I devoured this novel. I love books that feature cold cases and the dogged pursuit to solve them. I finished this book in one sitting and was not disappointed.

I was given this book by netgalley as an arc in exchange for my honest opinion. I wanted desperately to like this book and unfortunately it fell very flat for me. While the synopsis sounded amazing I just couldn't get into it and struggled to finish.

Thanks to @stmartinspress #partner for providing this free review copy.

This book was super suspenseful and I couldn’t put it down, much less go to sleep last night when I only had 20 percent left to finish.

This tells two stories simultaneously. Rachel Krall is a host of famous podcast: Guilty or Not Guilty that puts listeners inside the jury box from the comfort of their own homes. While reporting on a rape case in Neapolis, a small tourist town, involving a star swimmer, Scott Blair accused of brutally raping Kelly Moore, the granddaughter of the former chief of police, Rachel receives a letter from a woman named Hannah begging her to investigate the death of her sister, Jenny Stills, that occurred 25 years prior.

Rachel is alarmed by the mere fact that someone recognized her in public and reached out to her via putting a series of letters on her car and outside her hotel room, but as she reads the letters she grows more intrigued. Soon she finds herself investigating two crimes simultaneously — reporting on one in real time as the trial unfolds and following up on leads to this cold case in between.

I was on the edge of my seat wanting to find out what really happened the entire time.

This book does not come without a warning however, as it does deal with a very sensitive subject matter - rape. Having endured sexual assault many years ago in college, parts of this were hard for me to read. I was furious with some the selfish, disgusting characters and I felt heartfelt sympathy for others as I’m sure you will too. I do think this deals with a very important timely topic, and I thought it was handled well.

While I liked The Escape Room, I enjoyed this one more. I highly recommend this to readers of suspense, with the caveat that there is significant parts of this book that discuss and describe rape and sexual assault, so this may not the book for everyone.

I finished this in one sitting, it was so good. True crime podcaster visits a small town to cover a rape and murder trial of a local girl. While she’s there, a local woman contacts her to get her help in solving her sister’s suspicious death 25 years earlier. There are some coincidental parallels between cases but the ending was a satisfying surprise.

I really enjoyed this fast-paced thriller by Megan Goldin, as I'm a HUGE fan of true crime podcasts (My Favorite Murder is my absolute favorite!), and I loved how the author intertwined her own mystery as well as the rape trial she was in town to cover for her show. I read this book in one sitting because I couldn't wait to figure out whodunit and was shocked to find out at the end. Loved the small town setting, the mysterious characters, as well as the jumping back and forth in time from the previous crime and the current crime Rachel's podcast is covering. It's not often that I'm totally stumped by a crime book, but I totally had no idea who was behind the murder of Jenny...well done to the author!

4 out of 5 stars for The Night Swim by Megan Goldin. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book...all opinions are my own.

I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

Wow. This novel was incredible! I love having the different points of view and the now and then storylines that have a SURPRISING connection that I had not guessed at all. This novel is primarily told from Rachel Krall who is a trained investigative reporter and is now famous for doing a true crime podcast. This is similar on the lines of the show Conviction (which I loved, so of course it was cancelled) where sometimes they are looking at old cases and sometimes current to really figure out the truth.

I am in awe at how well the author handled the questions/criticisms that come up for rape cases while in a court room and really did explain things well without making excuses for the perpetrator or the victims, all while solving a cold case too! I really enjoyed this novel and would absolutely come back to Megan Goldin again.

3.5 This is a slow burn suspense that follows two crimes, one from twenty five years ago and one that is current. Rachel Krall is a true crime podcast reporter covering a current a sexual assault in a small coastal NC town. A second sexual assault and murder from the past is woven in. I thought I would like this more but it was too graphic at times and very predictable. The author does handle victim shaming well, and is a topic that always needs to be addressed more. Warning - graphic content that could trigger. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and Megan Goldin for free e-ARC in return of my honest review.

