I was confused by the end of this book when I googled the case! I enjoyed it but would have preferred it if my original thoughts had been correct!

I loved this immersive, layered and well written crime thriller from Joseph Knox, which is set up uniquely with the author as a character within it. A story within a story, we are led through interviews with key witnesses regarding the mysterious disappearance of Zoe Nolan, a university student studying at Manchester University 20 odd years ago, by a writer trying to piece together the mystery for a planned book. Evelyn, the writer, enlists our author, Joseph Knox, to read her drafts and discuss the work with her, and we read their email exchanges as a commentary on the interview documentation we are also reading. The story is interwoven and complex, with interesting grey characters, where nothing is quite as it seems. As we head towards the climax, we already know that Evelyn is heading for trouble - is she getting too close to the truth? All in all, a superb read and the use of mixed media styles makes this really engrossing. Highly recommended.

This is a difficult book to review - not because of the plot or the characters or the narrative but because of the format. I took a few chapters to get into it as the blend of “fact” and fiction and the emails between “Joseph Knox” and Evelyn, the “other” writer, intermittent in the book are a totally new way of reading for me. I loved it, I found myself pausing just to think about what the author was doing. The interviews with all the characters interspersed with each other allowed the pace to be set and it speeds up and slows down depending on where we are in the story.

The plot involves a missing twin, a dysfunctional family - actually several dysfunctional families - university students in and out of each other’s rooms and a growing invisible menace. The plotting is clever and you are led very definitely to the satisfying conclusion - which I did not see coming.

Recommended if you want something that will grip you and not let go but is different to the usual crime novels you might read.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review

True Crime Story is an intriguing mystery that tells a fictional, addictive whodunnit by way of a true crime story with transcripts of interviews throughout. It reads like an actual true crime story, although it is actually a work of fiction. This format works beautifully as it pulls readers in deeper to the story of the missing Zoe Nolan. The plot is clever with plenty of suspects and twists keepings readers on their toes. If you typically enjoy mysteries, but are looking for something a little different - this is a great one to check out with the format making it appear like true crime. Highly recommended!

A very interesting book, featuring different perspectives. You really get lost in the story. I recommend this.

I began this book with some confusion. With publisher's notes and transcripts it does read as non-fiction. But it is in fact all completely made up.

Reviewing it as such, it is an interesting take on crime fiction, with plenty of twists and suspicion falling on all the characters involved. But it left me a little unmoved and uninterested in finding out the truth. The buzz created around the book was intriguing but the actual story didn't engage me and I laboured through to the end reluctantly.

I was so excited for this book, as tye blurd sounded great and there are so many positive reviews. I was sure i was going to flew through it.
Unfortunately, this book took me FOREVER to read.
It's written in the form of sort of transcripts of interviews, but they're not actual transcripts as you have few lines of A speaking, and then few lines of B, then of C, and then again of A. It felt disjointed and confusing. Less like transcripts, more like few people trying to shout over other people in one tiny criwded room. It was exhausting and confusing.

Also, this book is mostly just plain boring. It started getting interesting around 50%, some twists and turns started appearing around 70%, and then again back to the boring and flat ending.
I'm glad I pushed through to see these twists (as some of them were interesting, some of them were ridiculous though), but I only did it because it was a review copy. If it were a regular read I would have DNFed it around 10% because it has put me to sleep more than once.
As I said before, the ending was terribly disappointing. I guess we don't really get to know what's happened to Zoes of this world, and that happens in reali life more often than not. But this is a work of fiction, so the ending just left me annoyed and dissatisfied.

This book is not horrible, but I'm not sure if it's worth your time (it wasn't worth mine, for sure).
I won't discourage you from reading it, but i won't be recommending it either

This novel brings the best of both worlds together; skewering the True Crime industry with one stroke, and telling a compelling whodunnit with another. It's incredibly absorbing and kept me reading until late at night. Unique and fresh, definitely a triumph in the genre.

In the early hours of Saturday 17 December 2011, Zoe Nolan, a nineteen-year-old Manchester University student, walked out of a party taking place in the shared accommodation where she had been living for three months.She was never seen again. Seven years after her disappearance, struggling writer Evelyn Mitchell finds herself drawn into the mystery. Through interviews with Zoe's closest friends and family, she begins piecing together what really happened in 2011. But where some versions of events overlap, aligning perfectly with one another, others stand in stark contrast, giving rise to troubling inconsistencies. Shaken by revelations of Zoe's secret life, and stalked by a figure from the shadows, Evelyn turns to crime writer Joseph Knox to help make sense of a case where everyone has something to hide. Zoe Nolan may be missing presumed dead, but her story is only just beginning

Thank you so much to the publishers for sending me a copy of this book. The publisher let me know when they sent me the book that the it had received so many positive reviews and she really was right!
This book is possibly one of the best crime novels I’ve read.
Right from page one the book pulled me in
I loved the format of the book and the unique storytelling way.
This book is character driven, but so much happens in the book, without a lot needing to happen.
This book is so sinister and I had to remind myself on so many occasions that I wasn’t actually reading a “true crime story”.
I cannot do this book enough justice with my review.
All I can say…go read it!!

