While not as good as The Escape Room, this was still a really fun read. A solid thriller, with a fun podcast twist.

This title was incredible, and took me by surprise many times.

Know for her popular podcast, Rachel is headed to the town where she will be researching and watching a trial for her next season. Unlike her past seasons, she's raising the bar with this one, a rape trial that's all anyone can talk about.

On her way she is reached out to for an unsolved case from 20 years ago, and the two incidents are quickly woven together.

Fantastic main character, with a unique story, this one took hold of me as a reader and I was enthralled.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Rachel is the host of a popular podcast focusing on people who were wrongly accused. The third season of the podcast needs to be better and different than the first two seasons. She decides to cover a live rape trial that has similarities to a crime that took place twenty five years ago.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat the entire book. I read it in a day. The twist at the end is amazing! The writing is so good and the characters well developed. This is an incredible psychological thriller that keeps you guessing.

Than you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy for an honest review.

I received a copy of this via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The sophomore title of Megan Goldin is a marvel. It has a distinctly different feel from her first book but still delivers a powerful suspense filled with multiple layers. An extremely fact paced read that compels the reader to plow right through it. Slow down and savor Goldin's style and enjoy!

This novel follows the trial about the rape of a sixteen-years old girl. The accused is a young athlete and son of a well-known local business man.

The novel is narrated by Rachel Krall, the producer of a popular crime podcast. She visits the town where the trial is taking place to produce a series of podcast about the case.

While in town, she starts receiving letters from Hannah, who believes her sister Jenny was murdered 25 years ago in the same town but that her crime was never investigated.

This novel was very different from the author’s previous novel The Escape Room (which I loved). While the previous novel was a fast-paced, entertaining thriller, this book was more of an exploration of the legal and emotional consequences of rape in the victims and their family’s lives as well as those of the accused.

The novel is well written and the characters are compelling, I liked it and recommend it but it was not an easy read.

ARC provided by Publisher via Netgalley

The Night Swim by Megan Goldin is sure to be a crowd-pleaser! I finished this novel in a single day and have been recommending it to friends ever since.

Raised a generation apart, two young girls experience an uncannily similar fate. Both are brutalized by young men considered the scions of the day. Each is held up to the humiliation of public scrutiny and blamed for her own fate.

When the first falls victim to an untimely death, no one other than her ten year- old sister, Hannah, remains to mark her passing. Twenty-five years later, as justice hangs in the balance for the second victim, Hannah returns to unearth the truth about her sister's death. She appeals to a podcast journalist, Rachel, for help. Equally intrigued and unnerved by Hannah's cryptic messages, she reluctantly agrees. Their quest into the underpinnings of this upstanding community will have you second guessing who is at the very core of evil and invoking karma to have her way with them...signing off ...

Be ye warned, there is danger in unearthing the secrets that haunt the living. Tread ye lightly so as not to tarry with the dead!

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley and immediately dove in. I’ve never heard of this author but the cover and synopsis was intriguing. I read this in a day! It grabbed my attention and sucked me in and I needed to finish. This is such a great book and I look forward to more from this author!

Megan Goldin’s latest novel, The Night Swim, is an edge of your seat thriller with an ending that you won’t see coming! Even better than Megan Goldin’s first book, The Night Swim kept me rapt and furiously turning pages to find “who dunnit.”

The Night Swim is told as two alternating stories that occurred 25 years apart. Rachel is a true crime podcast journalist, who is reporting on a present day and controversial rape trial. Hannah’s story is that of when she was a young girl, and, according to her, her big sister Jenny was murdered. Hannah attempts to rope Rachel in to investigating the murder of her sister in a rather unconventional way, but Rachel soon learns that Jenny wasn’t murdered.

Who is telling the truth? What will be the outcome of the trial? And what really happened 25 years ago? Preorder your copy of the Night Swim using the link below - pub day is August 4, 2020.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Megan Goldin for the advance copy of The Night Swim!

