False Witness
A Novel
by Karin Slaughter
William Morrow and Custom House
You Are Auto-Approved
William Morrow
General Fiction (Adult) | Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 20 Jul 2021 | Archive Date 14 Sep 2021

I found this book extremely well-written and interesting! I read all of Karin Slaughter's book since introduced them 8 years ago. I think this one is one of her best!! I often recommend them to folks at our library looking for a different author to read. Parts of this book are very disturbing so beware if you are sensitive to issues like that.
Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC.
5 star

Karin Slaughter is back with another banger of a story with False Witness. Very current and incredibly compelling, Leigh Collier's life, just like many of ours, is turned upside down and inside out by Covid. She leaves her low-paying public defender's job for a high-paying law firm in order to get her beloved teenage daughter into a safer, private school in the suburbs - away from the Covid hotspot in the public schools of Atlanta. When Leigh is called to the big boss' office for a meeting with a new client who requested her specifically, her already disheveled life is thrown into violent upheaval.

Sometimes I forget how good Karin Slaughter is, and then I'm reminded as soon as I pick up a new title. She so viscerally describes the fear that Collier feels that I felt my own palms sweat and my heart beat faster. The characters are all so distinct and knowable, and her knowledge of pain, fear, love, addiction, and trust are on full display - this is a writer who always does her homework. But more than the technical knowledge of subjects, Slaughter knows how people work.

Karin Slaughter's False Witness is in my opinion her best work yet. But then I might say that with any book by this author. I will warn you upfront when you decide to start this book you want to have plenty of reading time available because you will not want to put it down. My only problem with this book is it ended I was planning to spend a day reading this but finished it the same night I started. I wanted to see what was next. I highly recommend this book

Disappointed. Starts with so much gore and is just disturbing. Did not like the characters. Too much about Covid.

This intense thriller will have you reading late into the night. Sisters Leigh and Callie have grown into very different women, but abuse and actions in their childhood led to unbreakable bonds. When a man they both baby-sat turns into a serial rapist, each has to deal with consequences from their hidden past. With unexpected twists and turns and more revealed in each chapter, Karin Slaughter delivers a hard-to-put-down tale.

Once again, the author has written a book that earns the title of thriller. A simple description of the plot will put the reader on edge. An attorney is told by her superiors to defend a wealthy client accused of rape. Yet, upon meeting the client, it is obvious that there is a far-reaching connection between the two and the story takes off. What I especially like about Slaughter's books are the in-depth and thorough research that goes into them. The action moves fast and is not for the weak reader. Yet, I always come away learning about subjects which I knew about only peripherally. This one focused on drugs, especially those in the news today.
It was also one of the first books to incorporate the Covid crisis in its pages.. It was so easy to relate to the pandemic as we are slowly emerging from its clutches. She did a masterful job.
The book sticks with you after you finished. That's a sure sign of success!

I don't generally read the suspense genre, but Karin Slaughter is generally an exception to this rule. I enjoyed this book, it was fairly fast paced and I kept coming back to it. It was an enjoyable read as I sat in the waiting room at several appointments. The end felt a little rushed to me though, like she had a set number of pages to write and just squished the ending in to make it fit. The characters are very believable, and she sets the scene of Atlanta well.

Sisters Callie and Leigh share a troubled past. When they were younger, their lives were permanently changed by an horrific event. While they both handled the outcome of the event in their own, different ways, and moved on from it the best that they could, they are drawn together in False Witness to revisit the event of the past and bring it to a close. Callie, who struggles with addiction, and Leigh, who is a lawyer recently separated from her husband and teenage daughter, can trace the trajectory of their lives back to one night..

I have long been a fan of Karin Slaughter's, and have read every book in her Grant County and Will Trent series, and her stand-alones, too. False Witness kept me turning the pages long into the night, and while I couldn't wait to see how it ended, I was sad, as always, to have to turn the last page and put the book down.

Karin Slaughter never pulls punches! This is the first book I've read set durning the COVID-19 pandemic so that made it interesting. The relationship between the sisters was raw and honest. A great stand alone title.

I found this a difficult book to read. Too much blood and mayhem for my comfort level. I can’t imagine a reading group relaxing over a discussion of this book.

