A great story, full of twists and turns leading you to a fantastic finale!! Karin Slaughter is always able to write a blinking good thriller.

My thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC of this book.
Karin Slaughter is a master of storytelling. The descriptions in this book were so fresh and accurate you got really immersed in the story. It was nice to read a book which deals sympathetically with the current COVID situation. I have a number of Karin’s titles on my bookshelves but haven’t read anything from her lately but will be rectifying that from now on.
This book highlighted what the sisters went through over the years and their strong connections regardless of what life threw at them. They both would do anything for each other and did. The unusual character names etc just added to the enjoyment. I did however find the graphic descriptions of the drug taking rather unsettling and the chapters are rather too long for me hence the 4 stars rather than 5.
Fantastic book.

If you are a Karin Slaughter fan, then this book does not disappoint. If you’ve never read a Karin Slaughter book, then add this to your TBR pile!
Callie and Leigh are sisters: sisters with a secret past. But we all know that secrets don’t stay buried for long. When Leigh is asked to represent a new client in court, memories come flooding back...
From the first chapter to the last, this book had me hooked - a must read!

Karin Slaughter at her very very best! Not prepared to comment on storyline, lots of ups and downs and tension, absolutely brilliant. Well worth a read, would make an incredible film!

I received this book from the publishers via Netgalley for a review. Karin does it again, loved the twist and turns and the interaction between the sisters. A first class thriller

Wow! What a story! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My first ever Karin Slaughter book... I cannot wait to read more from this wonderful author!

This is a gritty, twisty, page turner, full of suspense and heart racing moments. The subject matter is very dark and upsetting at times and what the sisters Leigh and Callie have been through is heartbreaking. However, the relationship between the two of them, how much they love each other and have each other’s back is so heartwarming.

I loved this book so much and will be recommending it to everyone.

Those first two chapters had me hook, link and sinker with Ms Slaughter's trademark visceral, dark imagery, shocking twists and a killer plot. What follows is a heart pounding cat and mice thrill of a book with a particularly depraved set of individuals. As if this weren't enough, underneath this is a story of two sisters, utterly failed by the adults around them, and forced into a criminal act. Years later they are still struggling to deal with the fall out and the book touches on addiction, PTSD, issues of control and abuse, but also the deep and enduring love that the two share. It's a bloody (excuse the pun) masterpiece, and by the end I had both shredded nerves and swollen eyes from my tears.

It's another book for my '2021 best-reads' shelf and I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for the advance copy in return for an honest review.

Oh, my!

Get ready for an amazing rollercoaster of a ride! This is a gripping tale about 2 sisters; Callie and Harleigh, both living with a strange, abusive mother and who both babysit for a boy whose father is a bully, to say the least. The story then develops into one of the sisters becoming a strong, relatively successful lawyer who is asked to defend a serial rapist who has a link to the sister's past.

It's got law, courtroom, drama, family, sex and sexual abuse, addiction and love and I was totally gripped throughout.

It's a book I read in 2 sittings and the majority of the second I was in tears. Karin Slaughter is such an artist that, even with the pandemic woven throughout the book, she maintains the grip of interest and despite the horrors and heartbreak (and there's lots of both) there's also hope and redemption and love. It's the first book that I've read that is written in current times and it's so well done. Fabulous!

I LOVED it and highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview and many congratulations to the author on another triumph.

This is the first book by Karin Slaughter that I have read, or Attempted to read, having been recommended to try her books by friends and family.

Sadly I have to report, I tried several times to get into this novel, and couldn’t engage with the story, or begin to empathise or care about any of the characters.

This novel was not for me,

My favourite book of 2021 (so far).
Set during the Covid pandemic and 1998 this is a story of two sisters Callie and Leigh.
Leigh is asked to defend Andrew Tenant on an abduction/rape charge - only realising too later that he was the strange boy she and her sister babysat when they were twelve/ thirteen - a job which turned into a nightmare for both of them.
Some clever, witty and dark writing of horrendous sex crimes and serious drug use.
Original storyline, addictive, enjoyable and exciting.
I loved this book.
5 Stars 🌟
Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for a fair review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for a free eARC of this book.

