Wow. This book is heavy. It is both a murder mystery and a legal thriller.
I was hooked immediately. The chapters alternate between Rachel’s investigation and Hannah’s letters. I loved the chapters that are episodes from Rachel’s podcast. As you read, the rape trial and Jenny Stills’ drowning are both discussed, making it feel like you are experiencing two stories in one.

The Night Swim is intense, parts are raw, and the writing is fantastic. There were parts where I teared up. There were parts where I felt sick to my stomach as the novel explores what a rape victim experiences when their case enters the courtroom. The depiction of the bond of sisterhood is beautiful and heartbreaking. This one stuck with me long after I finished it. I know this one is an August BOTM pick, so if you haven’t been able to get your hands on it yet, please do.

I hope to read more Rachel Krall! She’s a badass.

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

Here is the thing. This book is SO hard to read and yet once you get started you NEED to continue. This story delves very deeply into the subject of rape. But it is a real, upfront depiction of what the victim goes through not only at the hand of the rapist but at the hand of those that still blame the victim. Was she asking for it? How was she dressed? What did she do to deserve this?

I won’t say this book is perfect. There are parts that I do not believe was written accurately but for the most part the story hits home. The story also has the murder of Jenny, who it is claimed accidentally drowned, but her sister is sure it is murder and wants Rachel to find the truth.

Again, this story has parts that are hard to read. It gets intense and you just want to put it down to take a breath but then you can’t stop thinking about it.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I read Megan's previous book last year and thought it was just okay. I enjoyed this book so much more.

Rachel is a podcast host, but not just any podcast host. She is THE true crime podcast host. For her third season she is following a rape case while it is going through trial recording episodes at night while spending all day in court. As she investigates the case she is contacted by a woman whose sister died 25 years ago and she is convinced it was murder.

As the two cases begin to weave their way around each other Rachel is searching for justice, while others want that justice to stay hidden.

This book had great pacing as I found myself racing to the next chapter. I liked having Rachel's podcast as separate chapters and found that was a fun addition. Overall, this was a good book that got me thinking and trying to figure out what had happened.

The Night Swim was a tense and exciting novel. The main character, Rachel Krall, is the host of a true crime podcast, Guilty or Not Guilty, that is very popular. She goes to a small town to cover a rape trial. The town is divided on the guilt of the accused, a popular high school athlete. While covering the story, Rachel starts getting notes from a fan of the show asking that Rachel look into the death of her sister, years before. The two stories are woven together along with some surprises along the way.

I really enjoyed this book. I am not familiar with Podcasts so that element was new to me. It was interesting to see the trial from the impartial prospective of the podcast as the facts of the case unfolded.

I highly recommend this book. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read the Advanced Reader's Copy.

I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. The Night Swim by Megan Goldin is a mystery story that explores the world of true crime podcasts.
Rachel Krall has a successful true-crime podcast, and in season three, she’s going to do something a little different instead of exploring cold files and past crimes she’s going to bring her podcast into the current trial of a young man accused of raping a teenage girl. When she starts getting anonymous letters from someone who wants her to investigate the drowning death of a teenage girl twenty-five years previously, the similarities between the two cases have her wondering if history is repeating itself. The author keeps you on the edge of your seat while reading this book, and I found it impossible to put down. Publishing Date: August 4, 2020 
#TheNightSwim #MeganGoldin #StMartinsPress #MysteryAndThrillers #NetGalley #bookstagram

This is my second book my Megan Goldin and I enjoyed it more than the first! This could be a series with each book being another podcast/mystery for Rachel to solve. I loved the second mystery that was filtered in with the main mystery, I had no clue who did it with either mystery, my jaw dropped when everything was revealed. Read it pretty quickly because I just had to know what happened, could not put it down!

This review is based on an ARC from NetGalley, courtesy of the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press and Megan Goldin for the opportunity to read and review her latest thriller - 5 stars for a fabulous read! I loved The Escape Room by this author and this is even better.

Rachel Krall has a very successful podcast that has featured one unsolved cold case per season. She was able to solve both and feels the pressure of her next case. She decides to cover a current trial and present an unbiased view of both sides. She heads to Neapolis, a small town on the NC shoreline, for the rape trial of golden boy, Scott Blair, an accomplished swimmer with Olympic dreams. But that's not the only case Rachel is involved in; an unknown person starts leaving her notes in places where Rachel feels she should be anonymous. The writer tells Rachel about the murder of her sister 25 years ago and begs her to look into the case. Rachel soon discovers connections between the two cases decades apart.

