The Night Swim is a modern crime thriller that covers two separate cases in the town of Neapolis. Rachel is a well know presenter of a popular podcast that looks at miscarriages of justice. She is in town to cover a trial where the local golden boy has been accused of rape. At the same time, she is asked by a local woman to investigate the death of her sister 25 years ago which she believes was murder.
I enjoyed this novel but found the historic case to be more compelling. It covers difficult but relevant topics and does not shy away from detailing both crimes.

Fantastic read! This is what a crime thriller is all about for me. A tense journey and a twisty ending. And with a nice chunk of courtroom drama in there, of course I was going to love it!

Having enjoyed and flown through the author's first book, I was excited to read her next one. There is no doubt that this book deals with some difficult subjects including grief and sexual abuse. I think it's handled well however and raises a lot of important questions and debates. The sleepy coastal setting is an interesting choice but it does mean that the culprits are somewhat limited and arguably quite obvious, I enjoyed the format of the book which included Hannah's letters to Rachel and podcast episodes, this was a nice touch, especially following the success of podcasts such as Serial. While I liked Rachel as the main protagonist, it was difficult to fully warm to her as the author didn't really allow the readers much information in regards to her background which I think would have allowed more depth and personal engagement. On the whole, this book is quite a slow burn. There are a few neat twists but nothing particularly revolutionary. While a well-written story, I can't help but compare it to Megan's first book which was thrilling and fast-paced so I'm a little disappointed.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC of this book.k.

I really regret not reading The Night Swim sooner! I have a few titles waiting to read on my list but this should have been number one! I’m telling you to make this number one on your reading list...it’s incredible!

The writing is engaging and I found myself desperately wanting to solve this mystery (I didn’t lol). At times it may have seemed a little predictable but show me a book that isn’t!

Kudos for not having any silly romantic side plot!

Rachel is a podcast host that follows a courtroom trial of a high profile rape case in Neapolis. While reporting on this court case, Rachel is compelled to investigate the case of a young girl named Jenny who drowned at the jetty 25 years ago in the same place.

The style of the book is engaging - intertwining the two stories of the rape trial and the mystery of the death of Jenny - and provides suspense to both stories. The prosecution and defense cases are both presented neutrally in the book, which adds to the suspense as to which way the trial will go.

I don't read a lot of thrillers but I enjoyed this one - the story is entertaining, but the plot was a little predictable.

I really enjoyed this book!!A good thriller about a big court case in a small town. No spoilers but it kept me engaged throughout.
Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to review this book.
#thenightswim #netgalley

I received a free copy of this to read / review with @netgallery and @jellybooks and I was so excited as I had already seen a couple of great reviews on here about it and it sounded exactly like the kind of book I can devoured, I wasn’t wrong!

I was HOOKED. The book comes with trigger warning and centres around a rape trial. It had a dual narrative which I always love. Chapters were short but ALOT happens in them.

I found the twists and turns hard to guess - I am REALLY good at guessing.

It is obviously written around a very sensitive subject and this was handled so so well. It wasn’t easy to read at times but it really is so important that subjects like rape are discussed in a sensitive and educational manner.

I don’t want to go to in-depth into the story but I loved it. There were no annoying subplot romances (because for some reason all female leads seem to require one). There were two strong, interweaved storyline, both tackling difficult subjects. It felt very real, especially in the podcast generation.

I rarely give books 5 stars but this one certainly deserved them!

I found The Night Swim a really engaging and quick read. The style is made interesting by telling the story through podcast text, letters and real time storytelling. It was also very clever to mix two similar occurrences, one recent and one from the past, but set in the same place, with many of the same characters. I would certainly recommend and would be interested in reading more books by Megan Goldin. thanks to @mirrorbooks, @netgalley and @megangoldin for my arc.

This one was a quick read!

The Night Swim follows two women. First we have Hannah, whose sister drowned at sea when she was a teenager. 25 years on and Hannah is still convinced that her sister's death wasn't accidental.

Then we have Rachel, a podcast presenter who is making a series based on a rape trial happening in seaside town Neapolis. While working on her podcast, she is left notes by a mysterious Hannah, asking for her help in finding out what happened to her sister all those years ago. Rachel soon learns that the two cases she is following may be connected...

