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.

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.

I only give four stars as this book has little or no humour in it. It is however a book which I very much enjoyed, with believable characters who were very diverse. It's sometimes a difficult read as it involves a rape case, but the writer handles it well.
At times I didn't know who to root for - but it becomes clear as the book goes on.
I wish I could be more descriptive, but don't want to give too much away! You get the gist of the story from the summary given by the publisher so just read and enjoy it

I found this a really interesting discussion about privilege at a time when this is also a news topic, particularly referenced with university entrance and expectations.. The apparent right to access privileges in education having been born into a life of wealth and ease is interesting. The reactions and feelings about this privilege are explored.
I enjoyed the twist developing the barrister's previous interactions with the main character and the potential revenge later in the story.

A really fast paced story - I finished this in one day as I just couldn’t put it down!

A brilliant read that fans of the Apple Tree Yard will enjoy. The husband is accused of a crime that his wife is sure he is innocent of and a barrister who is sure he is guilty. A book full of secrets unravelling, compelling writing and a page turner. Thanks to Netgalley and the publusher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good courtroom drama and this one is certainly that – and much more. Political intrigue, class distinction and abuse of power by an arrogant, privileged elite are just some of the surrounding legal, moral and ethical issues of a serious case of sexual assault, brought against a prominent British MP. The narrative style deploys several points of view and the use of flashbacks, building up nuanced psychological profiles of the main characters. Apart from the compelling storyline, we are given very useful insight about the British legal system and the difficulty of proving non-consensual sex, where it is a case of one person’s word against another’s.
Two quotes sum up the main themes: ‘Truth is a tricky area. Rightly or wrongly, adversarial advocacy is not an enquiry into the truth.’ And: ‘hang around any court for a while and you will see just how precarious life can be.’
This page-turner of a novel could not be more topical and relevant to current well publicised cases of the abuse of power over young vulnerable women by men in positions of authority. I can see it becoming a huge best-seller and being adapted for a televised series.

Good thriller. Plenty of twists in the plot. Good strong characters. A real page turner.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Sarah Vaughan for the copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

James Whitehouse is an accomplished man at the top of his career with a beautiful wife and family and now stands accused of raping his mistress. The story however centres around his wife Sophie and the prosecuting barrister Kate. Sophie has to decide between accepting the mistress' story or standing by her husband in the public eye. Kate has her own vested interest in the case and it is very interesting to hear their back stories. I really enjoyed looking at their history and seeing how they both came to be where they are now. The big question for me at the end of the book is "can a leopard change its spots?" My thanks to NetGalley, Atria Books, and to Sarah Vaughan for the opportunity to read Anatomy of a Scandal for an honest review.

This is a powerful novel, very reminiscent of Apple Tree Yard and just as good. The main characters of Sophie, Holly and Alison are realistic and James and Tom are truly believable in a horrific way. The settings of Oxford and London are very evocative and the abuse of privilege and power is a bit scary to those of us lower in the pecking order. The court scenes make fascinating reading, and the conclusion is satisfying. I would love to see a T.V. drama of this. Well done, Sarah!

Excellent read. Couldn’t put it down once I started; perfect for lovers of Alex Cross and Chris Carter novels

I am pedantic when it comes to novels with a legal slant. I want them to be accurate. I was not disappointed. This is a page-turner which was realistic and thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. Excellent!

Was completely gripped by this. I worked on Sarah's last book so I knew she was a brilliant writer, but I wondered how she'd tackle a complete change of genre. Exceptionally well, as it turns out. I was blown away by the sense of character and scene she created, seamlessly incorporating big issues like class and politics, and keeping me guessing until the very end. I hope that there's lots more like this to come from Sarah!

This is the first book I have read from this author and I am sure it won't be the last. Took me a wee while to get into the story as this was a bit different to what I would normally read once I got half way that was me hooked and could not put this down. Had to see what would happen and how the story would be left.

thanks to netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK for this copy to review honestly and voluntarily..

An utterly absorbing, captivating book. I found the characters fascinating. They covered such a range of traits and distinct personality characteristics that I felt I knew them. The depiction of the different social scenes was very well done, from the over-privileged elites the Oxford to the stress-filled courtroom, every detail rang true.
The pace of the book worked very well for me. The twist in the middle added a whole new dimension to the story, and I couldn't wait to read more! A fantastic novel; I look forward to reading more from this talented author.

I found this an enjoyable, well written, gripping book.