The Night Swim is an engaging mystery thriller. Loved the podcast aspect of the story too. I had tears streaming down my face as I read the last few pages of this book,. I began to weep as two stories, of past and present, came to a surprising conclusion. My full book review and my podcast book review of The Night Swim are coming soon on my website: Bookclubreporter.com

feel very fortunate to have been granted an advanced reader’s copy of Megan Goldin’s upcoming novel. I enjoyed Escape Room but definitely preferred this storyline. The Night Swim follows a true crime podcaster covering a controversial rape trial while simultaneously receiving breadcrumbs of details about a previously squashed probable homicide from decades earlier. This one kept me on the edge of my seat and had a truly OMG twist. Highly recommend! Be on the lookout for it’s release in August 2020!

I liked the format and the story of this book. The writing was okay, not amazing, and none of the characters really gripped me, but there were some great twists and turns and I enjoyed it overall.

I found this thriller to be very middle of the road, and the rape trial being the only unique aspect about it. I enjoyed the way the author covered the rape, and the sometimes graphic detail she went into as well as all of the ethics regarding consent. IT was very tastefully done and elevated it. However, the small town drama in a "small town" of 96,00 people was extremely farfetched and early on intruded on my reading experience. I also found the ending very predictable, and the characters, other than the rape victim, very flat and one note. The red herring was too obvious to be realistic and in that way forced me to turn my eye on the real whodunit. The pace was really fast and at times thrilling but there is ultimately no sticking power for this reader. A solid three stars.

My full review on goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3240396581

Thank you for this arc, I truly enjoyed this book! I liked the writing style, the different perspectives from the past and present, building up to information being revealed regarding the incident in the past as well as the ongoing trial in the present. It felt as though I was watching a show in my mind as I was reading, seeing everything unfold from the past to the present, waiting to see if my theory was correct while learning new information as the main character did. I look forward to more novels from this author, as I genuinely enjoyed this book!

Wow. OK NetGalley, you just made my month with this thriller! Thank you for early access to The Night Swim by Megan Goldin, set to be published on August 4 by St. Martin's Press.

Rachel Krall is known for her famous true crime podcast; she's even had murder convictions overturned due to her journalist investigative skills and unflinching curiosity. 

For her next podcast season, she heads out to a local town where a "golden boy" soon-to-be Olympic swimmer is on trial for the rape of a local girl. He said/she said is already a fierce debate when she arrives. 

Speaking of arrival, Rachel starts getting strange letters. Begging her to look into the death of her sister Jenny, that happened in this same small town 25 years ago - saying it wasn't an accident as it was labeled back then - but a murder.

The further Rachel goes into these cases, she's shocked at some connections. What does it all mean?
You guys - THIS WAS SO GOOD. It was beyond intense, but man, this author can paint visuals with her words in an amazing way. I felt like I was truly there at every point of this book, and I couldn't put it down.
This was a top-notch thriller in my book! 

#NetGalley #TheNightSwim #MeganGoldin

Such a great read! This book really shows how it is to live in a small town and how secrets are covered up. Rachel dives right in to find out what happened and also to assist Jenny. This is one book you will not be able to put down.

The Night Swim was such an up to date and current take on Thriller novels. The idea of focusing on a true crime podcast is something that is inevitably going to bring in a lot of readers, and I really enjoyed this method of telling the story. It's definitely heavy on the legal side of things, but not overwhelmingly so. I will say though that a main theme of the book is rape and sexual assault, so readers be forewarned. Overall, I was sucked in from the very first few pages and wanted to keep reading until I unraveled all of the details and mysteries layered into this read.

Rachel runs a true crime podcast that became increasingly popular after setting an innocent man free. Now in her third season of the podcast, she travels to a small coastal town to cover a rape trial in progress annd allowing her listeners to decide for themselves: guilty or not guilty?
Used to being recognized for her voice not her face, Rachel is shocked to find a letter addressed to her pinned to her windshield shortly after reaching Neapolis. The sister of a supposed drowning victim claims that it was murder. As more letters are delivered anonymously to Rachel sharing details of Jenny's murder, she begins to investigate this past crime while continuing her coverage of the present rape case.
As the book went on, I found myself, like Rachel, more interested in Hannah and Jenny's story than Kelly's rape case. I couldn’t wait for the next letter to be delivered to read the next part of the story. Great plot twist in this interesting story.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Oh my WOW! I usually don’t like courtroom stories too much, I feel like they can be very dry. This story, however, that was not the case! It tied together a court case podcaster with a 25 year old supposed drowning accident and a current day rape case. I have never seen something so complicated done so masterfully! The author wove all of these stories together like an incredible tapestry. The characters had realistic and power, and the narratives had me feeling like I was right there through it all. I never saw the twist coming, it had me absolutely electrified! I found myself sneaking off to the locker room at work to keep reading so I could figure out who-dunit! Stellarly written, this book should definitely be on your list. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

Great book where the past meets the present! Told from the point of view of a Podcaster and it kept me guessing. I couldn't put the book down! Would love to see Megan Goldin write follow up books with the same main character. Highly recommend reading this!

Rachel travels to Neapolis to cover a court case for her true crime podcast. In the midst of the trial, she keeps getting letters from Hannah. Hannah wants Rachel to investigate her sister’s death that happened 25 years ago.

