Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan Book Review Goodreads
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Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan Book Review

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan Book Review Goodreads
Goodreads

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan Book Review

The lowdown from Goodreads

Publication Date January 23, 2018

Sophie’s husband James is a loving father, a handsome man, a charismatic and successful public figure. And yet he stands accused of a terrible crime. Sophie is convinced he is innocent and desperate to protect her precious family from the lies that threaten to rip them apart.

Kate is the lawyer hired to prosecute the case: an experienced professional who knows that the law is all about winning the argument. And yet Kate seeks the truth at all times. She is certain James is guilty and is determined he will pay for his crimes.

Who is right about James? Sophie or Kate? And is either of them informed by anything more than instinct and personal experience? Despite her privileged upbringing, Sophie is well aware that her beautiful life is not inviolable. She has known it since she and James were first lovers, at Oxford, and she witnessed how easily pleasure could tip into tragedy.

Most people would prefer not to try to understand what passes between a man and a woman when they are alone: alone in bed, alone in an embrace, alone in an elevator… Or alone in the moonlit courtyard of an Oxford college, where a girl once stood before a boy, heart pounding with excitement, then fear. Sophie never understood why her tutorial partner Holly left Oxford so abruptly. What would she think, if she knew the truth?

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan Book Review

Right off the bat, Anatomy of a Scandal hooked me. We meet James. He’s a fancy, privileged political figure who is accused of a heinous act. Can’t you just hear the “dun dun” of Law & Order: SVU in the background?

Before James, we meet Kate, the prosecuting attorney. Kate is tough as nails. Not in a Nancy Grace type of way, but in a Sarah Paulson/Marcia Clark American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson type of way. Kate has a quiet, skilled & professional demeanor. She means business. Kate wants to convict James & achieve justice for his accuser, Olivia.

Then, there is James’s wife, Sophie. She is living her life & bam!- her husband is accused of sexual assault. If she doesn’t support him through the trial, it will obviously affect the jury & public opinion. But, she has to trust her gut. Should she trust her husband? Looking back, she starts to re-examine their life & she starts to question things.

THE VERDICT

I was Really Into This book. Fans of Law & Order will love it! The entire story played like a movie in my head & I love that! While this isn’t a fast-paced, supercharged thriller, it is a well-written novel that is pieced together expertly by Sarah Vaughan. The suspense slowly builds & before you know it, a rapid boil is occurring. It is intense. Readers who enjoy Tana FrenchRagnar Jónasson & Wendy Walker are sure to enjoy Anatomy of a Scandal as well.

Special thanks to Sarah VaughanAtria/Emily Bestler Books & NetGalley for providing my copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: SARAH VAUGHAN

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan Book Review Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan

I’m a novelist and journalist who has alway wanted to write fiction. My first novel, The Art of Baking Blind, was published in 2014 by Hodder, and nine other countries. The Farm at the Edge of the World, followed in 2016, and in 2017 became a bestseller in France. Anatomy of a Scandal heralds a shift in genre: part courtroom drama, part portrait of a marriage, part psychological thriller, it will be published in January 2018 by Simon & Schuster UK and Emily Bestler Books, US, and translated into 17 other languages. I’m now completing another novel in a similar vein – exploring what happens when women’s lives are touched by darkness or crime.

Though I didn’t start writing fiction in earnest before I turned 40, I have put pen to paper – or fingers to a keyboard – every day of my career. Before writing novels, I was a journalist, writing under the byline Sarah Hall. After journalism college and work at The Times, I trained with the Press Association and spent 11 years on The Guardian as a news reporter, health correspondent and political correspondent. I left after having my second baby and began to freelance.

Long before that,  I read English at Brasenose College, Oxford. Reading Beowulf may not have helped me become a novelist but reading and thinking about writing for three years undoubtedly did. I now live just outside Cambridge with my husband, two young children, geriatric cat and puppy. When I’m not writing, I love to walk, run, read.

Momma, wife, baker, reader & smart ass. I am Really Into doughnuts, inside jokes, trash TV, pizza, 48 Hours & George Michael.

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