Having read and enjoyed other books by this author, I felt somewhat disappointed with this one. It wasn't a bad read, but neither did it blow me away as her others have done. And, on a personal note, it just did not work for me reading all about COVID-19 over and over and over and over and over again. You get the point. Not to mention that the MC kept taking off the mask when she really ought not to have done and leaving it on when she didn't need to ... so, seriously, what was the point? I like my fiction to take me away from the pandemic, not throw me into it's nonense. Also, it got so much attention that it detracted from the plot and took up word count that may have been better employed to develop the MC and her sister a little more.

Technically, this book is plagued with spelling mistakes, lines missing words, and lines containing extra words as if from a partial edit. I know this is an advanced review copy, but seriously, it needs a lot of revision before going to final press. As an ARC reader, I have to take it on trust that this will be taken care of by then. Additionally, the writing reads as passive in the extreme and is not as polished as I have come to expect from this author.

In spite the above, some lines did stand out for me as particularly well done. Here are a couple ...

'He had nearly two feet and at least 150 pounds on her. The heft of an entire second human being existed inside of his hulking body. Scratch him? Bite him? Pull out his hair? Die with his blood in her mouth?'

and

'She groaned worse than Dr Jerry when she stood up. Bad knee. Bad back. Bad neck. Bad girl.'

I felt that Callie would have made for the more compelling main character than her elder sister Leigh. Callie has sass and grit and cunning. Leigh comes across as too reserved and held back to connect with and just didn't respond to situations. Instead, she withdrew even further, and--quite frankly--I found her more annoying than engaging. Callie, on the other hand--bad girl though she is--I could get to grips with and enjoy.

Because of the amount of repetition in this book, even repeating already twice repeated information from earlier in the narrative, and the amount of wasted space listing things and describing surroundings, as well as all the COVID-19 references, the plot and pacing suffered enormously. I laboured through this book over 12 days instead of devouring the read as I normally would. Add to that a lack of connection with the characters, it made for a slog of a read for the most part.

All the descriptions of the violent assaults, rapes, and murders were incredibly graphic, which may upset many readers. I'm fine with it, but do feel more emphasis could have gone into character and plot development. I came across no surprises in this story and no twists or turns. It played out as I expected it would.

As I said at the start of this review, False Witness isn't a bad read, but neither did it blow me away as other books of Karin Slaughter's have done. I give it 3 stars, which means: Didn't love it. Didn't hate it. Worth a read.

***

5 STARS: IT WAS AMAZING! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! — Highly Recommended.
4 STARS: I WOULD PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER — Go read this book.
3 STARS: IT WAS GOOD! — An okay read. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.
2 STARS: I MAY HAVE LIKED A FEW THINGS —Lacking in some areas: writing, characterisation, and/or problematic plot lines.
1 STAR: NOT MY CUP OF TEA —Lots of issues with this book.

Karin Slaughter does it again

This is another great thriller from Karin it is going to grab you and will not let you go till the end, it did me and I can't see it not getting anyone else. love to know what you think.

Liegh the eldest sister and now a busy lawyer and Mum is dragged back to a dark night of her life when she & her sister Callie now a heroine junkie share a horrible secret. Her Boss is forced to give her a client that Leigh most certainly does not want to see or work for. Any balance they had in their lives is about to be well and truly shattered. By the way their Mum Phil is an A$#@ i think that's how you spell it, she would turn them in rather than fight for them, if you owe her money she may introduce her baseball bat to you that sort of Mum. So Leigh has done well but it's it about to ask fall apart?

That's the starting point and from here the action starts and never stops ✋till you get to the end, the events of the dark night may be several years ago the but this thriller is definitely set in present times both Ladies had survived Covid😷 😀 and they thought that was rough!!!!

There are great characters but you know that if you've read any of Karins other Thrillers (I have 🤔🙂) There is a very friendly vet that befriends Callie and also has a secret but you need to read it to find out what it is. I mention him because it's part of the thriller that i like so much in Karins work that adds to a reality or rather a feeling that you could be part of the story. It's like a bit of information that only you and the Ladies know about but it's so important to their lives. You get the great main characters and the needed extras like a P I. that lawyers would be expected to have but to have "normal" (obviously no one is really normal that is except you and me), people that just make it so much more than a run of the mill Thriller. What I'm saying, this is great writing ✍I really was hooked to this from page 1 its a fantastic ride be warned your head may be spinning by the end but you won't regret it the only thing you're likely to regret is not reading it after your friends start going on about it or the film comes out, I hope 1 does even though I know the ending.

