Review: 'The Night Swim'

 ©2020 All Rights Reserved Lynne Perednia

The Night Swim
By Megan Goldin
Thriller
St. Martin's Press

A small North Carolina beach town is deeply divided about the rape trial of a star swimming athlete, accused by a local high school girl of a brutal attack. A true crime podcaster arrives to cover the trial, bringing her listeners daily updates from the courtroom. In the days before the trial begins, she is drawn to a 25-year-old case of another young woman who died there but who seems to have been forgotten.

The Night Swim is an intense thriller of both the current case and the old one. Podcaster and investigative reporter Rachel Krall discovered facts that freed a wrongly convicted man and, in her second season, solved a cold case murder. Her new season revolves around the case of Scott Blair, a potential Olympic swimmer visiting his parents during college break. He crashes a high school party thrown while parents were gone, gives the victim a ride, gets her pizza and takes her to the beach. The town, and the early evidence, are split between whether he raped her or whether she changed her mind after the fact. People in town who back Blair are quick to blame the victim.

Victim blaming is a big part of the cold case, as well. Hannah, the younger sister of the girl who died all those years ago, leaves notes for Rachel, begging for help. Her sister Jenny was called a drowning victim and a second-generation slut. But Hannah and their late mother insist she was killed. When Rachel begins digging into the case, immediate red flags pop up in basic autopsy protocol.

But the cold case cannot take all of Rachel's attention. She is able to interview the parents of both Blair and the girl he was with that night, as well as defense counsel. Both the high-priced criminal attorney and local district attorney trying the case have local ties, as do generations of the families of the two young people.

The two narratives of past and present cases are balanced so well, especially as the information revealed rachets up the storytelling pace. Issues surrounding rape are presented within the context of what happens to women. Goldin also enriches the novel with attitudes about the differences between prosecutors and defense attorneys, podcasting and reporting, and parenting through a crisis. But most of all, the focus is on what happened in these cases and how people remain affected, even years later.

The Night Swim is a strong work about crime and it affects those involved. For a thriller to be both entertaining and meaningful is the mark of a very good writer.