive best friend, the vapid, loyal wife, the vengeful barrister - none made me want them to triumph as they should have.

Anatomy of a Scandal is a well written story, with a number of characters. We have Kate a Q.C. who prosecutes sexual crime cases, Sophie a graduate from Oxford where she first met her now husband James, James is a charismatic handsome M.P. on his way to high government office. Born into a privileged family he has sailed through life everything coming easily to him.
A parliamentary assistant with whom he has been having an affair accuses him of rape, despite being devastated by the affair and these accusations Sophie believes he is not capable of such behaviour.
So starts the criminal trial, the cross examinations are excellent, you can almost smell the atmosphere of the old bailey.
Interspersed with this narrative we go back in time to James's time in Oxford with Sophie and others. There is a big twist which I didn't see coming.
A dark suspenseful book that I thoroughly enjoyed.
My thanks to net galley and publisher for opportunity to review this book.

Apart from there being too many sections of this book containing long paragraphs without any dialogue, too many for me I'm afraid, the storyline was excellent. I'm very sad to say that i ended up scanning several of these pages and didn't find that I'd missed anything important to stop the enjoyment of the book or the details needed to understand the events at that time. I particularly liked the character of Sophie, she was a well rounded character and very believable first as an Oxford student and later as a minister's wife. Kate was extremely wooden, maybe too much so, but I know this was the persona she had created for herself, a reinvention. I won't say more for fear of spoiling it for other readers although I did work it out quite early on in the book, about a third of the way in. The highs and lows of this story are very much true to the privileged lifestyle of some oxford students who later on in life seamlessly slide into politics and public life. Without the too lengthy, detailed paragraphs bereft of dialogue it would have been a bit more pacier read rather than standing still at times. Having said that I did enjoy it a lot and would definitely read more by the same author.

My thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster the UK Publishers for an advanced copy of this book to review fairly and without bias.

Sarah Vaughan can write, can plot and can pull you in so that you lose the need of sleep you just want to turn the page. I do not offer this praise lightly and I hope that the author will go on with more novels of this calibre.
The blurb on the book will give you a taster of what its about so I will not waste your time here.
I think the discipline of the newspaper world has given Sarah Vaughan the right background for this style of writing and the device of spliting the tale of different time periods worked well for me.. Her writing is short (as in pastry) and to the point, she lets the background develop the mood and raises the reader's emotions whether it be dread or need.
The main characters are well defined and whilst some of their motives, expectations, whatever are alien to me, I sensed these were portraits of real types that some ,given their birth status, saw nothing wrong in the way they acted. A thoroughly good read and well worth your time.
I wonder what she will write about next.

Thank you for the opportunity to read 'Anatomy of a Scandal'. I enjoyed reading this book very much and was fascinated to get an insight into the world of barrister. The description of Oxford student life is very realistic. I was slightly let down by the ending - don't want to reveal spoilers but thought Kate could have been more involved with the final outcome.

I wanted to love this book so much more than I did. The story was good but it lack something for me, I was not drawn to any of the characters, and found myself skipping parts to stop the drawn out feelings they all had.
We first meet James and Sophie, a married couple who some would say have it all. James works in parliament and has an affair with his parliamentary researcher, Olivia Lytton. This comes out in the papers and slowly unravels James life. Olivia say's James raped her. James goes to trail and you follow his story as well as his wife, Sophie, who is in no doubt about his innocents. Kate QC is there to prove her wrong.
The story jumps from the now to the 90's and back again, where James, Sophie, Alison and Holly are in Oxford university This is the part that fell short for me. I felt that the characters repeated themselves a lot and what feelings they had could have been cut short and not crammed into many pages.
I’m pleased I stuck with the book as the story of rape was very real and believable I just wish is wasn't so long.

The ironing didn’t get done, the dusting didn’t get done and I had three or four really late nights but it was impossible to put this book down!
Kate is a successful barrister who hates to lose. When she is handed a case involving a Junior Minister she is even more determined and dedicated than usual.
It’s impossible to give much more detail than this without giving away the twists and turns of the plot. I did anticipate the most significant twist but it didn’t really matter because the consequences were of far more interest than the revelation itself.

Although I loved this book it should, perhaps, come with a trigger warning for some readers.

This novel is set in two distinct eras – 1992-3 and 2016, involving Oxford students whose lives surprisingly overlap again some twenty years later. Part crime, part courtroom drama and part make-up of a marriage, ‘Anatomy of a Scandal’ is a compelling read. The main characters, Kate, a hard-boiled barrister, her teacher friend Ali, junior minister James and his intelligent repressed wife Sophie are all integral to the novel’s development. Sarah Vaughan is successful in portraying all three very different women as credible individuals and she clearly understands the ways in which past experiences inform current behaviour, either consciously or sub-consciously.
When James is accused of rape and Kate is counsel for the prosecution, the reader is not only very effectively drawn into the machinations of courtroom procedures but is also asked to dwell on an interesting and unusual moral situation brought about by past connections. Clearly unethical, can we entirely disapprove? To reveal much more at this stage would be to spoil the revelations along the way. Whilst the novel’s denouement feels a little rushed, and Kate’s story, in particular, a little under developed given that we are asked to invest deeply in her situation earlier in the novel, this is a really compelling read. Vaughan writes well; her gift for characterisation is obvious and she captures the essence of her characters without resorting to cliché and stereotype even though she has chosen to write about people who could so very easily have become mere representations from a less talented novelist. My one gripe: the over- use (sometimes incorrectly) of colons and semi-colons early in the novel – proof copy problem? And it would have been good to have ditched the clunky naming of each chapters. The reader would have had to work a bit harder initially but Vaughan’s ability to create individual voices would not have made this impossible. All in all, a thought-provoking read and, on the strength of ‘Anatomy of a Scandal’, I’m off to seek to seek out her first two novels.