True Crime Story by Joseph Knox is a compilation book, put together after the death of Evelyn Mitchell, the original author of Zoe Nolan’s story..
Zoe Nolan is still missing, presumed dead. I first started this book at the end of June 2021 and it has taken me a month to finish this book.
I have read Joseph Knox’s other fiction novels and enjoyed them.
I did however find this stand alone book very difficult to read and understand because of Joseph Knox’s involvement with the missing woman, Zoe Nolan and also the murdered writer Evelyn Mitchell and wondered why he completed the book, True Crime Story.
Bewildering read.

Okay, so this ISN'T an actual true crime story, but it's so well written, you feel like it is.

The book revolves around the disappearance of Zoe Nolan, as an investigative crime writer works with a friend to try and figure out what really happened. Filled with multifaceted characters and plot twists, Knox manages to weave it all together nicely to give a very satisfying conclusion.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

What a heartbreak of a story! I love a true crime because you can really get into it and sometimes may remember from when this happens in real life. Recommended to all true crime lovers

This book was so gripping, I felt like it consumed me for the period of time I was reading it! It’s the story of Zoe Nolan who went missing after a night out and now we follow her friends and family in the immediate aftermath and much later on. The uniqueness of this novel is that it’s framed as true crime with the author becoming a character in the novel through his correspondence with struggling writer Evelyn who is researching the case and writing a book about the disappearance. Knox pushes himself into Evelyn’s life and offers advice, even when not wanted, as to how she can improve her book. We then get to read Evelyn’s book and the changes and additions that Knox has made. It feels like a case within a case and there is so much to puzzle over and so much to be intrigued by. I was hooked from the very start of this book and even when I wasn’t reading it I was thinking about it and wondering what had happened to Zoe. I didn’t work out any aspect of whodunnit or why and I love that I had no idea. I definitely recommend this one!

I really liked the concept of this book, it did take me a while to get into as it was so unusual, but once I did, I needed to find out what happened to Zoe. A whole cast of unlikeable characters brilliantly brought to life.

I can already see this so clearly as a TV drama - the script is basically there!

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book. This is my honest opinion

What they say: In the early hours of Saturday 17 December 2011, Zoe Nolan, a nineteen-year-old Manchester University student, walked out of a party taking place in the shared accommodation where she had been living for three months. She was never seen again. Seven years after her disappearance, struggling writer Evelyn Mitchell finds herself drawn into the mystery. Through interviews with Zoe ' s closest friends and family, she begins piecing together what really happened in 2011. But where some versions of events overlap, aligning perfectly with one another, others stand in stark contrast, giving rise to troubling inconsistencies. Shaken by revelations of Zoe ' s secret life, and stalked by a figure from the shadows, Evelyn turns to crime writer Joseph Knox to help make sense of a case where everyone has something to hide. Zoe Nolan may be missing presumed dead, but her story is only just beginning.

My thoughts: I loved it! A clever and very interesting way of telling a story which was very compelling, I would consider it even a 'page-turner'. I enjoyed the interaction between Evelyn and Joseph as writers, considering all angles of the story as they go along, plus the rather unusual angle of Joseph Knox putting himself into his own story. The characters were not spared in their flaws and as a reader, you could see the overlappings and contradictions as each of them remembered various events. The pacing was spot on and the settings very well described. I would really recommend this if you enjoy a mystery, thriller or crime novel. I certainly look forward to investigating more of this authors books!

True Crime Story had me straight on google the minute I finished, I needed to know more, I needed an explanation, I needed a full conclusion.
This just goes to show how well written True Crime Story is, it could be anyone’s story.
Told from various points of view (friends and family) and emails between the author and the journalist investigating the case of a missing woman.
We learn of the people who knew her and those that think they did and the all too common mistakes that are often made when people go missing.