Complex,intricate thriller which blurs the line between right and wrong,good and bad.
The characters are diverse and very well portrayed,the storyline is modern and up to date.
This is a great story and draws you right in.

Abandoned after a few pages, the style is just not for me. Grateful to have had the opportunity to try a book/author I wouldn't normally read though.

This is the first book I've read by Karin Slaughter and I'm looking forward to reading more of her books and I thoroughly enjoyed False Witness.
The main character is a successful female lawyer who is asked to represent an alleged serial rapist who turns out to have Known her and her sister when they were children. Old secrets are disinterred and the gruesome story proceeds form there.
I also liked the contemporary feel to the book as it made references to Covid -19, mask wearing, social distancing etc.
Having read most of the books written by my favourite authors such as Michael Connelly, Jo Nesbo, James Lee Burke, Lee Child, C.J .Sansom etc it's good to have another author's back catalogue to explore.

Trigger warnings - sexual abuse, rape and drugs

A new author for me but I really liked the premise of this book - Leigh and Callie are sisters, pushed apart by their shared experience more than 20 years earlier, whilst they were still teenagers.
No one knows what the sisters did and how far they went to protect each other - apart from the new client that Leigh’s boss at her legal firm has for her....why does he want Leigh to represent him?

I found this story quite harrowing at times, with some very graphic descriptions in it. I did enjoy the way the author kept me guessing by adding in plot twists really cleverly throughout. I will be looking for more of Karin’a books.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from Netgalley and this is my honest review.

Wow, Karin Slaughter certainly knows how to make an impact, even just in the first chapter! I found this more of a change of pace than the Sara and Will novels, just as much crime but a much different perspective, no less gripping however.

I think one of the things Karin Slaughter does really well is writing characters that are flawed and do the wrong thing but she still makes you root for them despite that. Except the villains anyway, with those she manages to stir up very different emotions. There are a lot of thrillers that do twists really well but are a bit lacking with having characters you can get really involved with, Karin Slaughter manages to blend both story and characters brilliantly and that is one of the reasons why I could never recommend her books highly enough.

Loved this! The story keeps on keeping you guessing - how on earth is all this going to come good?! A brutal assault leads to an unobserved death, and huge consequences far down the line. Every character is beautifully written, and their secrets kept right till the end. There is not a single person in this novel who doesn't have a part to play in deepening the story, piling layer upon layer of reasoning, rationale, guilt, fear and fury. Don't start reading at bedtime, you won't be able to put it down.

False Witness feels more of a quiet and thoughtful novel than Karin Slaughter's other offerings. This gives time to explore Leigh and Callie's relationship. To be too intense would also detract from the seriousness of abuse at various levels.

The relationship between the sisters is touching, real, and complicated. I enjoyed watching it unfold.

Karin Slaughter fans won't be disappointed by the skillful depictions of violence and its consequences. Some fans may find this novel a little sedate, though.

The Covid references and practises weren't pervasive and didn't put me off reading. I understand many want escapism but I feel this novel is referencing Covid as part of our new normal.

Such a thoughtful, clever, quietly devastating thriller from the absolute queen of this genre. Defense lawyer Leigh Coulton has a good life: her career is on the up, her divorced was civilised, her teen daughter is doing well in school. So when she is requested to defend a wealthy local businessman accused of rape - it takes Leigh only moments to realise her world is about to come crashing down around her. Leigh knows this man, Andrew Trevor Tennant, because she killed his father when she was a teenager - and no one has ever found out. The only person Leigh can turns to for help is her younger sister Calli - who as a teen was groomed and repeatedly raped by the man's dad. Today Calli is a junkie who lives from day to day as a down and out. This cat and mouse chase between the sisters and Tennant, his girlfriend and their private investigate is superbly written. There are some gruesome scenes (this is after all a Karin Slaughter thriller folks!) which aren't for the faint hearted but justified within the plot. I was a bit irritated by the covid backdrop and the constant referrals to masking up etc but apart from that it was an excellent read.