Absolutely loved this. It was hard to tell if it was fact or fiction due to the very clever way it’s written. I’d love to read more by this talent. It’s probably the most original style I’ve come across.

True Crime Story was about a university student Zoe Nolan going missing from a student party, never to be seen again.

Very cleverly written novel, with Joseph Knox being the ‘listening ear’ for Evelyn Mitchell, who started writing the book before he took over completing it in her absence. Knox being a real writer, inserted into a fictional crime – a blend of true crime-styled writing and fiction. This was my first time reading his writing, but I may try his Aiden Waits series.

The interviews with the family/friends/incidental witnesses that Evelyn complied, with them contradicting each other many of them challenging the truth to create a cover-up.

There were no likeable characters in the story; even Zoe, the missing person, had a secret persona that was less than the innocent that friends and family believed her to be.

It was slow going from the start, and it was nearly a DNF for me at some points, but I did return to it time and again to find out how it ended. It was well written enough that I wanted to know what happened to Zoe; it was just too long.

I would like to thank #NetGalley and Random House Transworld for the opportunity of reading this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating 2.75 / 5.0
This book was due for release on June 17, 2021

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

Gripping page Turner, quite harrowing in parts but a very enjoyable read. I really liked it and would defo read more form the author, I stayed up half the night to finish it

Powered through this this morning so I could move on to a different book. It’s an okay story, but just reads like a long interview column, and you’re going around and around in circles for most of it. If 100 pages were taken out, I think it would be much more engaging and fast-paced.

I tried reading this book before it was published, but the formatting of the NetGalley kindle version unfortunately made me unable to finish it. I finally got round to reading it, having bought it myself as it sounded right up my street, and I absolutely loved it! I fully recommend this book and loved the style of it. The interview format meant that the audiobook works particularly well, but it's just as good to read. The characters and plot were believable and I had to keep reminding myself that the plot was fiction to stop myself from googling the events and reports mentioned in the books. I loved the twists and turns, and it kept me hooked until the end. Thoroughly enjoyed and fully recommended!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for approving me for this arc!

I really enjoyed this book, it was a different narrative concept in the way it was written and I think that’s why I enjoyed it!

A clever and inventive take on the true crime thriller. 19-year-old Manchester student Zoe Nolan mysteriously vanishes at a Xmas party never to be seen again. Eight years later, an investigative writer pieces together what really happened from interviews with friends & family. The ripple effect on their lives and intriguing sub-plots make for a superb and enjoyable read.

An unusual and chilling thriller with an original and clever format


In December 2011, 19-year-old student Zoe Nolan walks out from a party in university accommodation in Manchester and is never seen again. Several years later, writer Evelyn Mitchell begins to dig into the mystery of her disappearance and, through a series of interviews with Zoe’s friends and family, including her ex-boyfriend Andrew and her twin sister Kim, begins to piece together the puzzle of what exactly happened that night and, in the months, leading up to it. However, as she uncovers more about Zoe’s past, she finds herself being drawn deeper into the dark secrets surrounding her life, and as she tries to piece her transcripts into a reasonable story, she turns to her friend, crime writer Joseph Knox, for advice. The result is True Crime Story.


This was a well-written dark suspense story, which grips you from the very start with its unique format and the mystery of Zoe’s unexplained disappearance. Written initially as emails between Evelyn and the real-life author Joseph Knox, the story is told as a series of transcripts from interviews with the people from Zoe’s life, including both her family and her fellow university students, who only knew her for a few months before she vanished. This was an appealing and creative way to tell a story, and it certainly draws you in as a reader. The characters are all very realistic and well portrayed through their interviews, and you can notice subtle nuances of their personalities from the way they tell their sides of the story and the differences between their versions of the truth. The unreliable narration adds to the mystery, and you find yourself constantly switching your suspicion from person to person as their accounts and various inconsistencies unfold. The realism of this way of writing also added significantly to the tense and menacing feel – in fact, some parts left me feeling genuinely a little scared after I finished reading and turned out the light, and I consider myself quite difficult to spook!


My one criticism of this novel would be that the unusual structure was a bit confusion at times, and it was only after reading a fair chunk of the book that the story starts to properly come together. Some of the transcripts also felt like they had the wrong character’s name at the start of them (although this could be a formatting error on my Kindle). Finally, although the initial twist at the end was good, I felt that some aspects of the ending were a bit forced and felt a bit over the top and unnecessary, distracting from the realism without really adding much to the overall story.


Overall, this was a highly enjoyable crime novel that has left me intrigued and wanting to read more by this author. The format may be a bit too difficult to follow for some readers, but if you persevere the result is a chilling story with realistic complex characters that sticks in your head after you put it down.


Daenerys


Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of this book to review.

I am sorry but this book just did not work for me. It was hard to know if it was a novel about a true crime or a biography. I didn't manage to finish it. I found it dragged on and was quite boring.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author.
I enjoyed this thriller and the unusual storytelling style. However, I'm not sure if it was due to the advance reading copy, but it seems as though there were gaps (pictures/images) missing with entire blank pages on the kindle, and often the headings didn't match up to the character narrating, which made things a bit disjointed and confusing. This may have been deliberate to highlight inconsistencies.
Although a surprising conclusion, it seemed a little too far fetched to be truly believable and a better read. 3 stars.