Two girls, twenty five years apart. Raped and beaten by a group of guys or one guy, their reputations, spirits, lives destroyed by being blamed for what was done to them. The first girl ended up dead, unable to defend herself in public, from the rumors. The second girl speaks out about what was done to her and her torment continues, as public blame turns towards her.

Rachel Krall's popular podcast "Guilty or Not Guilty" is beginning it's third year by featuring the trial of a college swimmer who is accused of raping "K". The town is divided as the young man is from the most prominent family in town while the girl is the granddaughter of the former police chief. Many blame the girl for ruining the future of the young man, with her accusations. The girl's life is forever changed because she can never be the same person after being allegedly brutally raped over and over and then publicly brutalized again, for speaking out.

Before Rachel arrives in town she is getting notes from Hannah, the sister of Jenny, who was raped and drowned twenty five years ago. Hannah's sister never got to fight back but instead, the guys who attacked her spread vicious stories about her and her virtue, all lies, but because Jenny was from a very poor family, the rumors were treated as truth. Hannah is sure that Jenny was murdered and she needs Rachel's help to prove it.

The stories intertwine in this quick and easy read. Then you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

Wow! Couldn’t put this down. It can be hard to read as it is about two races that happened 25 years apart. The book is centered around a podcast host. Well written novel with plenty of mystery.

As a podcast junkie, the idea of a podcast host covering a ripped from the headlines trial,is up my alley.

That part is well done and flows nicely.It rings to to real life true crime podcasts with the concept.

The issue is the part with Hannah doesn't flow as well.The letters read more like info dumps than actual letters.The investigation is interesting but slows down the book at first.

This is a fine book but not memorable for me.If any of the themes appeal to you I recommend trying it out.

Just an excellent and compelling mystery. Novels about true crime podcasts are becoming a trope in the mystery and suspense genre but THE NIGHT SWIM is the best I have read yet. The podcaster, Rachel Krall is a fully developed and interesting character. As she covers a rape trial, she receives information a girl who went missing 25 years ago. And because Rachel is a woman of insatiable curiosity, she feels compelled to look into the old disappearance while still investigating the alleged rape. this one kept me up well past bedtime because I just had to know what would happen next.

“This is Rachel Krall on Guilty or Not Guilty, the podcast that puts YOU in the jury box.”

Known for her sultry voice, but not her face, Rachel is troubled when she finds a handwritten letter on her windshield, outside a diner at a remote stop, as she is on her way to Neapolis, the town of her season three podcast.

The letter is written intimately, and is asking for help in solving the case of a sixteen year old girl named Jenny Stills, who died in Neapolis decades earlier, and is signed by her sister Hannah, who believes the “drowning” was actually a murder...

But, Rachel gets requests from desperate people all the time.

She needs to focus on the current case.

For the first time her Podcast is following a trial LIVE, and it is the first RAPE she is covering- A Future Olympian, and the town’s golden boy has been accused of raping a high school student, referred to as “K”.

But, Hannah does not give up easily.

Told from the alternating perspectives of Hannah, Rachel, and the Season Three Podcast episode transcripts, the three narratives, and the two cases, will eventually intersect in many unexpected ways.

I love when a suspense story can surprise me, while remaining plausible, and this one managed to do just that, with the short chapters I love which allow you to say “just one more chapter”...

I am hoping that Rachel Krall, and her podcast may make another appearance in a future book...any chance of that happening, Ms. Goldin??

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the digital ARC I received in exchange for a candid review! This book will be released Aug 4, 2020!

Addictive and haunting! Megan Goldin has again masterfully captured my imagination, and yet this is so different from her other work. The plot is truly unsettling, and as someone who loves true crime podcasts, I loved that component of the book. The weaving together of two narratives was done so seamlessly, and I can honestly say I was completely surprised by the ending. Truly compelling! (This book deals with rape and the treatment of rape victims, and may be triggering.)

