With her latest thriller, FALSE WITNESS, Karin Slaughter introduces us to three characters we can't stop thinking about. Sisters Leigh and Callie Collier are raised by a brutal, uncaring mother in extreme poverty, and are abused physically, sexually and emotionally. The abuse ends up controlling their lives but with vastly different outcomes. With the introduction of the third character, Slaughter explores in horrifying detail what a psychopath is capable of.

The story begins in 1998. Fourteen-year-old Callie is babysitting, and when the father comes home, we see just what she has been enduring for two years. But this time she flips the script on him. And when Callie calls Leigh because she doesn't have anyone else to turn to, Leigh knows she has to protect her sister.

"Slaughter writes movingly about family and how much we sacrifice for those we love --- or think we love. FALSE WITNESS will break your heart over and over again."

Because of Slaughter's mastery when unraveling the facts about Leigh and Callie's childhood, any review of this type of book is better without including too many specifics. What is incontrovertible is that Leigh is now a criminal defense attorney. She has a teenage daughter, Maddy, and is separated from her husband Walter because of her drinking problem. After several years, they are still not divorced, and it's apparent that they still love each other. We also know that Callie is a drug addict; although she has been in rehab several times, the drugs keep winning.

The novel is written in the third person, and we are aware of what Leigh and Callie are thinking every step of the way. But as the title suggests, their memories are faulty. There is much to digest here about the brain and how it functions. Leigh separates her family from work, and her sister and her childhood from the rest. In fact, her ability to compartmentalize the sexual abuse is what leads to the book’s central tragedy. Callie's only method of coping with the emotional and physical trauma in her childhood has been to turn to drugs. We learn about the mu opioid receptors and why addicts need higher and higher doses of the drug to feel any kind of relief from their cravings. Callie's narrative teaches us a lot about addiction and its cycle of relapse.

Slaughter writes movingly about family and how much we sacrifice for those we love --- or think we love. FALSE WITNESS will break your heart over and over again. Ultimately, she forces us to face those who are so depraved that they are bereft of any vestige of humanity. She also makes us consider how far we would go to protect our loved ones from the evil that exists in the world.