The way this book is written grabs you from the beginning. We are privy to Rachel's thoughts as well as the script of her podcast as she attends the trial. We also get to read the notes from Hannah, the woman trying to get justice for her sister's murder long ago. The podcast scripts delve deeper into the issue of trying to prosecute rape trials - the he said/she said aspect, putting the victim on trial for her actions, how rape and murder are treated so differently in the public eye. Reputation plays a big role in this book as well - how gossip and rumor spreading can be so completely devastating, especially in the social media landscape.

Highly recommended for a twisty psychological thriller that will keep you guessing and glued to the pages.

Rachel hosts a popular true crime podcast. In her prior two seasons, she addressed old murder cases, with one even resulting in the release of an innocent man from prison. This season, she chooses to follow a rape case that is set for trial with the intention of putting her audience "in the jury box."

Scott Blair is accused of raping 16 year-old Kelly Moore. Scott is a competitive swimmer with a real shot at making the US Olympic team. He comes from money and a well known and respected family. The small town of Neapolis is divided on Scott's guilt with many people taking their anger out at the Moores and vehemently denying that their local hero could possibly be guilty of attacking the young girl.

When Rachel gets to Neapolis, her plan is to devote all her time and energy into the trial and the podcast. Afterall, she wants her audience to feel like they're in the jury box so it's essential that they're given all the facts in as close to real-time as possible. But Hannah Stills has a different agenda for Rachel.

Hannah's sister drowned when Hannah was just ten years old. Her mother died shortly after, giving in to her battle with cancer. Hannah doesn't believe that her sister - a strong swimmer - accidentally drowned, or worse, that took her own life. But Neapolis's memory is long and their grudges deep and to the residents of Neapolis, Jenny was bad news, her name synonymous with what happens to wild girls with loose morals. No one in Neapolis has any reason to believe that Jenny's death was nothing but an accident and an investigation was never opened up.

Hannah leaves a letter on Rachel's car at a rest stop. Rachel keeps a low profile and has kept her face hidden from her viewers to maintain a semblance of privacy in her day-to-day life. Finding the letter on her car leaves Rachel unnerved, but she's even more wary when Hannah's letters start showing up in Rachel's hotel room and at the courthouse. Hannah always seems to be around, but one step ahead.

Hannah is desperate for Rachel to look into her sister's death, and feels that scaring her is the only way to get her attention. It works, and Rachel quickly becomes invested in finding out what really happened to Jenny Stills twenty-five years ago.

The novel simultaneously follows the trial of Scott Blair and Rachel's investigation into Jenny Stills' death. We also get snippets of Rachel's podcast and her research into that case. I have a feeling this will be done really well on the audio version! I really liked the format of the book, the multiple storylines, and how everything came together. It was a pretty quick read and with the two different mysteries, it almost felt like a two-for-one deal! I definitely recommend this and I'm eager to pick up Goldin's other work, The Escape Room.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy of The Night Swim.

I was first captivated and intrigued with Megan Goldin's, "The Escape Room", and she has most assuredly continued with that same high level of excitement and suspense with "The Night Swim". Megan Goldin is exploding on the literary scene with her next psychological thriller, "The Night Swim". It's refreshing and rewarding, when a new author is able to follow-up with as just a riveting and emotionally charged novel, as her first one.

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC and this is my honest review.

Legal Thriller ✔ Suspense ✔ Courtroom drama ✔ True Crime (complete with podcasts) ✔ This book has it all! At first I was a little confused keeping all the characters straight, but as the storylines unfolded and came together, it all made sense. This is not your typical edge of your seat thriller, but it will definitely capture your attention and make you want to keep turning the pages. 4.5 ⭐

Thank you to @stmartinspress, @netgalley, and @megangoldinauthor for the early gifted copy of The Night Swim. It is out August 4th!
I really enjoyed this one! It’s also a pick this month with @bookofthemonth, and from what I have seen so far, a lot of people decided to go with this one as their monthly pick. Good choice!
This book has two storylines at once. One is a death of a teenage girl from twenty five years ago, and one is a current day rape trial. The chapters are told from the perspectives of Hannah, the sister of the girl who died years ago; Rachel, in clips from her podcast about the rape trial; and also from Rachel, in third person POV as she investigates both cases. I really enjoyed the writing, and I was invested in the characters and what happened to them. There’s a good twist at the end, and it takes most of the book for an explanation as to how the two cases are related—but it’s worth it! I definitely recommend picking this one up—I imagine it would be a good audiobook, too, especially with the podcast clips.

As much as I don’t like the trend of books involving true crime podcasts (because, imo, replicating the "feel" is difficult to pull off, and as scaffolding for a plot it has to have more than wisps to hang on, but despite my worries, The Night Swim pulled off the p9dcast angle quite well, and is a great thriller! Definitely worth checking out.

