The John Grisham-worthy twist comes from the investigation of three rapes 1,300 miles away, in two suburbs and a city outside of Denver. The Police Departments in the three places in Colorado (Aurora, Golden and Westminster) pooled their clues and figured out they were probably looking for the same attacker. They found him — the break in the case came from a single detail about the spotting of a white truck. On the rapist’s computer, they found the photos he took of Marie. Years later, here was incontrovertible proof that she had told the truth.

The parallel tales allow Miller and Armstrong to juxtapose the damage of a botched rape investigation and the triumph of careful and skilled police work. Though stranger rape isn’t the norm for sexual assault, or the focus of the sexual misconduct fueling the #MeToo moment in which this book appears, it offers broadly relevant lessons. One of the valiant detectives in Colorado (this is a book that turns law enforcement characters into heroes) explains that her rule isn’t simply “believe your victim”; it’s “listen and verify,” which gives her space to refute or corroborate the account, depending on where the evidence takes her. Another detective in Aurora explains how he learned that there is no “right way” for a survivor to respond to an assault. The 65-year-old victim he interviewed was matter-of-fact rather than emotional, much like Marie, but he didn’t discount her credibility, and that withholding of judgment helped catch the serial attacker.

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Miller and Armstrong point out a pattern in Lynnwood. The police there wrote off as unfounded 21 percent of the rape reports they received during the five years in which the book unfolds. That’s five times the national average. An external reviewer said that if the two police officers who interrogated Marie hadn’t documented their own “bullying and coercive” behavior, he “would have been skeptical” that such conduct actually happened. Though Miller and Armstrong don’t say so, it’s one more telling illustration of who does or doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt.

One of the two officers who blew Marie’s case comes across as a secondary villain. Jerry Rittgarn, who threatened Marie with jail if she failed a lie-detector test, left Lynnwood to work as a private investigator. He told Miller and Armstrong he would talk to them only if they paid him, while complaining about “victims who lie” and “a biased story.” The other officer, however, is introspective enough to be the book’s most complex figure. Sgt. Jeffrey Mason questioned whether he was qualified to do his job — after more than 20 years as a cop — when he learned he’d helped prosecute a vulnerable rape victim. When Marie asked for an apology, he showed up and said he was sorry; she found him sincere. Peggy disappointed Marie at first with her muted response but then expressed her intense regret and worked to repair their relationship.