the night swim

4 stars (release date August 4, 2020)

This is a quick and enjoyable mystery/thriller that has a story within a story. Rachel has a true crime podcast (think “Serial”) that grew in popularity after her first season when she investigated a murder trial and found evidence that set the defendant free. Now in her third season, she is following a rape trial in real-time in the small town of Neapolis. The town is being torn apart by the rape trial of a young teenage girl by a popular teenage boy training for the Olympics.

Rachel is focused on prepping her trial coverage, but starts getting mysterious letters from a woman named Hannah asking her to investigate the death of her 16 year old sister Jenny in Neapolis many years ago. The official cause of death was drowning, but Hannah believes that her sister was murdered and that the culprits will be attending the rape trial Rachel is covering. Intrigued, Rachel starts to look into Jenny’s death, but no one wants to answer her questions and people are clearly hiding things. When Rachel realizes that the two cases may be connected, she jumps into danger to find the truth.

I really liked this book. It is well-written and very easy to read. The chapters alternate between Rachel and Hannah’s perspectives, which helps build tension. The short chapters makes the book easy to read, but they also suck you in because you figure you’ll read “just one more chapter” and before you know it, it’s 1am. LOL While I was able to figure out some of the mystery before the ending, other aspects caught me by surprise. I enjoyed reading how the story played out and was satisfied with the ending. Will this be a book that you’ll want to read over and over again? No, but it’s an entertaining book that you will be glad you read. I recommend you do so.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.