Synopsis:
The first season of her true crime podcast became an overnight sensation and set an innocent man free. Rachel Krall became a household name, and the last hope for thousands of people seeking justice who reach out to her for help. She’s used to being recognized for her voice, but has strenuously guarded her privacy by not permitting publication of photos of her face.
Which makes it all the more unsettling when she finds a note on the windshield of her car, addressed to her and begging for help, when she makes a stop on her way to the small town where she will cover an upcoming rape trial for her podcast.
Neapolis, a small, picturesque coastal town, is being torn apart by a devastating crime. The town’s golden boy, a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness, has been accused of raping a high school student, the beloved granddaughter of the police chief.
Pressured to make the third season of her podcast a success, Rachel throws herself into interviewing local citizens and investigating. But mysterious letters keep showing up in unexpected places. Clearly, someone is following her . . . and won’t stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. Officially, Jenny Stills drowned, but the letters insist she was murdered.
What really happened to Jenny? Intrigued, Rachel starts asking questions that nobody wants to answer. The past and present converge as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases that will change the course of the present-day trial, along with the lives of everyone involved.
What is the price of a reputation? Can a small town ever right the wrongs of its past?
Review:
Megan Goldin’s debut psychological thriller, The Escape Room, established her as a clever and creative suspense writer. Her second novel, The Night Swim, is equally compelling and, indeed, haunting.
The Night Swim focuses on two crimes committed twenty-five years apart. Both female victims, Kelly and Jenny, were just teenagers when they were targets of heinous behavior. The story focuses on them, along with Rachel and Hannah. Jenny’s sister, who insists that Jenny did not drown after jumping off a jetty and hitting the rocks below but was, rather, murdered.
Goldin relates that her goal in writing The Night Swim was to illustrate the “many parallels between these types of cases, and they repeat themselves over and over again throughout history, effectively.” At its core, The Night Swim is an indictment of a justice system that treats victims differently, depending upon their socioeconomic status and connections to power.
Jenny and Hannah were the daughters of a single mother struggling to raise her daughters in a small town where everyone knows everybody else, and money equates with the power to dictate who will succeed and who will fail, who will be given opportunities, and who will continue struggling and dreaming about a better life. At sixteen, Jenny becomes the target of local rough boys, initially due to their mother’s reputation but earning her own, as Hannah, six years younger and powerless to help, watches. They claimed that Jenny went night swimming, joined by local boys. And one night she got drunk, jumped off the jetty, and hit her head. Accidentally drowned. Case closed. Hannah has never gotten over her sister’s death. Goldin compassionately shows the toll t has taken on Hannah’s life. Hannah relates that “[s]ometimes when the guilt overwhelms me, I remind myself that it was not my fault He didn’t ask the right questions and I didn’t know how to explain things that I was too young to understand.”
In present-day Neopolis, Kelly left a party, opting to walk home alone. But she never made it there. Were it not for her grandfather’s stature in the small town, her case would probably have been given as little attention as Jenny’s. Instead, Scott Blair, the son of the wealthiest family in town is about to stand trial. His college scholarship has been revoked and he is suspended from the state swim team, prohibited from participating in the national competition that could lead him to a shot at Olympic gold. Scott will always be known as the boy who was accused from rape, whether or not he is convicted.
Goldin says she sought to explore how both girls were “marginalized due to sexual assault. They were marginalized socially . . .” Goldin effectively depicts how the citizens form alliances, as Kelly is subjected to victim-shaming and her parents are ostracized. She demonstrates just how much has changed in the past twenty-five years, as well as how much things have remained the same. “When school kids are shot by a random shooter, nobody asks whether the victims should have taken more precautions. Nobody suggests that maybe the victims should have skipped school that day. Nobody ever blames the victims. So why is it that when women are attacked, the onus is on them? ‘If only she hadn’t walked home alone.’ ‘If only she hadn’t cut through the park.’ ‘If only she’d taken a cab.’ When it comes to rape, it seems to me ‘if only’ is used all the time. Never about the man. Nobody ever say ‘if only’ he hadn’t raped her. It’s always about the woman. If only . . .” In Jenny’s case, her family’s status and reputation ensured that the case was never properly investigated. In Kelly’s case, a thorough investigation can’t protect her and her family from suffering because she came forward.
At the heart of it all is Rachel, the reporter who knows she should be focused on the trial that is taking place, but cannot turn her attention away from Jenny’s case. “Curiosity was Rachel’s kryptonite. Always had been. Always would be.” She is determined to learn whether the elusive Hannah, who continues pushing her to look into the case, but refuses to meet in person, is just a grieving sister who cannot come to terms with the truth about Jenny died or if she is right when she insists that Jenny was denied justice.
How the story plays out is far less important than the themes Goldin explores. But she does deliver a fast-paced, engrossing, and disturbing narrative that seamlessly alternates between two time periods. Goldin never flinches as she explores the two crimes with sometimes brutal frankness and raw honesty. Rachel proves herself a competent investigator and reporter, dedicated to finding the truth and determined to help Hannah, herself a victim of what actually happened on the night twenty-five years ago when Jenny’s life ended. As Rachel inches closer to discovering what really happened and the manner in which the two crimes are connected, she and Hannah find themselves in grave danger. Goldin ramps up the dramatic tension until the story’s explosive conclusion. And leaves the door open for possible sequels featuring Rachel.
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