I liked The Escape Room, and I was looking forward to the new book by Megan Goldin. I was not disappointed one bit.

A journalist, Rachel Krall, who rans popular true crime podcast, come to a town to cover ongoing rape trial for her third season. She never did podcast in real time, she usually covered only closed cases, but now she invites her followers to a "jury box" and to form their own opinion based on presented facts. While working on her podcast, Rachel starts to receive anonymous letter with the request to investigate a 20 year old murder that was considered to be an accident.

Both story lines are interesting and the ending was mind blowing - I did not really see that coming. I believe Goldin does a good job by setting the scene in the court and trying to be unbiased. I still wonder if she feels for the victim or for the alleged rapist. She drew a picture of court with its in and outs, its loopholes and injustice. Goldin also does a great job interlacing the present story with the past.

I could not out it down.

If you are looking for a book to keep you on the edge of your seat, this is it. Twists and turns abound and the podcast interwoven was frosting on the cake. The author wove together the past and the present in perfect detail. The Podcaster goes to cover the story of the rape of a 16 year old girl by the college star athlete in a small town. While covering this story bits and pieces of the story of a murder 25 years prior start seeping out.
Grab this book now but be prepared to not want to put it down.

Thank you to Netgalley, St Martins Press and Megan Goldin for an ARC of this book. My thoughts are my own and the audio of this book is awesome!!!

So here's a bookworm fact to know about me-I am immediately drawn to a book if it is a mystery/thriller centered somehow around a true crime podcast. I love listening to true crime podcasts, and something about a book that includes transcripts of a (fictional) one (the mixed media? the use of another something I love?) hooks me right away. A lot of the books on my TBR shelf and Kindle are this exact type of book.

That's what got me excited about The Night Swim. I had enjoyed Goldin's previous book, The Escape Room, but had also felt a little let down by it, and was very curious to see how her second book went.

The plot is definitely intriguing-a true crime podcaster famous for solving cold cases, heads into a small town for a trial, and finds a mysterious note on her windshield from someone she has never met, pleading with her to please solve her sister's murder. The way these two plots intertwine is clever, and there's such a sense of foreboding in the way even just the town itself is described. The use of podcast transcripts I of course loved, though they did seem a little short if they were being presented as full episodes. I found the ending definitely a surprising twist, and I thought it was well done.

This is not a book that shys away from material that can be hard to stomach, in particular sexual assault and rape. But because of this, this book also has a lot of important things to say.

While not my favorite in the book with a fictional podcast genre, I found Goldin's second book did not disappoint.

Megan Goldin is becoming one of my “go-to” writers. I loved her debut novel “The Escape Room,” so when her newest novel “The Night Swim” released I knew I needed to get my hands on it. While her first novel was a thriller, this one was more of a court room drama surrounded by an emotional past.

Rachel travels to the small town of Neapolis for her true crime podcast where the town’s golden boy is accused of raping a high school student. While Rachel is a household name she is barely recognized in person, only by her voice, so when she finds a note on her windshield begging for help she realizes this small town has more of an unsettling dark history then it’s letting on.

I have to admit there are parts of this novel that was very difficult to read. Majority of the book exams how a rape trial plays out in the courtroom, including manipulation and victim shaming. Great job to Goldin who wrote this story with such honesty and sensitivity!

Overall this book was a great sophomore novel, but a very emotional rollercoaster. I look forward to more novels in the future from Megan Goldin!

As someone who enjoys both books and podcasts very much, I really liked the story and layout (chapters differ being told as a narrative and others as part of a podcast). This book is timely with so many true life crime podcasts being out there, and I felt the characters were honest and relatable!

Rachel is a podcaster reporting on true crime stories, in a similar vain to the one that started off so many, serial. She follows a story of a small town crime that is unfolding in real time while simultaneously figuring out some secrets of the past that occurred in that town 25 years earlier. I will admit that i was hoping for perhaps a little bit more thrill, but it was still a great ride. The content of the two crimes in the story, however, were graphic and heartbreaking which i could withstand but i would put a disclaimer that it could be trigger some to certain people. Overall, a good story with a protagonist you are rooting for!