This was a thrilling read - I had a hard time putting it down. The author keeps the momentum with telling the story of the court case, Rachel’s podcast and Hannah’s story.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I read Goldin's debut novel, The Escape Room, last year and did not love it, so I was a bit hesitant to pick up this novel. However, I ended up really loving it. The true crime podcast angle was interesting and I loved the main character. I also think the author did an excellent job covering an intensely difficult and triggering topic in rape and sexual assault. I will definitely recommend this book to my bookish friends and family.

My thanks to St. Martin's Press, and Netgalley. This was my first time reading one of Megan Goldins books. I was not disappointed. 5 Star thriller, predictable but entertaining.

The protagonist, Rachel, is a crime story podcaster. The author included the podcasts as chapters, which made it unusual reading for me. However, after reading two of them, I figured it out. Rachel has traveled to a small town on the Outer Banks of North Carolina to attend and report on a rape trial. The town's hero is a swimmer hoping to make the Olympic team. He has been accused of rape. The accuser is the teenage daughter of a successful boat tour operator. The town has taken sides making for a tense trial. Anyone familiar with a small, southern town can relate. To add to the interest of the story, Rachel is being contacted secretly by a woman whose sister died twenty-five years ago and wants Rachel to investigate it as a murder. I can't go farther without spoilers.
The author does an excellent job of pulling it all together, adding enough twists and turns to keep the pages turning. For a story with a dynamic female protagonist, this one is it. Good reading.

COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN!!!!!! A twisty, turny story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Two girls, two rapes 25 years apart. The search for justice and truth in a small town that has always supported the privileged and influential members while casting out the outliers . This story will suck you in. Highly recommend.

As the author of the Escape Room Megan Goldin captured my interest with her suspenseful novel and I was eager to read more and this novel made me a believer. Rachel Krall is a well known name as a true crime podcaster who worked to set an innocent man free. This time Rachel is in the small town of Neapolis covering the trial of a golden boy swimmer and rape suspect. As she works to uncover the story behind the rape and someone is following her and leaving strange notes about a unsolved murder decades ago. The writer of the notes, Hannah implores Rachel to uncover the mystery behind her sister Jenny’s suspicious drowning years before. Ms. Goldin deftly weaves the two mysteries together as Rachel tries to cover the current rape trial as well as uncover the mystery of Jenny’s drowning. Some of the chapters are a bit slower than others as you read about the trial and if you have ever been a victim of rape may be difficult to read as the accuser goes through such a difficult time having to relive the rape in public. I found the trial chapters to be very interesting and moving and found this book to be suspenseful and emotional with a very satisfactory ending.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book, in return for a fair and honest review.

I enjoyed Ms. Goldin's first book, [book:The Escape Room|41150380], for the pure adrenaline rush and action. That one was easy, at least in theory, since it wasn't hard to decide who was in the wrong. This book also had an interesting plot and was certainly a page turner, but, once again, it was clear from the very beginning who was in the wrong.

Don't get me wrong - I am not craving a book in which the accused rapist is portrayed as a sympathetic character! But here, because of the structure of the book (a podcast journalist purporting to give an even-handed account of the trial of the accused rapist), I thought I was going to have to make some tough calls about who I believed, whether the accused was being "railroaded," etc. On the contrary, it was very clear all along what had happened. And the podcast journalist, in her preferred role as "super crime sleuth" certainly got involved in gathering evidence and such.

While she's doing this, she's also being dragged into investigating a 25 year old murder case that was previously swept under the rug. That case also involved rape and the vilification of the victim.

Don't expect a book that will lead you to think about difficult questions regarding rape, the treatment of rape victims, and whether there is any possibility that the rape allegations are untrue. And that's okay - as I said above, I'm not really looking right now for a case depicting the alleged rapist as a victim of circumstances. The book is interesting, the action is interesting, and the parallels of the current case and the old case are interesting, as are the entangled and intertwined characters.

Good escapist reading, especially if you don't really feel up to dealing with ethical/philosophical dilemmas right now!

Trigger warnings— detailed rape scenes
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What I liked: I loved the podcast implantation in the novel. It helped describe courtroom scenes and other key factors of the trial. The author is really good at bringing in a past trauma to a present— just like she did in her previous novel!
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What I didn’t- this is a mystery and not a thriller as said. Also, again with the duel timelines. I promise that mysteries and thrillers can survive without this story telling technique.

This book disturbed me. I don’t want to say in a good way- bc that sounds weird- but in a necessary way, I guess. The protagonist is a former journalist, current true crime podcast host that is covering a rape trail. When she arrives to the beach city where it’s all going down- she gets some mysterious letters from a local person asking to help her with a rape, possible murder case from years ago that was swept under the rug as an accident. While the two separate rape occurrences weren’t described in super vivid detail- you definitely get the point. The reason I think this book is important is bc it shows how much damage sexual assault can do. Not to just the individual but to a whole family and to some extent a community. Even though this particular story was fiction, I can guarantee these situations happen all too often. What really bothered me was the additional victim blaming and “Slut shaming”. It’s inexcusable- and yet we know it happens. I liked the way the author divided the story into different segments of Rachel’s own story, letters from Hannah, the girl trying to solve her sister’s murder and with episodes of her podcast. The ending was satisfying even though I wanted a little more suffering for the bad guys.