Thank you Netgalley.

Despite a rough childhood, Leigh Coulton has made a name for herself with a large law firm in Atlanta. When she’s asked to represent a wealthy client accused of a brutal rape, she’s shocked to learn that he’s Andrew, the boy she and her sister babysat for so many years ago. And she’s even more shocked to learn that behind the successful businessman, is a psychopathic rapist who knows all about what Leigh and her sister Calli did to make his pedophile father disappear all those years ago.

Suspense that never lets up With the current pandemic becoming part of the story line. The brutal depictions of rape and drug addiction may be hard for some people, but this is a worthwhile read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley & Wm. Morrow for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What can I say; I've been a KSlaught stan for decades now. I enjoy even a bad day out with Will Trent, and I have enjoyed every standalone novel, as well. The extremity of the plots in Slaughter's novels propel them at a frenetic pace. These are definitely not stories one encounters every day. And this one is no exception. While I have doubts that a family as steeped in dysfunction and history of abuse (of both the child sexual variety and the emotional/physical from a parent variety) would yield adults as [relatively] normal as these two women, I'm willing to overlook it, because, you know, it's *Karin Slaughter*. I'm not here for a believable plot, and it's just as well, because this story is ba-nay-nays (don't ever change, KSlaught). I am here for it with the popcorn in hand.

So let's run down the list:
Protagonist: high powered defense attorney, severe emotional dysfunction
Supporting protagonist: opioid addict sister of above, but with a deep and abiding love of animals and an unusually sturdy moral compass
Big Bad: last seen as a sweet 6 year old, currently masquerading as a productive and rich member of society, but is he f***

Everyone else is either wonderful or deeply awful, with a scattering of in-betweens. Leigh is a defense lawyer who unexpectedly and with little notice is called upon by her big-deal boss to represent an accused rapist, Andrew. If you've ever seen or read The Lincoln Lawyer, you know this part of the story, right down to the haughty mom. He totally did it, he's human garbage skating on a thin sheet of money and respectability. BUT KS takes it so, so, so much further: toss in a two-bit, alcoholic, mobby father of the accused who Leigh and her sister Callie interacted with while babysitting Andrew, then known by another name, changed after Andrew & his mother reinvented themselves after his dad disappeared. What does Andrew remember about the night his father left and never came back, and how? Can he leverage it against Leigh in order to guarantee a stellar defense for a crime she knows him to be guilty of? Does Andrew's odd, goth fiancée know what he's been up to, or the oily private investigator he seems to have in his pocket?

Classic Karin Slaughter, so be ready for a fair amount of gore and triggering scenes. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Karin Slaughter delivers again (always). Her ability to consistently produce heart-pounding, page-turning, vaguely nauseating thrillers is astounding and always puts her at the top of my MUST READ list.

She’s especially good at writing complicated sister relationships. Much like Charlie and Samantha Quinn from The Good Daughter, Leigh and Callie have to confront the monsters from their past, plus manage their current struggles with opioid addiction, rapists looking for an out, marriage, sexism, and life during Covid. I loved that the book was set during the pandemic and showed fallout from it but was not *about* the pandemic.

Five stars - this was an excellent read.

(Posting further on IG @leavemetomybooks closer to pub date & link will be added)

Gritty. Dark. Compulsively page-turning.

Slaughter delivers the tension and plot twists for which she is known in this stand-alone. Two sisters have dealt with their upbringing in opposite ways: one is an addict, the other a lawyer. One looks to escape, the other to control. Despite their differences they share a powerful love and an explosive secret. In a departure from many current releases, this is set in the pandemic world, a choice Slaughter explains in the afterward. Recommended with the following in mind; This can be hard to read and triggers abound - child molestation, drug abuse - but it is a compulsive read, fraught with tension.

Thanks to William Morrow & NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

Karin Slaughter writes books that reach into your heart and mind. The story of Callie and Harleigh is gritty, scary, and hard to read at times. However after the last page you will also know that it is reality. Her notes at the end give her motivations on writing this book and they hit home. Another realistic thriller by an empathetic author.