True Crime Story purports to investigate the historic disappearance of Zoe Nolan, a first year university student. It takes the form of an investigation led by budding crime writer, Evelyn Mitchell, and comprises interviews with her family and associates, found documents, and a correspondence between Evelyn and Joseph Knox, her mentor on the project. It feels like one of those talking heads TV documentaries but with this sinister stream of metafiction running through it. The technique allows the story to kick off at full pelt; there's no lengthy lead-in or scene setting. The story itself is creepy as anything, and the drip feeding of information as Evelyn uncovers it adds a timeline that seems quite independent from the actual events surrounding Zoe's disappearance. This is so well done; I could find no seams or cracks in the plot. The real proof of the pudding was my urge to read right up to the last word, then go back to the beginning to see it all over again. This reportage style is not new, but I cannot remember having seen it done better.

This is a cleverly written and well plotted book that actually made me google whether the disappearance of Zoe Nolan a student of Manchester university and twin sister to Kim actually happened. I was all the way through trying to work out who was the bad apple which is a part of what makes a good book for me. There were some formatting issues but I appreciate the advanced copy of this book so obviously have not let that influence my review.

When I started reading this book I felt quite confused and I had to restart it a good few times over. The book has been designed in such a way that it reads like it is a true story with a real life missing person, the author himself is written into the story and there is information about how he's parted company with his publishers because of the content of the book.

At this point I found myself Googling to find this information but could find nothing on the libel with the publishers or the missing girl. It was only after a few chapters I realised that it was an entirely fictitious story.

I think what Joseph Knox has tried to do is turn the tables on crime stories and come up with a completely new and clever way of doing it, and it really is as it got me, and many other people from reading other reviews, however I wish I'd had more knowledge before starting it as it was just too confusing and ruined the enjoyment of it for me.

Unfortunately, books like this can leave readers scratching their head. It's almost like an attempt to turn the book's content on it's head and leave you second guessing what to believe. It was once I had progressed through 20% of 'True Crime Story' that the penny completely dropped and I took everything in the book at face value.

The main bulk of the story is told in from the points of view of all the different friends that are involved in the story and bit by bit you have to piece togethers what has happened. I eventually bought the audiobook as I ws getting so confused, and by doing that it helped as there were different voices for the characters.

As the story got closer to the end i enjoyed it a bit more but I never really got that feeling of being desperate to get back to my book which I love to have.

I'm sure some readers will and have absolutely loved it but sadly I was never fully able to get into it and was left disappointed with that. I have given it 3 stars as it is cleverly done. I have found this review hard to write as it's hard to convey how I felt about it without sounding too negative and putting other readers off giving it a try. It just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. This is so different and one of the best books I have read all year. Definitely recommend

A very cleverly constructed and different crime novel! I loved the structure, the way it was all slightly at distance as it explored the historic disappearance of Zoe Nolan, but yet very immediate as there's a sense of menace where we know something more will happen with Evelyn, investigating the old case and sharing her finds with her fellow writer friend..

Unusual and stands out from some of the other more standard crime novels. Intriguing.

Loved the Aidan Waites series so had high expectations of this and wasn't disappointed. Such a cleverly written narrative, and stands out against what can feel like a crowded market as a real page turner.

DNF @ 25%

I tried reading this on my kindle but couldn’t get to grips with it. I thought it may just be the formatting of the book so I tried again with a physical copy.

Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this book enough to want to finish it. I cannot get my head around it. From what I can gather from reading other peoples reviews, it's a fictional story but written as if it's true - it's confused me and therefore stopped me from enjoying this book. I couldn't get to grips with the writing style either.

I did read the ending which I honestly found more interesting than the first 25% that I read.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

Wow.... just wow.

I can not be the only reader who searched more than once online thinking this really WAS a True Crime Story. I honestly don't think I've ever read a storyline so lifelike, so real, so breathtakingly plausible.

I don't think I took a breath throughout the whole book, which I so easily read in one sitting. There is NOW WAY you'll be able to put this down until the very end.

I can't praise this highly enough! Everything about it was just 100% spot on.

I loved the interaction and communication between Evelyn and Jospeh and having the author actually play a main role within the storyline made it even more lifelike.

A 19 year old university student called Zoe goes missing... what happened? Who was involved? Was she ever found?
Told through the voices and 'interviews' of Zoes flatmates this story reads like an actual crime, even now I cant quite believe it wasn't.

I won't give any spoilers, just be ready to 'feel' everything, every drip of suspense and tension, every frustrating twist and turn and every bout if anger towards the police department for unanswered questions and wrong steps they take.

The hugest 5*

The biggest of thanks to netgalley and Random House UK /Transworld for the ARC

True Crime Story is a book I absolutely galloped through because it's just so damn easy and intriguing to read! The story involves interviews and pieces of evidence intertwined to create a 'true crime'-style book about a missing student, Zoe. The mystery in question was definitely made up (I did have to double-check this near the start, just because I started to doubt myself - it all felt rather real!) but the story works at convincing you that you could be reading a true crime book about the investigation - the only clue that it isn't is the fact that the evidence and other information is presented as Joseph Knox talking to investigative journalist Evelyn Mitchell, who was working on writing the book and interviewed most of the people appearing in it.

I loved the way that, in reading this book, you can look out for little inconsistencies in people's stories, and clues peppered along the way as to who may have been responsible for Zoe's disappearance. There's lots of twists and plenty of secrets among the cast of Zoe's family, friends and acquaintances, and I loved reading this book which coils around it all, trying to make some sort of sense of it all!

I was really gripped by the subject matter, the way it was written - I thought the dominance of interview-style passages, which are very much written as they were spoken, would irritate me but I found it very easy and enjoyable to read - and the fact that not everything is overexplained or tied up neatly at the end... much like real life. However, there's also just the right amount of threads brought together at the end to leave me feeling satisfied and impressed by this atmospheric, gripping novel.