Elle's Reviews > False Witness

The thing I love most about Karin Slaughter is that she wastes no time. Every single book of hers just absolutely clocks you right away, sometimes in the prologue, but always by the end of the first chapter. This one had the one-two punch of monumental twists in both, which left me reeling. I genuinely don’t think I’ve been this floored by a plot twist like this since Triptych.

False Witness is a standalone, so you’re not going to be getting any appearances from good ‘ol Sara Linton or Will Trent. But I think fans of Slaughter’s previous books will enjoy this one, and newbies to the Slaughterverse (I just made this up) can also comfortably jump in with this one and not feel like they’re missing context. Everything you come to expect from her—action, tension, biting wit, incredible twists and a grand finale made for premium cable—is present here. Though in all the ways this book is like its predecessors, it also fairly different from her typical novel structure.

“The law was never what anyone thought it was or wanted it to be.”

For one, this is not a police procedural. I think this was a smart move, taking a step back from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. I will go to bat for Will and Faith any day, but besides the obvious skepticism around policing in the US currently, I like that we’re seeing a different side of crime presented. Mainly, through one of the two main characters, Leigh, who is a defense attorney. Her sister, Callie, is living what feels like a flipped mirror image of Leigh’s life, struggling with addiction and living barely off the street. The two had an already tumultuous childhood before a violent event impacted them both irreparably. And though they’ve tried to move on, nothing can prepare them for how Leigh’s new case forces them to confront the monsters of their past.

I love how Karin Slaughter writes sisters. Whether it’s Charlotte and Samantha in The Good Daughter or Sara and Tessa in the Grant County series, she just captures dueling personalities so well. Callie and Leigh are no exception here. Going through traumatic events links people together in a way that’s hard to explain to anyone on the outside and leaves them with complicated feelings towards one another. But like any good sisters, no matter how much they fight with each other, there’s no doubt they will also kill for one another.

And look, Slaughter is no novice to writing violence and sexual violence. If you go into one of her books, you’ve got to prepare yourself for that inevitability. The violence in False Witness, though, did have a different feeling to it. Usually I would expect the very beginning to have an assault or murder, then the middle would be a sometimes graphic investigation of those crime(s), with the ending usually containing a violent confrontation of some kind. For its part, False Witness was less explicit than say, Pretty Girls, but there were a good number of assaults peppered throughout the middle as well. And this violence was a lot more brazen and unrepentant, if at times a little cathartic.

I’m trying to make sure people don’t feel completely blindsided, but this was actually more of a feature for me than a drawback. The action is a lot more street-level, since the investigative angle is out of the picture, and there’s a grittier quality to the plot which I loved. This is not the neat and easy thriller you walk away from feeling satisfied. Trauma is messy. So is revenge.

For me, False Witness is one of the few written-during-the-pandemic books that actually worked. COVID as a topic is neither a completely avoided nor all-consuming, just a reality of the characters living through it. In the afterword she discusses more of her reasoning behind those choices, so don’t skip that! And for someone who’s written over 20 novels, Slaughter’s ability to not just write a relentlessly good thriller, but also retain a prescient cultural awareness never ceases to amaze me. I loved the intensity of this book and it’s going to be my go-to recommendation for summer reads.


*Thanks to my favorite librarian Merricat for sharing her ARC with me! Libraries are great everyone should visit them and become friends with librarians!!!!!!

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