I loved "The Night Swim" so much! As a huge fan of true crime podcasts (I probably listen to 20-30 regularly), I thought the premise of this thriller was brilliant. It's about Rachel, the host of a popular true crime podcast, who travels to a small town called Neapolis to cover a rape trial for the next season of the show. The victim, who has become the town pariah, is a high school girl who was a virgin. The accused rapist, a nationally-recognized swimmer hoping to quality for the next Olympic games (there are definite shades of convicted rapist Brock Turner here), claims the act was consensual. The town is very split on whether a crime was even committed.

Meanwhile, Rachel is receiving strange messages from a fan of her show begging Rachel to look into the death of her sister Jenny years earlier in Neapolis. Jenny's death was ruled an accidental drowning without so much as an investigation, but Hannah believes her sister was murdered and says Rachel is the only person who can help her reveal the truth.

The story highlights the secrets and lies in a small town, while also showing the trauma rape victims must go through to report the crime, get a rape kit done at a hospital, and then go to trial to answer private and embarrassing questions in front of strangers in an attempt to get justice. It's a courtroom drama, a coming-of-age story, and it involves rehashing and reckoning with the past.

Author Megan Goldin did a masterful job of weaving together multiple stories, viewpoints, and a surprise ending I didn't see coming at all. I enjoyed it even more than her last novel, "The Escape Room." I highly recommend this book.

Riveting. If I could only describe this book in one word, that would be it. From beginning to end. And I'll be thinking about this book for a long time. 

Rachel Krall is a true-crime podcast host covering a controversial rape trial that has divided the small town and she also finds herself drawn to an old crime that took place there years ago.

Mostly recognized for her voice, she finds it disturbing when she finds a note addressed to her on her car windshield.

And that's all I can say because I don't want to spoil anything.

ARC provided by St. Martin's Press via NetGalley

I was reached out to being a part of the Blog Tour for this book. I have attached the link to my Blog Tour Stop. I have a very lengthy excerpt featured, that I think will give many readers a good feel for what the book will be like! Thank you St. Martin's Press!

The night swim starts off with Hannah telling about the night her sister, Jenny, died 25 years ago. Then we switch to Rachel as she’s preparing to cover a rape trial for her podcast, Guilty or Not Guilty. Hannah has sent Rachel a letter asking for her help solving what she believes is her sister’s murder. We then have chapters following Rachel, Hannah’s letters to Rachel, and the podcast. I loved this setup, and found myself equally invested in all three parts and both cases.

While the story itself was great, the podcast was probably my favorite part. The commentary on rape culture really resonated with me. The themes of this book deal heavily with rape, so I would only recommend it to people that are comfortable reading about rape and sexual assault.

I did guess some of the reveals along the way, but nothing was obvious and I found myself questioning my predictions. The only negative aspect of this book was that I found the bullying of a certain character a bit over the top and unbelievable.

I would love it if this book became a series following Rachel and new seasons of her podcast, Guilty or Not Guilty.
4.5 stars rounded up for Goodreads

*I received this arc in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press.*

This is such a powerful book! 4.5 stars
I loved The Escape Room and so I was hesitant about this new one because I didn't think it could be as good, but I was happily wrong.
Besides being an engrossing psychological thriller with some surprising twists, this novel highlights the glaring inequities with rape culture. Rapes are the only crime where the victim is put on trial, and where the victim is blamed more often than not. It is something I had never really thought too much about before, but it is astounding when you take the time to think about it.
The only slight issues I had were that in the end, I couldn't figure out why Hannah went to all of the work to hide herself, and I didn't get a clear answer as to how she was able to find Rachel so many places and stay out of sight. Also, Rachel's armchair detective work borders on a bit too convenient at times, some things she uncovers should have been discovered by the investigators. Other than those small details, this is a fantastic book, and they don't detract from the overall story.
I listened to much of this one as an audio book and the narrators did an excellent job embodying the main characters. Since the tale focuses on episodes of a podcast, the narrative naturally lends itself quite well to an audio book format. I must say though, that at regular speed the speech is incredibly slow, so I had to speed up the audio to 1.75x in order for my mind not to wander. Listeners might want to play around with the speed to find one that works for them.
If you're looking for a compelling suspense novel, then look no further and place this one on your list now.

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW: The Night Swim was written by Megan Goldin, and is set to be released by St. Martin’s Press on August 4th, 2020. Goldin is the bestselling author of The Escape Room, so this isn’t her first foray into the mystery/thriller world. The book’s tagline reads, “a true crime podcast host covering a controversial trial finds herself drawn deep into a small town’s dark past and a brutal crime that took place there years before.”

