Swimming In The Dark is an unsettling thriller about Serena, a bright 15 year old girl, from a dysfunctional family in Otago, who is being abused by the local cop. The story is told from different narrators' perspectives, initially Serena herself, and her older sister Lynnie, who has escaped their toxic family and moved on to Wellington. Serena's schoolteacher, Ilse becomes involved, and at this point the story broadens to tell the story of Ilse's parents' escape form the brutality of the East German regime during the Cold War. The storytelling is taut and layered, the pace relentless; at times the reader wants to look away, but can't. Both stories are about powerlessness, and about how the apparently powerless can regain power against insurmountable odds. The women in this book are resourceful, single minded and strong, they are all excellent characters. I read this in a single session, it wouldn't let go.