I will mention here that if you are triggered by mentions of rape and sexual abuse, then this book isn't for you. It deals heavily with a rape trial and explores how victims are treated after such an event. I thought Megan Goldin handled the subject matter sensitively. I've read so many books depicting the graphic nature of rape, very few have ever steered clear of graphic depictions and instead focused on the after maths. This made the book a very refreshing read in itself.

Golding has a way of really hooking you in in the first few pages. I really enjoyed reading about the court scenes. I found those the most interesting. They were laced with suspense and mystery and I couldn't stop guessing which way it was going to go.

The twist at the end was very unexpected and I really liked it. It tied the story up nicely and I was satisfied. I loved how the twist came so naturally, I loved how the book was paced, a slow burn reveal that really paid off.

I don't have many gripes with this book, except for the slight repetitiveness at times in some chapters. I felt like I was being told the same thing twice at times. But that wasn't enough to distract me from the story.

One of the best thrillers I've read this year.

Loved this book. Got quite emotionally involved especially with Kelly. Really enjoyed how the podcast ran alongside!

Two stories run concurrently in this book - the trial of a popular and successful teenage boy for the rape of a 16 year old girl and the original mystery of the circumstances around the girl who drowned.

Set in a small town where everyone knows one another and many secrets are kept for years, both stories are well presented and intriguing - the writing is clear and pulls you along at a fast pace.  It isn't too long into the book that you start getting ideas of possible connections between the stories, and seeds are deeply planted all the way through, but not so that you can easily work out who the perpetrators were of the first crime, and whether the boy on trial in the other story committed rape.

The characters are believable and well-drawn; the stories are told through the podcast, the trial, the letters and communcations from the sister of the drowned girl, who insists that it wasn't a tragic drowing accident, but a murder.  There is sympathy shown for the other characters involved in the stories - who were often drawn into the events of those times unwittingly.

A rape trial is always difficult to write about: though not as hard as a rape trial itself - and this book exposes what a victim of rape has to go through to be heard and to get the perpetrator punished.

Well written throughout, it was an easy and compelling read.

Recommended read. I will be looking out for other books from this author.

Thanks to Net Galley for providing me with a free copy to review.

Wow. The Night Swim might be one of the most powerful thrillers I've read possibly ever. Goldin writes in a way that made this novel difficult to put down, the podcast element was super intriguing.

The Night Swim follows the story of a small town plagued with a gritty history and present, jumping between the alleged drowning of a teenager 25 years prior and a current day rape trial.

The Night Swim was a sadly realistic novel, it accurately portrayed the treatment of rape victims who have to fight to prove themselves to strangers. The Night Swim showed the ways in which victims are further assaulted emotionally after a rape/assault and how traumatic being forced to relive trauma for a jury is.

This novel is absolutely heartbreaking and left me angry and upset. Highly recommend.

A brief synopsis: Rachel Krall is an investigative journalist and podcast host who turned into an overnight sensation after her true-crime podcast helped set an innocent man free. Feeling under pressure to make the new season of her podcast as popular as its previous two seasons, she travels to Neapolis - a small town being torn apart by a controversial rape trial. As Rachel begins her investigations she starts to receive letters from Hannah, a podcast listener seeking Rachel's help in getting justice for her sister who was raped and murdered 25 years ago. As Rachel delves deeper into the past, she begins to uncover information that causes the past and present to collide with explosive results.

My thoughts: It has taken me days to fully move on from this book and even longer to finally sit down and write a review because it left me in a ball of emotions. I knew going into this that it covers themes of a sensitive nature but I was not ready. The Night Swim tells the story of Kelly, a young woman who says she was raped by the son of a prominent figure in the community. Through her story, the subject of consent, victim-blaming, privilege and the judicial process are all brought into question.

The first half of the book is a steady build up and can seem slow at times but it effectively lays the foundation for the fast paced second half of the book. The writer draws you in and you are hooked to the very last page especially with the addition of the podcast that almost felt real. I hope Megan writes another book featuring the Guilty or Not Guilty podcast, it would be an instant buy for me. It is gut-wrenching, emotional and very difficult to read at times but the it is worth the read. The commentary on rape culture makes this book so much more than your average thriller.

Highly recommend.

