False Witness

“The past is never where you think you left it.”

The book’s epigraph illuminates one of the central themes to be explored, The Futility of Trying to Escape the Past. Over the course of the novel, Callie and Leigh will learn that they must confront their past to find peace.

“Trevor suddenly appeared behind her like a serial killer. He threw his arms around her, saying ‘I love you.’”

This seemingly throw-away line is a valuable piece of literary foreshadowing. This child will become a serial rapist and, subsequently, a killer. Similarly, the way he is described—as a “serial killer”—contrasts strikingly with what he goes on to tell Callie, foreshadowing the way adult Andrew/Trevor will pose as a lover of women while raping and killing them.

“‘Apparently, a guilty admission on this particular reduced charge could lead to further exposure.’

[…]

Leigh asked, ‘How much exposure?’

‘Two, possibly three.’

Women, she thought. Two or three more women who had been raped.”

This exchange between Leigh and her boss is an example of a more subtle, casual misogyny. The boss referring to rape survivors as “exposure” is dismissive and dehumanizing, which Leigh implicitly notes when she corrects him in her own mind with “women.”