PLOT RUNDOWN/BASICS: Rachel Krall is the host of the very successful podcast Guilty or Not Guilty, where she examines one specific true crime case each season. In her first two seasons, Rachel has helped put guilty people behind bars, and even released innocent ones who were wrongly convicted.

In a bid to keep her popularity and ward off the many copycat podcasts who are repeating her successful formula, she decides to go inside a rape trial for her third season. It’s a somewhat controversial decision, but she’s determined to put her listeners “in the jury box,” so to speak, so that they feel like they have a stake in the outcome of the trial. This requires traveling to a small town on the east coast, where a local boy and champion swimmer has been accused of raping a 16-year-old. Determined to provide an impartial overview, Rachel schedules meetings with all of the parties involved and documents each day at trial for her listeners.

However, immediately upon her arrival, she is flooded with mysterious letters from a woman named Hannah who is determined to have Rachel tell her own story. Hannah writes about her sister Jenny, who she says was murdered 25 years earlier in the same small town. Rachel tries not to get involved but finds herself drawn to Hannah’s story; soon she’s trying to keep up with a grueling trial-and-recording schedule, while also digging into Jenny’s mysterious death from decades prior.

As the trial unfolds and the locals become familiar faces, Rachel begins to see connections between both Jenny’s story and Kelly’s case. Who among the older residents can she trust, and why - 25 years later - are people compelled to either continue keeping secrets, or lying to keep them from coming out? And what will it cost them all to find out the truth?

MY THOUGHTS: This was my first work by Goldin, but - and keep this in mind as you read my honest opinions below - I will definitely read her future books. The topics covered in this novel - rape, podcast culture, the justice system - are very timely and reflect too many true-to-life cases to count. Goldin does a good job allowing Rachel to reflect on what this idea of rape culture, and victimology, does to both the accused and the accusers, and her incredibly detailed reflections on why rape victims do not report their crimes are hauntingly realistic. I’ll reflect more on that at the end of my thoughts here...but now, for my brutally honest take on this book.

I actually thought this was a debut by Goldin (having not read any of her previous works, and also clearly having overlooked the blurb about her previous novels). Why, you may ask? Well, to be fair, the book felt like a first draft in need of a good polish and editing. For one, the initial dialogue between Rachel and her producer Pete was a bit cringe-y, and I say this lovingly as a wannabe writer who has the hardest time crafting realistic dialogue. It seemed stilted and as if it were set up just to info-dump, while not actually sounding like how ANYONE would really talk. (For example: “It was bound to happen,” sighed Pete. “You are a household name.” And: “I could ask the cops to look into it. See what they can find out,” Pete offered. “My contact in the FBI said we shouldn’t hesitate to file a complaint after the death threats you got last year. I still have his card with his direct number,” he added.)

Secondly, I didn’t feel like all of the scenes were necessarily realistic. I, for one, am from a small town, and I don’t think anyone would ever erupt into a heated (yet very generalized “guilty/not guilty”) argument about a local trial in the grocery store lines, with the clerk taking part as well...but that’s just my experience. It’s also not terribly likely that years after one young girl’s death, someone would still have graffitied “whore” on her tombstone, especially when the boys who raped her repeatedly were all dead or had suffered tremendous medical consequences. The waiter at the local hotel also probably wouldn’t point out that you look like you’re there for a murder trial because “you don’t have a vacation vibe,” and also simultaneously say that the town is small (“Everyone knows the boy involved. Some personally and some by reputation. And this town is small enough that people can pretty much guess who the girl is”) and then, four sentences later, say the exact opposite unironically (“I don’t think it’s true that everyone knows everyone here. Maybe once. Neapolis isn’t a small town anymore.”)

WHAT I LIKED: Now, with THAT out of the way...I truly enjoyed the way the book was structured (and that has NOTHING to do with the fact that I myself have written an entire outline for a mystery book with podcast episodes included as part of the plotline). I didn’t particularly connect much with the main character of Rachel, likely because we know literally nothing about her except what she does in regards to researching this case, and her podcast musings. However, I felt like the podcast “episode” chapters gave us the most insight into her thoughts as a character, and thus gave Goldin (as the author) a place to air her deepest thoughts on rape culture and how the victim is always the one who pays the price for the crime that happened to them - regardless of whether or not the perpetrator is caught, convicted, and serves time. (Hearing the details of what happens when a rape kit is taken in the hospital was incredibly horrifying, and I could easily understand why so many women wouldn’t bother to go through this after an assault.)