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Rape. A four letter word that can destroy a person and those around them. How do we see it and what has changed since social media and podcasts have taken over the world? Why is the court of public opinion allowed to make or break someone? Why are women judged more harshly than men for their actions?
Megan Goldin covers this and more in 'The Night Swim'. A small town ripped apart by a rape accusation against one of their chosen. A podcast host coming to cover the trial and is waylaid by Hannah who has ulterior motives to going back to that small town.

The town wants to protect their secrets and their chosen. What will it cost Rachel Krall as she tries to cover the trial objectively AND figure out what happened to Hannah's family member? Hannah hides behind letters written to Rachel for most of the book. This leads to some detective work by Rachel and her crew. Detective work that could cost Rachel not just her career but her life.

The points of view alternate between Rachel, Hannah, and transcripts of Rachel's podcast. This helps you see and understand but the same time leaves you guessing.

This book definitely was high on commentary of how we treat rape victims and I must say it is NEEDED even in fiction.

I would say this is 4.5 stars but alas only 1-5. Why can't we got to 10?
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

Raw, impactful, and thought-provoking!

The Night Swim is a slow-burning, intense mystery that introduces us to the tenacious, driven, podcast-host Rachel Krall as she heads to Neapolis, North Carolina to cover the rape trial of a sixteen-year-old teen by the local superstar athlete and ends up in turn also unexpectedly investigating a twenty-five-year-old murder.

The writing is sharp and edgy. The characters are intelligent, relentless, and determined. And the complex plot told from alternating POVs and through a mixture of narration and podcast-style musings subtly unfolds into a chilling tale of scandal, consent, deception, reputation, coercion, injustice, class division, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Night Swim is a dark, gripping, sensitive tale by Goldin that packs a real emotional punch and does an exceptional job of highlighting the psychological and emotional devastation caused by rape and the cultural stigmatization that regrettably still surrounds it.

Stayed up late to finish this one! Good suspense that kept me guessing. Most of the story deals with the legal process of a current rape case which becomes intertwined with a past rape in the same community. It brings up some good discussion points regarding the issue of rape. I normally do not get into trigger warnings but if rape is an issue I would proceed with caution if not pick up this book, you will not be sorry!

While in a small North Carolina town covering the rape trial of a teenage girl for her podcast, journalist Rachel Krall becomes preoccupied with the death of another teenage girl that occurred 25 years earlier. Told from the perspectives of Rachel and the dead girl’s sister, Hannah, two mysteries of sexual assault unfold. What makes this story unique is the inclusion of Rachel’s podcasts, which cover the rape trial itself. The book is well written, with characters you come to feel you know. And, although Rachel isn’t exactly impartial, I feel her podcasts at least attempt impartiality.

There are times when this is not an easy book to read. This is a book about sexual abuse against young women and it’s aftermath and, to put it mildly, it is very uncomfortable at times. It is a book about how a small community reacts to violence, both in the present and in the past, and how the town’s memories continue to simmer below the surface. But, finally, this is a book about the search for justice.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

I had previously read a book by this same author to review, and I really enjoyed her writing style. However, this book is very different from the other book which I read by her. This book is told through two different characters, one through letters to the main character, and the main character through her personal narrative and her podcast transcripts. It is a very interesting and engaging format to learn the story and I really enjoyed the different dialogues that occurred between the characters through this way of storytelling.
The story follows a podcaster who goes to cover a rape trial in a small town but is drawn in (by the secondary character) to figure out a cold case that happened dozens of years ago.
It is a novel idea and the author did a very masterful job of keeping me engaged, of creating memorable characters and making an impression on me enough so that I was drawn back into the book after setting it down more than a few times!
I would highly recommend this book if you enjoy thrillers by people such as Megan Miranda or Gillian Flynn. This is perhaps not quite as dark but definitely somewhat chilling.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book and how it flowed from the present to the past. The ending was a surprise, I didn't expect the murderer to be who it was.
Great writing and we'll developed characters. I will read books by this author again