False Witness by Karin Slaughter Narrator: Kathleen Early
Published by Blackstone Audiobooks on July 20, 2021
Genres: Suspense, Thriller
Length: 13 hours, 30 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
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He saw what you did.
He knows who you are....
From the New York Times best-selling author of Pieces of Her and The Silent Wife, an electrifying stand-alone thriller
An ordinary life...
Leigh Collier has worked hard to build what looks like a normal life. She has a good job as a defense attorney, a daughter doing well in school, and even her divorce is relatively civilized - her life is just as unremarkable as she’d always hoped it would be.
Hides a devastating past...
But Leigh’s ordinary life masks a childhood which was far from average...a childhood tarnished by secrets, broken by betrayal, and finally torn apart by a devastating act of violence.
But now the past is catching up...
Then a case lands on her desk- defending a wealthy man accused of rape. It’s the highest profile case she’s ever been given - a case which could transform her career, if she wins. But when she meets the accused, she realizes that it’s no coincidence that he’s chosen her as his attorney. She knows him. And he knows her. More to the point, he knows what happened 20 years ago, and why Leigh has spent two decades running.
And time is running out.
If she can’t get him acquitted, she’ll lose much more than the case. The only person who can help her is her estranged younger sister Callie, the last person Leigh would ever want to ask for help. But suddenly she has no choice....
I was in the mood for a good suspense/thriller story and there are several Karin Slaughter stand alone stories I haven’t tackled yet, so I just grabbed one at random. I very rarely read the blurb on a book. I like going in blind. So it was a bit of a shock that this story takes place during COVID. I guess I didn’t look at the publication date either. LOL
False Witness is a very typical Karin Slaughter book. It kept me on the edge of my seat. I fell in love with several of the characters. There are a few I want to reach through the earbuds and strangle. This story is very dark and can trigger some people (addiction, rape, and child molestation). The details can be a bit if you don’t know they’re coming.
This story follows a lawyer, Leigh, who came from a very bad situation at home. She is new and very low at her firm. Then she is surprised when a named partner comes to her saying a client requested her specifically. It is for a man she babysat when he was very young.
This story has a lot of flashbacks to the past when Leigh was a child herself. We also get some POV from her sister, Callie, who is addicted to pretty much anything she can get her hands on. Callie’s story is like so many. She was a competitive cheerleader and when she broke her neck, she got hooked on painkillers. Once the prescriptions ran out, she went to the streets to get her fix.
This book is very dark for many reasons (see trigger warning above), but even more than that, Leigh and Callie’s mother, who is a real piece of work. But Slaughter is great at adding in some humor to lighten the mood a bit. The best are the names that Callie gives to her cat, whose actual name is Binx, which seems to change depending on who she talks to.
Callie smiled at the muscular black cat on the ledge. Binx stretched his back as he waited for entry. “He caught a pigeon today.”
Leigh clearly didn’t give a shit about the pigeon, but she tried, “What’s his name?”
“Fucking Bitch.” Callie grinned at her sister’s startled reaction. “I call him Fitch for short.”
“Isn’t that a girl’s name?”
“He’s gender fluid.”
There’s another where she talks to bitch of a mother that is even better, but uses the “c” word which was a bit more than I wanted to include in a review. I think she was indirectly calling her mother that. And she’s not wrong. Her mother is a horrible person.
Anyway, this was a really fun, but very dark story. While it wasn’t hard to figure out who the bad guy was in this story, there were still several surprises that kept the story interesting.
Narration:
Kathleen Early does an amazing job performing this series. She has done almost all of Karin Slaughter’s audiobooks. She’s so good at getting the character’s voice right. She’s great with male and female voices. Her tone is always spot on. I’ve always enjoyed her narrations. She really brings the story to life.
Listen to a clip:
About Kathleen Early
Kathleen Early has performed on Broadway, as well as performing off-Broadway and at a number of regional theaters. She has made forays into the film and television world, winning a Beverly Hills Film Festival Outstanding Female Performance Award for her part in Trip in a Summer Dress. She was most recently seen as Dr. Dasiy Pepman on Grey’s Anatomy, and will be Nurse Kathy on the upcoming series Miami Medical.
About Karin Slaughter
Karin Slaughter is one of the world’s most popular and acclaimed storytellers. Published in 120 countries with more than 35 million copies sold across the globe, her nineteen novels include the Grant County and Will Trent books, as well as the Edgar-nominated COP TOWN and the instant NEW YORK TIMES bestselling novels PRETTY GIRLS, THE GOOD DAUGHTER, and PIECES OF HER. Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, Karin Slaughter lives in Atlanta. Her standalone novels PIECES OF HER, THE GOOD DAUGHTER, and COP TOWN are in development for film and television.
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I started listening to audiobooks when a new book in a series was coming out and I wanted to get a refresher, but didn’t have time to read all the books (I think it was Anita Blake). I fell in love. I stayed with strictly re-reading books that I’d already read for a long time. I eventually tried an audiobook for something that I hadn’t read first and was hooked there too. Now, I listen to audio for both re-reads and first time. I have some series that I’ve given up reading and only listen. I try to get any many books/audiobooks from the library to help save on my budget. Books on CD and the newer digital downloads from the library really allow me to listen more. I then purchase my favorites (because who can wait in line for your favorite book??) and less mainstream books from Audible or some other online retailer.
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I’ve read many Karin Slaughter books in the past. Her last few have pushed the envelope for me as far as the violence against women and children. I would love to read this but I think it wouldn’t work for me. I really enjoy the Grant County series over the Will Trent one. Just my opinion. Good review!
Yes, the Will Trent books aren’t usually as violent as the stand-alones. I’ve noticed that too.
Great review Melanie I think I’ve read/listened to the author but I’m not sure but this sure sounds like my cup of suspense. Thanks
This was sooo good! Riveting and disturbing at the same time. Yes the mother was awful! I laughed at how Callie named her cat to call her mom names and get away with it! Wonderful review, Anne!
yes the cat names were great. I really like Callie, even as broken as she was. She tried really hard.
I actually started this because I love Karin Slaughter but it was a time when I was too busy / scattered and couldn’t get into it. I’ll try again later. I’m happy to see you thought it was so good.
This was a lot of fun. It was pretty violent, compared to the Will Trent series. I hope you get a chance to get back to this one.
I loved the Will Trent series.
I love Karin Slaughter. Will definitely try to get my hands on this one.
I hope you get a chance to try this one.
I have several of Karin Slaughter’s books on my TBR list. I need to get busy reading them this year.
She writes some really great stories. The stand-alone books are much more violent and dark than the Will Trent/Grant County series. I got my start with Will Trent and he is still my favorite.
This is an author that I really do want to try. I think it is interesting that it is set in Covid times. I don’t think that I have read any books dealing with the pandemic yet.
I can’t recommend the Will Trent series enough. He is one of my all-time favorite characters. He’s such a great guy and an underdog too. I do enjoy her stand-alone stories too, though they tend to be darker than the series.
Fantastic review. I have enjoyed everything I’ve read by this author.
Same here, I haven’t found anything from her that I didn’t love. I’m still working my way through some of her stand-alone stuff. I’m caught up on Will Trent. I hope he will have more books. He is probably one of my favorite characters. I think I might’ve started this author because of your reviews of her work.
I have not stepped this deep into thriller territory yet
Truthfully, some of the Urban Fantasy you’ve read gets, maybe not quite this dark, but some are very dark and very thriller.