"[A] stunningly unique take on a thriller...For fans of stories with a little something extra, this book is set up like an oral history, complete with emails, newspaper clippings and photos that propel the story all the way to a shocking and satisfying conclusion." — Newsweek
"Cleverly blending the real and imagined worlds until the reader can't differentiate the two, Knox has created a twisty, turny thriller that cuts through the heart of the modern true crime fascination, all while keeping us enraptured by it." — BuzzFeed
"Knox the author pulls off a hybrid triumph: at once an old-fashioned whodunnit and a smart postmodern literary novel asking questions about the ethics of all editing, as well as the true-crime genre." — The Sunday Times
"Joseph Knox now offers an ingenious metafictional work about a cold case involving the disappearance of Zoe Nolan... This is one of the most engaging cold-case novels I have read." — Literary Review
"The gifted Joseph Knox continues his upwards trajectory with True Crime Story forging something original and innovative." — Financial Times
"Mr. Knox is a fantastic writer. His ambitious fourth novel satirises and celebrates the true-crime genre with glee. True Crime Story, by turns horrific and hilarious, is scandalously entertaining." — The Times
"The impressively twisty plot drops one bombshell revelation after another. Twin Peaks fans won’t want to miss this one." — Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review
"Each voice is distinctive and convincing, and each story within the central tale captures the youth culture of the time in unglamorous Manchester." — Kirkus Reviews
"Pure genius – all the things you want to a crime novel to be, also hilarious. I love it." — Jane Casey, author of the Maeve Kerrigan novels
"True Crime Story is phenomenal. One of the most original thrillers I’ve read in years, perhaps ever. A gritty, twisted murder mystery told in the unique style of a true crime account. I’ve rarely raced through a book so fast. I’m just gutted that it’s probably ruined me for thrillers for a good long while! Absolutely remarkable." — Erin Young, author of The Fields
"Riveting and relentless. A unique story, brilliantly told." — Terry Hayes, author of I Am Pilgrim
"Absolutely brilliant. I think it’s a game-changer." — Martyn Waites, author of The Woman in Black
"Highly original and mischievous novel – a complete triumph." — John Boyne, bestselling author of A Ladder to the Sky
"Reads like a cinematic true crime documentary. Brilliant, compelling and original." — Steve Cavanagh, award-winning author of the Eddie Flynn series
2021-09-29
In a serpentine narrative that reads like a podcast, the friends, parents, and twin sister of a 19-year-old college student recall the events leading up to her disappearance as well as the criminal investigation and personal travails that followed.
Almost every character in this so-called “true crime story" set in Manchester, England, in 2011 has something to hide. That includes the author, who, using his real name, casts himself as one of the more dubious actors on a crowded stage that is in fact a hall of mirrors. The setup, however, is straightforward and all too familiar. At the tail end of a drunken Christmas party, a pretty and talented college student disappears and is never seen again. “She never got the chance to let her childhood and her pretensions fall away,” the vanished Zoe’s pretentious boyfriend, Andrew, later muses. “And you could argue that’s useful for the role that she’s been cast in by the likes of her father....A victim is apparently the best thing you can be in this day and age.” Andrew is one of a handful of central characters interviewed by Evelyn Mitchell, a journalist who becomes obsessed with the case (and who is murdered, perhaps as a consequence or perhaps not). It is Evelyn’s transcript of those interviews—interrupted by emails between Evelyn and the author—that reveals both the truth behind Zoe’s disappearance and the deceits and dangers that shadow these young lives. “It’s amazing what can seem normal when it’s all you know,” one character remarks of his unstable Irish mother. “I spent my first five years dressed as the girl she’s actually been expecting, which was confusing to say the least.” This is Fintan, of whom the reader will learn more and worse. Each voice is distinctive and convincing, and each story within the central tale captures the youth culture of the time in unglamorous Manchester. There is, however, more style than substance in a crime novel that, for all its cleverness, resorts to red herrings that would make Agatha Christie blush.
A cunningly constructed yet flimsy novel of youthful confusion, obsession, and murder.
