The Night Swim: are a current rape case and an suspicious death connected?

The Night Swim by Megan Goldin is the story of Rachel Krall who covers a rape trial for her podcast, Guilty or Not Guilty. After her podcast helped freed an innocent man, she has become a household name and now the current season needs to be a smash. She arrives in the small town of Neapolis, North Carolina ahead of the trial of a local young man who has been accused of rape. At the same time, she is hounded by a fan who is from the same small town about the murder of her sister 25 years ago. Hannah, who was a young girl when her sister died, begs Rachel to find her sister’s killer. At first, Rachel brushes it off as she needs to focus on the new case. As she covers the case from victim blaming to the courtroom to the verdict, Rachel finds just how polarizing the topic of rape can be. Unlike the black and white view that murder is wrong, the subject of rape shows ugly shades of gray. While she tries to stay focused on the current case, she can’t help but be pulled into another case of Jenny Stills whose death was ruled an accidental drowning. However, the details don’t sit right with Rachel as she tries to find the truth. Was the victim raped that night? Will the perpetrator be punished? What is the connection to the death of Jenny Stills? Is there a connection?

After I read this book, I read some of the reviews, as I normally do, to see if my impressions match the impressions of other readers. And just like in the book, the topic of rape polarizes the reviews. I found The Night Swim to be a thought-provoking, dramatic story as it shines a light on the complicities of a rape case. How and when does consent need to be given and expressed? Why is a promiscuous man known as a stud, but a promiscuous woman is a slut? A few reviewers demanded that the story come with trigger warnings. I think the book’s description as a podcaster covering a rape case wasn’t warning enough. Overall, I liked Rachel with her dogged curiosity for the truth and justice. I liked that she didn’t just push the Jenny Stills case aside simply because it wasn’t the case she was covering. There was also a twist that I didn’t see coming. I thought I guess it but boy, was I wrong! I recommend reading it with care as the story deals with the important issue of rape and the details of the case are graphic. Ms. Goldin doesn’t pull any punches; she writes a rape case that is as real as it gets. As I read, one case seemed so cut and dry and the other one was not so straight forward. As the cases unfold, there’s more than what meets the eye. It opens the conversation of how rape cases are handled, investigated, and prosecuted. I recommend The Night Swim. The story grips you from the very beginning and keeps you hanging on until the very end.

The Night Swim

is available in hardcover, eBook and audiobook

Waiting for Morning: life after a tragic accident

Waiting for Morning by Karen Kingsbury is book 1 of the Forever Faithful series. It’s the story of one woman’s journey after a tragic accident leaves her lost and looking for revenge. Hannah Ryan is a wife and mother with a seemingly perfect life. Until a drunk driving takes the life of her husband, Dr. Tom Ryan, and her oldest daughter, Alicia, and leaves her youngest daughter, Jenny, with life threatening injuries. She immediately flies into action to seek that the driver, Brian Wesley, pays for taking their lives. As Hannah focuses on the upcoming trial, she turns from God and ignores Jenny’s cries for help as she recovers and returns home. Everyone involved from district attorney to the MADD representative seems to be urging her to return to God. Will she listen to what God is trying to tell her? Will she let her anger consume her?

Waiting for Morning is an emotional story of grief, recovery and forgiveness. Hannah is the angry, vengeful aspect of grief. She turns from faith, convinced that God cannot exist if he took her husband and daughter away. Jenny is the survivor who is filled with guilt and depression that she is alive and her father and sister/best friend are not. I enjoyed this story very much. You feel Hannah’s anger and determination. You feel Jenny’s depression. You get angry at Hannah for ignoring Jenny’s needs as she focuses on her own need for revenge. I love the message of the book that forgiveness isn’t just for the person who wronged you, it’s for you as well. I highly recommend Waiting for Morning.

Waiting for Morning

is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle

and other major booksellers

Good Friday: the ultimate sacrifice for all of us

Today is Good Friday. The day that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Just five days before, Jesus entered Jerusalem with praise and fanfare. The crowds laid palm branches on the road in front of him as he rode into the city on a donkey. He would spend his last days teaching, giving his disciples last minute instructions and preparations for his coming death. He came to take the sins of the world. Many people Christ’s victory over sin and death came with his death and resurrection. I see that it happened before in a place called the Garden of Gethsemane.

Thursday night, midnight, Jesus knows the end is coming. He comes to the garden to pray as he struggles with the next hours will bring. He prays for deliverance. He begs his Father for a way out. He begs for another way to accomplish his mission. But he knew there wasn’t any way. He prayed, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their [the disciples] message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20-21 NIV). You and I are a part of this prayer. His final prayer is for us. He saw us in a life that is not fair with pain and struggles that we did not ask for. He did not want to leave us. It was in the garden that the battle was won. It was once Jesus received the gentle but firm “No” from his Father. He decided to fight no more. “For it was in the garden that he made his decision. He would rather go to hell for you than go to heaven without you" (Lucado, 1992).

