The Night Swim was a dark and harrowing story of a podcaster investigating two rape cases that occurred twenty-five years apart. This is a plot summary and SPOILER DISCUSSION of The Night Swim.
The Night Swim by Megan Goldin. Published on August 4, 2020 by St. Martin’s Press. Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
Synopsis: After her true crime podcast became an sensation, Rachel Krall finds a note on her car, begging for help. The small town of Neapolis is being torn apart by a devastating rape trial. The town’s golden boy has been accused of raping the granddaughter of the police chief. Rachel throws herself into investigating―but mysterious letters keep showing up in unexpected places. Someone is following her, and she won’t stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved.
Plot Summary of The Night Swim
If you DO NOT want spoilers, go to my spoiler-free review of The Night Swim.
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Rachel arrives in the small seaside North Carolina town of Neapolis to start work on a new season of her podcast, Guilty or Not Guilty. She’s covering the trial of Scott Blair, a swimmer hoping to make it to the Olympics and was accused of raping a local girl named Kelly.
Rachel also begins to receive notes from Hannah, a woman who grew up in Neapolis. Hannah wants her to investigate the case of her older sister Jenny, whose death twenty-five years ago was deemed an accident after she (allegedly) jumped from a jetty into the water and hit her head.
Hannah keeps dropping off letters to Rachel. Hannah says one day, she and her sister got a ride home from a group of boys who dropped Hannah off and then took Jenny elsewhere, presumably to sexually assault her.
Rachel asks a few townspeople about Jenny, many of whom says she was promiscuous. Her death was somewhat overshadowed at the time by a tragic car accident that same summer that killed two local boys and injured a third.
Rachel starts doing interviews for her podcast with people connected to the current rape trial. She interviews the victim’s father, Dan Moore, whose father was the town police chief for decades. She interviews the parents of the accused, Scott Blair.
Rachel realizes that many of the people in this small town are connected to both the current rape trial and also what happened to Jenny: the prosecutor in the current rape trial knew Jenny, as did the detective on the Scott Blair case and the judge presiding in the trial.
The trial begins and the prosecution presents their side. Kelly begins to testify but breaks down and can’t continue. Rachel worries that the case against Scott Blair can’t be won without her testimony. The case seems hopeless, until Rachel figures out that an important character witness for Scott is not who he says he is.
The Ending of The Night Swim
Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD
Rachel and Hannah learns that Dan Moore, Kelly’s father, is the one who killed Jenny. Dan’s father, the police chief, was abusive to both Dan and his mother. Dan was part of the group who raped Jenny and also in the deadly car accident that summer. After Jenny’s rape, the boys fought and a boy named Bobby got pushed into the bonfire. Bobby was badly hurt and the others panicked. Dan threw Jenny in the water because she was a “loose end.” The group then put Bobby in the car and started arguing bout what to do about him. As they argued, Dan lost control of the car and hit a tree, killing his two passengers. Dan then called his father, the police chief, and asked him what to do. His father said to put Bobby in the driver’s seat and set the car on fire. Dan went home and his father served as his alibi. Bobby survived but had no memory of that night. Dan says he is remorseful and feels that Kelly’s rape is a kind of karmic punishment for his not owning up to the part he played in the rape and the tragic car crash.
Scott Blair is convicted of sexual battery and sexual assault and will serve eight to ten years. Dan dies by suicide. Kelly leaves Neapolis to start a new life. As Rachel is leaving town, Scott’s mother calls Rachel and claims that because of Rachel’s podcast, Scott didn’t get a fair trial.
Spoiler Discussion of The Night Swim
What did you think of The Night Swim?
First, The Night Swim was WAY darker than I was expecting. Kelly’s case was so sad and I’m glad she finally got justice and some possible closure. But Jenny’s story was so dark that I found it hard to read. The fact that not ONE person in this town stood up for her or saw what was happening to her or took her side was a little shocking to me.
I thought it took a while to get going. At first I found Rachel’s narrative a little dry, but once Hannah dropped off more letters and the case got going it got really suspenseful. I tend to enjoy courtroom drama plots.
For me, the connection between the cases got a little confusing and convoluted. I get that in some small towns everyone knows everyone, and I guess the explanation as to why no one did anything was that Dan Moore (who was involved in both the car accident and Jenny’s murder) was the son of the powerful police chief.
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