Book Review: False Report.

                                                                                   BOOK INFORMATION:                                                                  

Two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists tell the riveting true story of Marie, a teenager who was charged with lying about having been raped, and the detectives who followed a winding path to arrive at the truth.
On August 11, 2008, eighteen-year-old Marie truthfully reported that a masked man broke into her apartment near Seattle, Washington, and raped her, but within days police and even those closest to Marie became suspicious of her story. The police swiftly pivoted and began investigating her. Confronted with inconsistencies in her story and the doubts of others, Marie broke down and said her story was a lie. Police charged her with false reporting. One of her best friends created a web page branding her a liar.

More than two years later, Colorado detective Stacy Galbraith was assigned to investigate a case of sexual assault. Describing the crime to her husband that night--the attacker's calm and practiced demeanor, which led the victim to surmise "he's done this before"--Galbraith learned that the case bore an eerie resemblance to a rape that had taken place months earlier in a nearby town. She joined forces with the detective on that case, Edna Hendershot, and the two soon realized they were dealing with a serial rapist: a man who photographed his victims, threatening to release the images online, and whose calculated steps to erase all physical evidence suggested he might be a soldier or a cop. Through meticulous police work the detectives would eventually connect the rapist to other attacks in Colorado--and beyond.

Based on investigative files and extensive interviews with the principals, An Unbelievable Story is a serpentine tale of doubt, lies, and a hunt for justice, unveiling the disturbing reality of how sexual assault is investigated today--and the long history of skepticism toward rape victims. 

                                                                        MY THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK                                                              

Can I just start off by saying that it freaks me out that this woman was raped in a city so close to me? Going into this book I was nervous and scared due to my own trauma story but I am so glad that I got this ARC because it is a book everyone needs to read. 

Marie told Rittgarn she had been attacked, that she wasn’t making the rapist up. She began to cry, saying she kept having a vision of him on top of her.
Rittgarn wasn’t moved. Later, when recounting Marie’s words in a written report, he would put the word “him” in quotation marks.

It saddens me that we live in a world that in 2008 a young women reported being raped, and after a few days she became the center of the investigation her self. The police, her family, and almost all her friends began to question her story. She was charged with false reporting. After a period of more than two years, her rapist was found and convicted. This is just beyond tragic. I can not imagine. 

“No judge should ever let a sex offense charge go to the jury unless the female complainant’s social history and mental makeup have been examined and testified to by a qualified physician.”

This is a writing from John Henry Wigmore in the 18th Century. We have an appalling history of rape in this country. 

I have experienced the horrible crime of rape in my lifetime and in parts this book was so painful to read about. I am all too familiar with the failings in terms of rape in our justice or injustice system as truth would have it. This book will stick with me. 

Disclaimer: I received this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.