I really enjoyed this book. I particularly liked the juxtaposition of the podcast chapters and the more conventional narrative chapters. I definitely didn’t see the twist at the end. Well done, Megan Goldin. I’m looking forward to reading more of your work.

Great thriller! I really like how it was told from different POV and the podcast chapters. The subject matter was pretty sensitive but handled well.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the review copy of the audiobook and e-book! I listened and read a long at the same time.

This book was what I wanted it to be!!!!! I loved it. The plot of this story was very well written. I love to go into my mystery and thrillers not knowing much so I wont give much on this, but guys, this is a must read! If you enjoy and book based on podcast!! READ THIS!!!

I highly recommend this read!

The Night Swim – Goldin (8/4/20)
THE NIGHT SWIM by Megan Goldin wasn’t what I expected. Then, again, I am not sure what I expected, but what I got was so much more intense and emotional than I could have imagined. Once I started reading, it was impossible to walk away for any reason.
Rachel Krall has two seasons of a successful podcast under her belt, including finding evidence that exonerates someone that had been found guilty. She decides that for her newest season, she needs to do something different. She heads to a small town divided over a rape case. She will do her own investigating, sit in on the trial, report the facts, and let her audience make the call. When letters asking for her help finding out who killed the writer’s sister years ago, Rachel’s first spooked, then intrigued, especially when the writer connects her sister’s case to the current one. Was her sister murdered?
It by turns creeped me out…. Rachel was a voice on a podcast, with no good, recent pictures, yet someone was able to track her down and leave notes for her. I could see where some could happen, but others? More often than not, it ripped out my heart with the circumstances and the incidents. It also kept me twisting and guessing as I tried to figure out the past and how it translated to the present case.
The subject of the novel is tough and horrific, but Goldin crafted a tale so nuanced that you will keep reading, puzzling over the details in the back of your brain, as you speed to the conclusion without realizing how much time has passed.
Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an advanced copy of this novel. All opinions are my own.
#thenightswim #megangoldin #stmartinspress

The subject matter that this book dealt with was really tough and the way that rape victims are sometimes treated was really upsetting. This was more of a slow burn for me, but I'll keep picking up Megan Goldin's books.

3.5 *

I was really anticipating reading this book. It started off good with grabbing my attention right away.

Rachel Krall has a hit true-crime Podcast and travels to Neapolis, North Carolina to report on a sexual assault case. While she is there she begins to receive mysterious notes about another sexual assault and murder that occurred in the same small town twenty-five years earlier.

This was a slow building mystery as Rachel starts to piece things together. It's a very important and emotional story that centres on rape culture and victim shaming. I applaud Ms. Goldin for writing this story. It is written well and I liked it. I just did not love it and I know I'm in the minority on this one. It might just be that I'm losing some interest in psychological thrillers at this time. I think I was expecting a spectacular reveal to the story but instead got something a bit more predictable.

It's still a story I'd recommend to any thriller/mystery fan and I'd like to kindly thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press with granting me access to this Advanced Reader Copy.

Wow. The Night Swim by Megan Goldin was a heavy read yet one of my favorites of the year. It masterfully combined two of my hobbies: reading and true crime podcasts.

Rachel Krall runs the Guilty or Not Guilty Podcast. Kicking off season 3, she travels to a small town called Neapolis in North Carolina where she is covering a high profile and controversial rape case. Just before she reaches town, she is contacted multiple times by a woman who wants to prove that her sister's death there, nearly 2.5 decades earlier was a murder and not a drowning accident.

Megan Goldin brilliantly tied these two stories together and all of the narrators (Bailey Carr, January LaVoy, and Samantha Desz) did such a great job, I felt like I was listening to a real podcast. If Guilty or Not Guilty, the podcast that puts you in the jury box, was real, I'd 100% be binge listening.