Leigh has spent her life saving her drug addicted sister and trying to forget her past which come back every time she sees her sister. A tale of addiction, false memories and what your would do for love.

This is 100% a compulsive, heart-racing thriller. Leigh is a no-nonsense defense attorney, and she is well aware that many of her clients are not truly innocent. But when she agrees to take on the case of a man accused of a brutal rape, her carefully curated world begins to shatter. Her new client has information about Leigh's own past that could ruin her life and the lives of those she loves. Will she clear his name to save her family? You will not want to put this one down until you know! My one caveat is that the book is set smack in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. While we might one day find it interesting to read about a time in which mask mandates and social distancing are part of our every waking moment, it feels a little too much too soon to be reading it now. Slaughter is an amazing author, and I will be recommending this one!

Harleigh Collier, who goes by Leigh, is a hard-working professional woman, working her way up at a fancy high profile law firm. One Sunday evening, she is at her daughter’s school play and gets a call from one of the law firm’s senior partners, asking her to defend a wealthy client accused of multiple counts of rape. Actually, it is more than a request: it’s not the kind of thing she can say no to, and if she does well it could make her career. The trial is due to start in one week. Then she meets the accused, and realizes she knows him. It’s been over twenty years, but ever since their encounters when she was a teenager, she has been running from the events in her past related to her relationship to the accused.

But she isn’t the only one. While she was becoming an apparently successful criminal defense attorney, her younger sister Callie was struggling and mostly losing a battle with addiction: she struggles like most IV drug users who “weren’t only addicted to the drug,” seemingly reveling in the constant chaos. “If Callie had a needle fixation, Leigh had a chaos fixation.” The sisters are incredibly close despite their very different lives, and both share painful memories from their past that involve Leigh’s client.

I love the way Ms. Slaughter develops the characters of Leigh and Callie, and slowly reveals their secrets as well as what makes them who they are: “Even this far into the game, Leigh was always surprised by how fantastic it was to be a white, wealthy man…working at BC&M had taught Leigh…that it was better to be guilty and rich than innocent and poor.” She is a dedicated defense attorney who “…never gave up on anything. If you came at her with a knife, she came back at you with a bazooka.”

One thing that stands out is the way this book incorporates the pandemic of 2020-21 into the story. There are references to masks and social distancing, and Dr. Jerry, Callie’s friend, part-time employer, and father figure addresses the issue in striking language that captures the battle being waged today, and the uncertain future: “Over half a million people dead in the United States alone. The number is too overwhelming to accept, so we go on with our lives and we do what we can, but in the end, the staggering loss will be waiting for us.”

The plotting is complex and full of twists as the sisters’ past traumas are revealed, and they struggle, each in her own way, to find justice for the victims and relief from their own painful memories of trauma. Suspenseful and emotionally affecting, it may be triggering for some victims of abuse and/or assault. Five stars. Many thanks to William Morrow / Custom House and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for this honest review.

Karin Sllaughter's False Witness is a nail-biter from the get-go. With Attorney Leigh, druggie Callie and a rapist threatening, the plot only thickens and becomes more and more complex as secrets from the past are revealed and used to secure freedom for an accused rapist and criminal. You won't want to miss this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, just wow. False Witness was an absolutely excellent book and hands down this is Karin Slaughter's best work.

Leigh is a successful lawyer at a top law firm with a 16 year old daughter and separated from her husband. No one knows about her brutal childhood and its secrets. An accused rapist asks for her specifically to defend him and it is someone from her past who threatens her current life and family.

The story is told through Leigh and her sister Callie. Callie is a drug addict living in intense pain from an accident 20 years ago. The love between Leigh and Callie is incredible and what they are willing to do for each other knows no bounds.

I can't recall ever crying while reading a thriller/mystery but I did multiple times during the book. Callie is raw and pure and Slaughter does a magnificent job portraying her incredible strength and her weaknesses. Callie has so much goodness in her, plus she's funny and smart. Dr. Jerry the vet also made me cry. The author wrote with such empathy about the drug use or rape scenes--just heartbreaking.

I highly recommend reading False Witness.

Trigger warnings with multiple rape scenes.