Harleigh Collier, who goes by Leigh, is a hard-working professional woman, working her way up at a fancy high profile law firm. One Sunday evening, she is at her daughter’s school play and gets a call from one of the law firm’s senior partners, asking her to defend a wealthy client accused of multiple counts of rape. Actually, it is more than a request: it’s not the kind of thing she can say no to, and if she does well it could make her career. The trial is due to start in one week. Then she meets the accused, and realizes she knows him. It’s been over twenty years, but ever since their encounters when she was a teenager, she has been running from the events in her past related to her relationship to the accused. 

But she isn’t the only one. While she was becoming an apparently successful criminal defense attorney, her younger sister Callie was struggling and mostly losing a battle with addiction: she struggles like most IV drug users who “weren’t only addicted to the drug,” seemingly reveling in the constant chaos. “If Callie had a needle fixation, Leigh had a chaos fixation.” The sisters are incredibly close despite their very different lives, and both share painful memories from their past that involve Leigh’s client. 

I love the way Ms. Slaughter develops the characters of Leigh and Callie, and slowly reveals their secrets as well as what makes them who they are: “Even this far into the game, Leigh was always surprised by how fantastic it was to be a white, wealthy man…working at BC&M had taught Leigh…that it was better to be guilty and rich than innocent and poor.” She is a dedicated defense attorney who “…never gave up on anything. If you came at her with a knife, she came back at you with a bazooka.”

One thing that stands out is the way this book incorporates the pandemic of 2020-21 into the story. There are references to masks and social distancing, and Dr. Jerry, Callie’s friend, part-time employer, and father figure addresses the issue in striking language that captures the battle being waged today, and the uncertain future: “Over half a million people dead in the United States alone. The number is too overwhelming to accept, so we go on with our lives and we do what we can, but in the end, the staggering loss will be waiting for us.” 

The plotting is complex and full of twists as the sisters’ past traumas are revealed, and they struggle, each in her own way, to find justice for the victims and relief from their own painful memories of trauma. Suspenseful and emotionally affecting, it may be triggering for some victims of abuse and/or assault. Five stars. Many thanks to William Morrow / Custom House and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for this honest review.