True Crime Story by Joseph Knox
True Crime Story is the latest novel from British author Joseph Knox, published by Doubleday. After penning three novels in his Aiden Waits series, True Crime Story is his first standalone novel.
Synopsis
True Crime Story tells the tale of Zoe Nolan and her disappearance in December 2011. Writer Evelyn Mitchell has her heart set on finding out the truth behind Zoe’s disappearance. While plotting and researching her book, she keeps in touch with crime writer Joseph Knox.
Identical twins Zoe and Kim were as close as they could be until Kim rebels against their father’s overbearing voice training. After never achieving his dreams of stardom, he pushes his daughters to achieve what he couldn’t. After this, their father’s favouritism forces a wedge between them.
Kim carves her own path, and as Zoe is prepping to join a prestigious music school, she looks forward to the chance to be herself at university; however, Zoe and her father’s dreams are crushed and she’s rejected from music school. Soon Kim finds herself stuck with Zoe again.
After a lifetime of being compared to a talented and beautiful twin, did Kim have something to do with Zoe’s disappearance? Then there were the phone calls Zoe would only take in private. How many secrets can one teenage girl hide? And is Joseph Knox really just an interested author?
Review
True Crime Story by Joseph Knox is probably the best crime audiobook I’ve ever listened to. Yes, even beating the wonderful Silence of the Lambs. Because its format is mostly transcription and email-based, it adapts to audio seamlessly. If you’re a podcast fan, then you’ll be immediately at home with this style.
I’ll admit that I didn’t know the author himself played a role in this story, and it did throw me for a second. However, it quickly became clear and it made me fall for the story even more.
Joseph Knox (the author, not the character) paints an incredibly vivid picture of the girls’ childhood and their relationship. Their father comes across as an absolute piece of sh*t and (no spoilers) that doesn’t really change throughout. Kim was a harder one to get my head around. I was completely torn whether she was a goodie, baddie or somewhere in between for the entire book.
The hunt for Zoe Nolan took twists and turn I never saw coming. The diverse and complicated characters completely drew me in and even though stories like this are notoriously hard to tie up, the conclusion was superb.
True Crime Story will undoubtedly be in my top ten books of the year and I’m excited to start reading Joseph’s other books too.
If you liked this, you’d love After the Silence by Louise O’Neill
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