The reality is that these types of situations - both Jenny’s and Kelly’s - do happen every single day, and often the perpetrators go on to live seemingly normal lives (as per Jenny’s murderer in the novel) and/or aren’t even convicted (see: real-life Brock Turner, who was actually witnessed and stopped mid-crime yet was spared jail time to “preserve his future”). In fact, as we’ve learned in the Me, Too movement, half of these people don’t even think about themselves as rapists, thanks to toxic cultural norms. If you’ve seen the pictures on social media showing protest signs that read, “How come every woman knows someone who’s been raped, but no man knows a rapist?”, you’ll know what Goldin (and I) am referring to.

Goldin makes some very valid points about how the system victimizes rape victims continuously even after the crime is long past. In one of her episodes, Rachel opines, “One of the questions I keep asking myself is whether it’s worth it. When a person goes through a terrible trauma, her mind is conditioned to forget what happened. Memory loss from trauma is a protective mechanism. It helps us stay sane. In this case, a sixteen-year-old girl is being asked to recount, in front of a large group of strangers, in public, every single traumatic, horrific moment of that night on the beach so that maybe, just maybe, her alleged rapist will be punished for what he did to her.” She goes on to say, “The trauma of testifying is one of the main reasons why so many rape victims opt not to testify and why so many rapes are never prosecuted.”

As Rachel says in her podcast episode, and Goldin is saying overall with this book, our society is more than willing to discuss grisly murders in great detail - but rape, not so much. True crime is a booming industry right now, and there are thousands upon thousands of social media groups dedicated to discussing Bundy and Gacy and Keyes, and dissecting their every preference and action. But we feel uncomfortable even using the word “rape,” and - like some of the characters in this novel - many people want to say it’s a gray area in a world of black and white. Goldin wrote this novel to show the importance of recognizing the trauma that rape victims go through, and to point out that we should be just as horrified by every sexual assault and sex crime that occurs as we are by murder and carnage. As she says in the novel, rape victims are still alive to relive the assault and the trauma every day - and they deserve our care and respect for what they’re going through.

I received an early copy from Netgalley. I truly enjoyed this book. The format was intriguing, one chapter is about a reporter attending a trial and the next chapter is the reporters pod cast transcript of the trial. Very imaginative use of a current different media. A great quick read for a few summer afternoons or nights!

I don't think I'll be forgetting this book any time soon. "Haunting," is one word for it. "Piercing" is another.

Cultural relevancy: ★★★★★
Villain(s)/Reveal(s): ★★★★★
Atmosphere: ★★★★★

The Night Swim comes out on August 4, 2020.

The Night Swim is a novel that feels sharply of its time—and that's not a good thing for our modern world. In my opinion, this book shouldn't have to exist. But I'm glad that Megan Goldin decided to tell it, because it's poignant, important, and aches with past and present bruises.

Rachel Krall is now a household name. After starting her extremely successful cold-case crime podcast, Rachel has become something of an amateur detective, jury, and public figure all in one. Now in her third season of her podcast, Rachel decides to go into uncharted territory: covering a current, ongoing court case.

A small town is in the midst of a rape trial.

Immediately, your expectations can supply some of the details as—and I hope you can feel the angry in my words through the screen—this is not a unique injustice in our society.

A golden boy, a pillar of the Neapolis community, destined for a shot at the Olympic swim team when he graduates, perfect in every way according to the world and his parents and society—he's been charged with rape and assault. How could such a nice boy have done this? The town cries for this boy who's been "wronged."

The girl, of course, is living in a different kind of hell and hasn't been looked on as fondly by the town. Her family is hounded by the press, her name becomes synonymous with "asking for it," and her trial has been hijacked in the court of public opinion by her predator.

Rachel Krall is here to find out the truth behind this current rape trial. But what Rachel doesn't expect to find is a series of letters addressed to her, begging her to look into the "accidental" death of a teenage girl 25 years ago in the same small town. The town slut, the town's shining example of a girl gone wrong. That girl's fate was also determined by the court of public opinion, and her death was pushed under the rug.

With pulse-pounding suspense, lingering coastal atmosphere, and a social commentary as sharp as glass, The Night Swim is a great mystery/thriller. I hope its place in the canon does its subject matter justice, and I hope it sparks more conversations. As a woman, it made me rage and ache and want to not have daughters. As a reader, it made me appreciate Goldin's talent for the written word, and her bravery for tackling a topic that, as her own protagonist states, is somehow not a black and white issue.

If we can all agree that murder is wrong, indefinitely, irrefutably—why is rape somehow different? Like Rachel Krall's podcast concludes with, it's time for you, the audience, to decide for yourself who is right, and who is wrong.

Thank you to St Martin's Press via NetGalley for an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.