Once he left the garden, Jesus would be faced with the ultimate betrayal. A kiss from a friend. Betrayal. When your world turns against you. Jesus is led away and first given over to Caiaphas, a high priest, who accused Jesus of blasphemy (Matthew 26:57-67, Mark 14:53-65, Luke 22:54, 63-65, John 18:24). A crime punishable by death (Leviticus 24:16). Then he is brought before the Council of Religious Leaders who sentenced him to death (Matthew 24:1-2, Mark 15:1, Luke 22:66-71). Finally he appears before Pilate, the Roman governor, who can find no fault with Jesus (Matthew 27:11-26, Mark 15:1-5, Luke 23:1-6, and John 18:28-38) but turns him over to be crucified to appease the crowd. He would be flogged, mocked, given a scarlet robe and a crown of thorns as the Roman soldiers spit on him, struck him with a staff and made to carry the cross to Golgotha “The Place of the Skulls.” Once on the cross, insults would be hurled at Jesus. He hung there until he died with a final cry “It is finished (John 19:30). Jesus who understands betrayal from those who are supposed to be trusted. He understands shame and pain. He understand all the human emotions and situations that we face every day because he faced them too. He suffered at the hands of the Romans and died on the cross for us so that our sins could be wiped away. He is the ultimate sacrificial lamb, innocent and chosen to die for others.

You ask yourself why? Why would Christ do that? Why would he die if he were innocent? The answer: for us. As quoted from Max Lucado above. He’d rather go to hell for us than go to heaven without us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). He came to save us from our sins (John 3:17). The perfect song to illustrate this point is by the Christian group, Avalon. “We are the Reason” is usually played at Christmas but it speaks to the reason why Christ was born, lived and lived: for us. This song always brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. If I try to sing it, my tears choke me and I am overcome with the power of what Jesus has done for me, for all of us. The chorus says “We are the reason that he gave his life/We are the reason that he suffered and died/To a world that was lost/He gave all He could give/to show us the reason to live.”

As a Christian, I think of Jesus and what he has done for me often. And I am still amazed at the love that Christ has for me. This Friday, as we all prepare for Easter Sunday, gathering with family and friends, even some who are working, think of the importance of today. Think of one Friday, some 2,000 years ago as one man died on a cross. Think about one man agonizing in a garden and prayed for you. Think of the pain and humiliation that he suffered for you. Think of how a method of execution become a symbol of hope.

The last week of Jesus is told in

Matthew 21-27

Mark 11-15

Luke 19-23

John 12 -19

And the Angels were silent (1992) Max Lucado

Defending Jacob: a murder mystery that will keep you guessing

Defending Jacob by William Landay is the story of a parents’ worst nightmare to have to defend their child against a horrible charge: murder. How far does a parent’s belief in their child’s innocence go when the evidence is staking against him? Should a parent blindly believe in their innocence?

The story begins in the days after the murder of a local boy named Billy Rifkin. The quiet, small town of Newton, Massachusetts is shook to its core at this brutal crime. Andrew “Andy” Barber is the First Assistant District Attorney leading the investigation. The best clue they have is a single bloody fingerprint on the boy’s clothing. Soon, his life with wife, Laurie, is turned upside down as fingers are being pointed at Andy’s son, Jacob, a quiet and shy fourteen year who liked video games and the internet. As Andy begins to dig into his son’s life, he becomes afraid of is known as the “murder gene” and the question: is violence hereditary? As any parent fears, Andy learns that there is a darker side to his quiet son. Soon, the fingerprint has been identified- it’s Jacob’s. The case against him is fast tracked and any investigations into other possible suspects is dropped. Did Jacob kill Ben Rifkin? Was it someone else hidden in the shadows?

This story had so many twists and turns that even after finishing the book leaves more questions than answers, not unlike real criminal cases. Not all investigations and trials are as black and white as they are sometimes portrayed on TV. As to the murder gene, I think if you look into any family long enough and far back enough, you will find less than savory behavior and individuals. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I could not put in down and finished it within one day. There were a few lighter moments with the very serious topic. There is one statement that Andy makes about Whole Foods grocery stores that made me laugh because I feel the same way. I also enjoyed that the author leaves judgment up to the reader while challenging their understanding in what is inherited and what is learned. The ending is shocking and left me saying “WHAT?!?!?” The reader is left wondering who the real killer is. Was the killer the one who confessed or the one who got away? I highly recommend Defending Jacob. It is a great mystery that leaves no clear answer as to who, what or why.