It is so easy to fall in love with a writer as good as Joe Knox. As a curtain raiser to a literary career 'Sirens' was immensely exciting, and 'The Smiling Man' and 'The Sleepwalker' even more so. Now, 'True Crime Story' is a game changer lifting him into the highest echelon of crime writers.
This really is a very special novel. It's authentic and realistic and gripping with enough twists and turns to fuel two novels. Zoe and her friends (and her enemies) are just like characters in real life who somehow find themselves in newspaper headlines.
There is an evocative picture of life in student accommodation in Manchester and a profoundly honest portrait of people desperately in need of help but forced to rely on charity.
This is a glorious triumph for its young author.

Truly an experience you have to be present in. I listened on Audible to this and amongst moments of 'hang on, what did they just say' and audible gasp, where my dog looked at me.

Zoe Nolan, heads to Uni in Manchester. Makes friends, has a town sister Kim, who she doesn't really get along with but they live in the same shared flat. They share with others and those others have friends who then are embroiled in this tale, when Zoe goes missing after a night out all of them are questioned, by the police, each other, their parents. All of them have slightly different takes on what's happened. A whole secret side to Zoe is seen. It's written in an interview style, by Evelyn Mitchell who then contacts Knox and the story goes between the two - this book has every kind of tangle going on - love, friendship, Uni life, childhood, family and all relating to Zoe.

I really enjoyed it and look forward to more from Knox.

This was a book unlike anything I have read before… and I absolutely loved it!!

I loved the whole premise of the book, I loved the format and I loved the intrigue surrounding it all. When I first started reading, I had to double check what I was reading was fictional as it comes across so real! It was great and so different for the author to actually put themselves in the book - never experienced that before!

It did take a while to get into, but I think that’s because of the format and found it good in a way that I wasn’t rushing through it, as information could have been easily missed!

My first experience of Joseph Knox and will definitely be reading more of his work in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for this arc.

This was a great true crime read. The dialogue flows beautifully in between the chucks of interview pieces from several friends, family member and others

I love being given the opportunity to update our school library which is a unique space for both senior students and staff to access high quality literature. This is definitely a must-buy. It kept me absolutely gripped from cover to cover and is exactly the kind of read that just flies off the shelves. It has exactly the right combination of credible characters and a compelling plot thatI just could not put down. This is a great read that I couldn't stop thinking about and it made for a hugely satisfying read. I'm definitely going to order a copy and think it will immediately become a popular addition to our fiction shelves. 10/10 would absolutely recommend.

Really enjoyed this - will definitely be recommending and looking forward to the next one by this author!

After reading and enjoying the Aidan Waits series by this author, I was looking forward to reading his first stand-alone novel.

True Crime Story is a mixed media novel, using mainly emails and interview transcripts to tell the story. Joseph Knox has written himself into the novel and it’s written in such a way that you question if it really is a true story.

Evelyn, a friend of Joseph’s, is an aspiring writer and looking for Joseph’s help in writing a book about the disappearance of Zoe Nolan seven years earlier.
Zoe was a student who had a twin sister, Kimberley, that went to the same university. Zoe seemed to vanish and Evelyn interviews friends, flat mates, lecturers, family members, and whoever else she can think of to try and piece together what really happened.
Evelyn starts receiving numerous late night phone calls and uninvited men turn up at her house. Someone doesn’t want her investigating but how far will they go to stop her?

The format of the book didn’t really work for me, I found it so very slow and frankly, boring. The book felt never ending and I think it could have been cut down quite a lot. The majority of the characters are so unlikeable which didn’t help, as you can’t connect to them and be engaged with the story.

I didn’t want to pick the book up and had to force myself to read it as it was such a chore. I would read for what felt like hours and have hardly made a dent in the book.

Vague curiosity kept me reading as I wanted to find out what had happened to Zoe, but I found the conclusion unsatisfying and not worth the endless reading.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me at all. I appreciate the author has tried something a bit different but the awful characters and slow pace let it down.

An intriguing and unusual premise where the author takes a fictional story and presents it as a factual true crime account. Original and enjoyable. Would recommend.

