As terrible as these last eighteen months have been, the ensuing crisis has provided a foundation for the kind of socially conscious storytelling that has come to define my work. Covid has exposed the ever-widening chasm between the haves and have-nots, spotlighted the housing crisis and food insecurity, focused attention on the lack of proper funding for schools, hospitals and elder care, exposed a bankruptcy of trust in our government institutions, exacerbated the horrendous treatment of inmates in our jails and prisons, exponentially worsened xenophobic, misogynistic, and racist hate speech, heightened racial inequalities, and as usual, has grossly over-burdened the lives of women; all topics that I’ve attempted to touch on within the pages of the book you now hold in your hands. All issues I’m striving to make sense of, to have greater empathy for, with hopes for a deeper understanding.
One of my favorite short novels is Katherine Anne Porter’s Pale Horse, Pale Rider, which is set during the influenza epidemic of 1918. The main character is stricken with the disease, just as Porter herself was in real life, and we get a firsthand glimpse of the awful effects of the virus—both through the social insecurity of the character’s fear of losing her job and being evicted by her landlady, to the four to five days she had to wait before there was room for her at the hospital, to the fever dreams and hallucinations brought on by the lurking presence of the Pale Rider: Death. The last line of the story is both timeless and prescient, and I think it will encapsulate how we’ll all likely feel when we’re through the worst of this cruel pandemic and we manage to find our way to a new normal—
“Now there would be time for everything.”
Karin Slaughter
February 26, 2021
Atlanta, Georgia
Keep Reading …
Enjoyed False Witness? Make sure you’ve read Karin Slaughter’s previous books:
She runs
A woman runs alone in the woods. She convinces herself she’s safe.
He watches
But a predator is watching from the shadows. Waiting for the perfect moment to attack.
He waits
They thought they caught him. But another victim has just been found.
The hunt has only just begun. And the killer is ready to strike again …
Click here to order a copy of The Silent Wife.
Three …
A woman is abducted in front of her child.
Two …
A month later, a second is taken in explosive circumstances.
One …
But the web is bigger and darker than anyone could imagine. The clock is ticking to uncover the truth.
Click here to order a copy of The Last Widow.
A terrifying act of violence …
It takes a split second for your life to change forever. And for Andrea Oliver that split second is a mass shooting in her local mall.
A woman whose life is built on a lie …
But this shocking act is only the start. Because then, as the bodies fall around them, Andy’s mother Laura takes a step forward into the line of fire.
A fight for survival …
Hours later, Laura is in hospital, her face splashed over the newspapers. But the danger has only just begun. Now Andy must embark on a desperate race against time to uncover the secrets of her mother’s past before any more blood is shed …
Click here to order a copy of Pieces of Her.
One ran. One stayed. But who is … the good daughter?
Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn’s childhoods were destroyed by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead. It left their father – a notorious defence attorney – devastated. And it left the family consumed by secrets from that shocking night.
Twenty-eight years later, Charlie has followed in her father’s footsteps to become a lawyer. But when violence comes to their home town again, the case triggers memories she’s desperately tried to suppress. Because the shocking truth about the crime which destroyed her family won’t stay buried for ever …
Click here to order a copy of The Good Daughter.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First thanks always goes to Victoria Sanders and Kate Elton, who have known me longer than I have known myself. Thanks to the tiebreakers, Emily Krump and Kathryn Cheshire—as well as the entire GPP team. At VSA, I am very grateful for Bernadette Baker-Baughman, who has seemingly endless patience （or a doll of me that she stabs every morning）。
Kaveh Khajavi, Chip Pendleton, and Mandy Blackmon answered my peculiar skeletal and joint inquiries. David Harper has been helping me kill people for twenty years, and as usual, his input was exceptionally helpful, even as he was riding out the devastating Texas snow and ice storms with his cell phone and a set of channel locks. Elise Diffie assisted me with veterinary clinic machinations, though all nefarious workarounds are my own. Also, she might be the only person reading this book who realizes how truly hilarious the name Deux Claude is for a Great Pyrenees.