Fantastic story, a real page turner finished in 2 sittings! The main character who is covering the trial of an alleged rape is likeable, intriguing and would love to read more stories with her as the Character. Although the story is based on the court case an older case of a young girls death emerges when her sister reaches out to help her get to the truth. Lots of twists and turns which I love would highly recommend

I received a copy of this book to review from Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity.
A fast paced and engaging book with the interesting take of podcast8ng thrown into the mix. It felt fresh and modern and kept my attention throughout, guessing what was going to happen next.
A must read for any fan of crime fiction.
Please note there are trigger warnings for rape within this book.

A powerful read. Prepare to be up all night.

This book is a masterful foray into detective and courtroom drama. Written by a podcaster journalist overseeing the trial for rape of a local celebrity, the journalist, Rachel, becomes ensnared by a series of letters from the sister of a drowned girl, whose death occurred in the same town some years before, and who claims her sister was murdered.

As Rachel probes deeper, the tension ramps up until the reader simply has to keep reading to find out what happens.

A great read for fans of any kind of detective story, courtroom drama, human psyche or journalism.

The story is also a harrowing account of the treatment of women victims of sexual assault, and how it is dealt with in the criminal justice system.

Truly powerful.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Mirror Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review
This is a WOW read, a page turner, you certainly will not want to put this down until you reach the end.
An intense, emotional courtroom drama/thriller, two separate rape cases, with 25 years between them. Short sharp chapters with Rachel Krall, the voice of a successful crime podcast series telling one story and Hannah, who wants Rachel’s help to find out what really happened to her sister 25 years ago. Hannah has always suspected that her sister did not accidentally drown, she is determined to uncover the truth.
Rape is a delicate subject to write about, this is exceedingly well written, sensitive but also highlighting the trauma a rape victim endures when reliving the nightmare whilst giving evidence in court and facing the accused.
First book by this author but will definitely read more This bookis among my top reads of 2020.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mirror Books for an early copy of The Night Swim.


What an amazing, chilling, and anger-inducing thriller.
It's so on point with the current zeitgeist that there is simply no way this will leave readers unmoved.

The first big strength of the book is its original main character, Rachel Krall. She's not a policewoman or detective, nor a family of the victims; instead, and that's one refreshing change, she's a podcaster turned investigator at times, who takes on one case a year and streams it to her listeners.
This makes for a book format that has some nice changes in it, notably with the chapters written as a podcast – it breaks the rhythm and makes for a really nice break.
It would also – just saying – make for a really great recurring character. I have no doubt that Rachel might be as interesting in a sequel as she was in The Night Swim.

In addition to that original character and format, there's also how relevant the main topic is to the times we live in.
Rape, and rape culture, are such important topics, and certainly not easy to talk about in a work of fiction. It'd be too easy to romanticise it, or make it into something that it's not. Instead, Megan Goldin writes about it with so much compassion that it becomes a truly raw story, that will, at time, bring tears to your eyes. Sometimes, they'll be tears of sadness; very often, though, they'll be angry tears, because rape trials are so frustrating to see and hear about.
In The Night Swim, Megan Goldin does not hide the ugly side of going to trial for a rape case. She subtly manages to talk about how unfair trials are for the victim (who has to relive every single traumatic minute), while keeping us hooked into the story she's writing. The result is a novel that feels like a cry of revolt to how assault and rape are seen today.

Finally, the story – or should I say stories? – are really gripping. You'll follow the fate of two girls fighting for justice years apart, and find out how they're linked in a truly surprising twist.

This is without a doubt the best thriller I've read this year, and I'm extremely glad to have found it.

This book was perfect! 👌
I loved the characters, I loved the storyline and I loved the way the whole book was presented.
Rachel was great as an investigator/podcast host and I was completely engaged from the first chapter. I’d love to read more about this character!
We follow Rachel as she arrives in Neapolis to attend a rape trial she’s covering for her podcast.
I enjoyed each aspect of the story from the letters to the courtroom to the podcast episodes. Really well written. I’m sad that it’s finished...

Absolutely loved this book from start to finish, it was just what I needed after finishing a book that I wasn’t really into that much. The Night Swim effortlessly went back and forwards between past and present, just brilliant. Cannot recommend enough. Thanks to NetGalley for ARC.