This was a really enjoyable book with an unusual structure blurring the lines between reality and fiction. Joseph Knox appears in the narrative as himself and the whole book is told through interviews with the people and suspects involved in the missing person case of Zoe Nolan, a 19 year old student who disappeared from a party at her halls of residence in Manchester. I thought that the story was very interesting, with enough twists and turns to keep things moving along, but this is very much a book that depends on its structure for success. I would particularly recommend the audio book version, which is excellent and has a full cast. This type of production works really well with the narrative and is definitely the best way to get the most out of the story. Overall, I found this a compelling book and would recommend it widely.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

To say this book is riveting is an understatement. I was powering through the pages like a woman possessed. I needed to know immediately what the outcome of this fictional "true crime story" was. The writing was fast paced and mysterious, it had me guessing all the way to the end. However, with such an amazing build up I thought the final reveal would have been dealt with more punch, but it fell a little flat. I was still shocked, but I found the last 20 pages to be an abrupt conclusion of an otherwise expertly written mystery. I didn't detract from my enjoyment though and would highly recommend.

Unique format had me compelled, I couldn't put it down until I'd found out what had happened.

Vivid & well drawn characters with a wicked sense of humour throughout.

The book was very well written and flowed well. The plot was great. Everything I thought it would be from the description

I wanted to love this book so very badly. I LOVED the cover, loved the structure and loved the fact that Knox inserts himself into the book making you question if it's real or not. So why then have I attempted to read this book twice and I can never get past about 70 pages? Gutted.

Maybe I'll give it another go, but for now it's a DNF for me. I never felt invested in the characters or their viewpoints enough.

Very clever mix of fiction with enough authorial intervention to make you doubt what you are reading, or wonder if it is indeed a true crime account. Although some of the characters feel a little overwrought, there was such a strong sense of place and menace. Riveting read.

I found this to be quite a confusing read, some parts were interesting but also quite difficult to follow. Overall not for me.

Unfortunately this one was not for me. I found it confusing at times and a bit difficult to follow. Shame as the premise sounded good.

True Crime Story is Joseph Knox’s fourth novel, his first standalone. Previously I’ve read two of his Detective Aidan Waits novels, The Smiling Man and The Sleepwalker, which I loved – they’re both brilliant, dark and violent urban noir novels. They’re also amongst the most complicated books that I’ve ever read. So my expectations for True Crime Story were very high, but, I’m sorry to say, I was disappointed. In fact I almost abandoned it several times, until about the 50% mark when I realised that I had to read on because I wanted to know what had happened to Zoe.

Despite the title this is not a nonfiction true crime story, nor a mix of fact and fiction, it is a novel and it includes the author, Joseph Knox, as one of its characters. It has a story within the story – made up of emails to and from Knox and another writer (fictional) Evelyn Mitchell. Evelyn is writing a book about the disappearance of a student at Manchester University, Zoe Nolan. Her book is a collection of interviews she carried out with Zoe’s family and friends seven years after Zoe’s disappearance, which she sends to Joseph Knox as she collates them, and asks for his advice.

Initially I found this rather confusing but I gradually worked out their relationships and characters, although it is repetitive and reads as a long session of interviews about the same events as seen through each character’s perspective. For me, this makes it fragmentary and in parts disjointed, slows down the action, and lessens the tension and suspense even as the facts about the mystery emerge, including what happens to Evelyn herself.

However, many other readers love this book, so I am in the minority. It has had rave reviews and was short listed for this year’s Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Fiction Novel of the Year, an award that celebrates excellence, originality, and the very best in crime fiction from UK and Irish authors. You may enjoy it more than I did!

My thanks to the publishers Transworld Digital for a review copy via NetGalley.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3

Okay, was I the only idiot who thought this was a true story? I was like 30% through when I was like "hmmm there is too much internal monologue for this to be real". I felt like there were wayyyy too many characters in this, and I kept losing the plot of who everyone was. There were also so many random threads that work in a "true crime story", like random plot points that don't make sense because real life doesn't make sense - but in a novel it just didn't work for me.

It was a struggle to get through the first few chapters of the book, Unfortunately, the disclaimer at the start completely threw me off because I couldn't get past trying to decipher if it was genuine or part of the story. It took my mind away from trying to enjoy the story,

This is such a different type of book, the way it's set out took me a little while to get used to as it's so unique and I found there were a lot of people to remember but I soon got my head around all the different characters and actually quite enjoyed it.