This book was amazing and felt like a true crime novel! The way it is written by interviewing different people, family members and Police officers that were discussing Zoe Nolan and her disappearance, is so unique. It grips you like a true crime podcast, following along with the investigation and hearing from each person involved. The ending was absolutely brilliant. Throughout the book there are also emails between Evelyn Mitchell and Joseph Knox discussing the case and their thoughts. It was brilliantly done. I recommend this book to crime fiction lovers out there who enjoy true crime/podcasts. Also I feel lovers of true crime books may enjoy this as well because it feels as if you are in the midst of a real crime investigation. Thank you Netgalley for my copy to read and review.

Zoe Nolan went missing in 2011 after leaving a party and was never seen again.
A student at Manchester University and only nineteen, this was a disappearance that was soon forgotten until seven years later when Evelyn Michell, a struggling writer, gets intrigued by her unexplained vanishing.
After interviewing friends and family Evelyn starts to put the puzzle together, but she needs help, so turns to crime writer Joseph Knox and they start to unravel a story that blows their minds.
A unique clever book that will compel the reader and keep them intrigued throughout.
This a superbly written story that I found utterly enticing and wonderfully original.
A book of the highest quality and one I would very much recommend.

Zoe Nolan disappeared when walking out of a party and was never seen again. Seven years later, Evelyn Mitchell decides to investigate and write a book about it. Through multiple interviews with family, friends and police that were there at the time, she is trying to figure what happens. To help her make sense of everything, she asks her fellow writer and friend Joseph Knox to help her.
The narrative is fragmented with interviews from all the person involved in the case and in the middle of that, there are the emails between Evelyn and Joseph trying to figure out what is happening.
The beginning of the book was a bit slow, and the fragmented narrative made it a bit hard for me to get into, but the second part of the book was difficult to put down.

Memory is an interesting thing, isn't it? The way it changes and adapts over time, casts a new hue over long-forgotten slights or surprises. So what do you do when those memories become crucial to solving a decade-old crime? That's one of the questions at the heart of True Crime Story, a non-fiction crime retelling unlike any other. Thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The line that True Crime walks is fine, as sharp as a new blade. On the one hand you don't want to be exploitative, on the other hand you don't want to sanitize horrifying acts. On your third hand you don't want to idolize killers, on your mystical fourth hand you don't want to victim-blame. Crime Fiction shares many of these issues but because it technically deals with fictional characters its authors get away with a lot more. In True Crime Story, a novel combining fact and fiction, these four hands juggle many different storylines, but Knox manages to keep an eye on most, if not all, of them. I was fascinated by this novel and I will get into its unique structure in more detail below. Yet

True Crime Story begins with an author's preface by Joseph Knox trying to clear up some of the confusion in regards to True Crime Story. From there, he reveals, through emails and through interviews the story of the missing Zoe Nolan and the story of what happened to the original author of Zoe's story, Evelyn Mitchell. The whole novel is told through interviews with Zoe's family and friends, and perhaps her killer. Much is unclear about the night she disappeared, but it quickly becomes clear that there is more to her disappearance than just that night. Much insight into her life is given by Kimberly, her twin-sister, forever in Zoe's shadow. We also hear from Zoe and Kim's housemates. parents, and friends as well as Zoe's boyfriend. Interspersed through these interviews, which frequently are edited to form direct responses to each other, are emails from Evelyn to Knox and vice versa about the book itself and how its coming along. Can you tell I'm purposefully not saying anything about the plot? Great! Reading True Crime Story was compulsive, I did not want to stop. I enjoyed the time Knox took at the beginning to set up all the characters, to set up everyone's background properly, even though for some readers this might feel like a slow ending. The tension ramps up significantly once we're at the halfway mark and I was grateful for the solid grounding once the plot's twists became more dramatic.

Joseph Knox is already a prolific writer, known most, perhaps, for his Aidan Waits series. With True Crime Story he creates a meta-narrative that twists and turns and that had me eventually reaching for Google because I was so deep in I no longer knew what was real and what wasn't. I may have used the word "bamboozled" when talking to my housemate about this novel. He himself is one of the book's main stars and he does not spare himself. While perhaps the story itself is not revolutionary, the way in which Knox tells it, the way it is structured and set up, is truly mind-blowing. It is not something new, per se, but it is done very well. Knox plays with genre, with his own "authorial self", with his writing process and with the faults of True Crime and Crime novels. It is great fun and the only issues I ran into were, I believe, galley issues that will be fixed in the published book. True Crime Story had me on the edge of my seat until 2am, completely submerged into its story and fully onboard with everything Knox was trying to sell me.

I raced through True Crime Story and absolutely adored it. This book has been one of the best Thriller/Suspense reads of 2021 so far!