Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation

Novelist Krouse (Contenders) chronicles a benchmark sexual assault investigation in this enthralling blend of true crime and memoir. “I became a private investigator because of my face,” she writes, describing a chance meeting in 2002 that led her to take a job investigating lawsuits. All too familiar with complete strangers confiding secrets to her, Krouse imagined interviewing others would come naturally, until she was assigned to investigate the rape of a college student. A victim of childhood sexual abuse, Krouse was wary of taking on the case, but, as she writes, defending her client, Simone—who was attacked at a party by players from her school’s football team—gave her the chance “to change things forever.” Over the next five years Krouse helped expose a culture of sexual violence, harassment, and corruption in the football program at Simone’s university. When the scandal expanded into the “hidden world of athletic money,” the investigation escalated into a civil rights case accusing the school of a “system of sexual abuse” that “amount[ed] to discrimination,” and what began as a fight for one woman’s justice becomes a battle Krouse fights against her own inner demons that eloquently contends with systemic issues still plaguing American institutions today. The emotional catharsis delivered by the book’s end turns this sensational tale into a stunning story of redemption and hope. Readers will be gripped. (Mar.)