I absolutely loved this book. Hooked from the very first page, I felt I was standing beside Evelyn and Joseph trying to unravel the mystery of Zoe's disappearance. There were a few reveals I really didn't see coming. My heart broke for Kimberley and how awful her father was to both her and Zoe. I zoomed through it quickly, always wanting to return, eager to find out. The resolution was satisfying and I'm sitting here wondering how much is fact, how much is fiction. It's a dark story but one I devoured. Thank you for the opportunity of an advance copy. I'd give more than five stars if I could, it'll be a hard one to top.

True Crime Story by Joseph Knox is the story of a missing girl in Manchester, Zoe Nolan, despite what the title suggests it is fictional, though Knox places himself in the book as a character, a writer under fire for not disclosing his involvement, which gives the story that feeling of "did this really happen?"

Zoe Nolan is a twin, attending Manchester University alongside her twin sister, who goes missing one night after a party. Because Zoe is blonde, pretty and a talented singer her case gets a lot of attention as do the people around her who may or may not be to blame for her disappearance.

The book features a character called Evelyn Mitchell who Joseph Knox meets at a book signing when she approaches him to tell him about the case of Zoe Nolan. Evelyn is investigating the disappearance and writing a book about it and Knox becomes a writing mentor for her. Evelyn sends chapters and updates to Knox by email, and discusses the case and her theories with him. Much of the book is taken up with in person interviews with friends and family of Zoe and some is news features about the case, which again gives the story a feeling of reality.

And, in part, there is no reason why this couldn't be a "true" story. People do go missing all the time. A quick look at the Missing Persons UK website will show you that there are a disturbing number of people who go missing every day in the UK. Some turn up safe and sound in a few days or weeks and others remain unheard of for years, with no trace at all. The few cases that make a big splash on TV and newspapers tend to be either young children or pretty white girls (preferably middle-upper class if you don't mind), indeed this phenomena is so marked it even has a name "Missing White Woman Syndrome".

So while this book features such a missing white girl, who attracts a lot of publicity, I did feel that the writer was shining a light on the media practices which facilitate this. We see the lives of those around Zoe fall apart as various friends and acquaintances are vilified in the press and all but accused of murdering Zoe. Anyone who remembers the case of Joanne Yeates, will recall that her landlord Christopher Jeffries was questioned by police about her murder. He was innocent and another man was later convicted of the crime, but not before Jeffries had his life torn apart by six newspapers who later paid him an undisclosed sum for libelling him. This case is an example of an "ideal victim" with a potential suspect who fitted the bill, so it must be him. 

Where the book excels is at identifying the fallout for the friends and family of Zoe after she goes missing. Cracks appear as suspicions rise, and with no conclusive outcome, the lives of the people around Zoe crumble to pieces. Zoe, or her body remain unfound, but life goes on without her. As Evelyn is interviewing it becomes apparent that they all have their own axe to grind and their own ideas about who was responsible for Zoe's disappearance. It also becomes apparent that Zoe, the ideal victim, wasn't all she seemed and there was a darker side to her that she was keeping hidden from her nearest and dearest. 

The use of a twin sister for Zoe also allows Knox to play with the old "twin switch" trope. In their conversations by email Evelyn raises the possibility that Zoe killed her twin so she could take her place and remove the pressure of being the "good twin" from her life. This is quickly dismissed, but it seemed that Knox is enjoying playing with some of the tried and tested crime standards. 

Without giving too much away the book does reach a conclusion, though not the one you might expect. There is no Perry Mason moment when a crucial witness suddenly reveals it was them all along and leads police to the body. Zoe remains missing and actually her case remaining open and inactive feels like the most realistic ending there could be. It's hard to accept that someone can just vanish and never been seen or heard of again, but it happens. In fiction, as in life, humans like their stories all wrapped up and tied with a bow, but Knox makes the brave choice to not lead us to Zoe, wherever she may be and leave the mystery unsolved.

The most exciting and original crime book you’ll read this year. Really enjoyed this. Unique idea brilliantly executed.

Thought I would love this book as I am a big true crime fan - but this book was an absolute mess. Confusing writing style, a strange mishmash of nonfiction and fictional elements, and the author injected too much of his personal opinion into the narrative. Not a responsible true crime book, it felt too salacious and honestly an insult to the family.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for the arc of True Crime Story by Joseph Knox.

4 stars- This is a great read, havent read the books before this but this was a great book, it is told like a transcript for a documentary!  Mix of fact and fiction mixed together! This focuses on disappearance of a woman named Zoe from Manchester.  This story is told through interviews from key and main characters of the story which is very interesting and intriguing! 

highly recommend
4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Well, that was something else completely. Genius. Couldn't put it down. Loved the element of blending fact with fiction. 5 stars from me.

I think as you can see, it took me awhile to read this one. Almost a month! I found it hard going at times. I am still really confused if this was all fiction or elements of it were true or all of it. Also the added parts in about the author, really made me more confused. anyway as a whole concept it was good. I love true crime so that style in a book is the first time I’ve read something like this. I definitely think it’s worth people’s time, it got better as the book went on. However I had to power through to finish which I don’t really like.

Brilliant book.  Enjoyed the twists and turns.  Not usually the type of book I would read but definitely recommend it.

True Crime Story - Joseph Knox

Don't let the title put you off.

This is a fictional missing person crime thriller presented as journalistic research conducted by (the fictional) Evelyn Mitchell and the author Joseph Knox.

Constructed from emails between the two, and transcripts of interviews with the key participants with the occasional newspaper report.

The format works very well, especially in presenting multiple character recollections of key incidents.

The story follows the aftermath of the disappearance of Zoe Nolan, a first year Music student. Kimberley is her twin also a first year student. Zoe's friends, parents, Police and members of the press also feature with different characters coming and going at different stages on the investigation. 

The characters really come alive through their own words, especially Kimberley and Jai, the Asian outsider who has a hard time of it.

 The 19 storey brutalist tower block Owens Park (a real building) is their halls of residence and plays a key role in the story.

As a novel, I enjoyed it, there is a feeling of piecing it together from the transcripts.

I enjoyed the the setup and the body of the novel more than the ending. I felt involved even gripped for the first 80% while merely interested to see how it would wrap up for the last 20%.

A missing university student disappeared one night after a party and was never seen again.  Sounds interesting, I thought.  I was hoping that the crime (if it was a crime) would be solved, and the perpetrator given justice.  Sadly, my interest soon began to wane.  I found it really difficult to follow the ‘interviews’, especially as I could never work out what questions they were in answer to.  The chopping from one friend or family member to another began to annoy me, and I kept thinking “What did he/she say before?”.  I found myself trawling back through the book to remind myself of who that person was, and what they’d said before.  It was the same with the emails between Joe and Evelyn - I didn’t understand them.  I soon got completely lost, and wondered when the story was going to begin.  I appreciate that the book was well written, but it wasn’t for me I’m afraid.  I struggled to finish it but I read it to the end because I really wanted to know what had happened to Zoe.  I’m none the wiser.  Sorry!

This story blew my mind. There were large chunks of it when i actually thought i was reading a true crime book. I raced through this because i had to know what happened and then i went back and read it again. I can't believe such an incredible book like this exists; one that so perfectly combines the best parts of true crime, fiction and mystery. Superb.

1.5 rounded up

Having largely enjoyed Knox's debut Sirens I was curious to give this new standalone novel a try as the premise sounded intriguing.

It seems like mysteries involving missing persons and framed as a podcast - Sadie, Are You Sleeping, Six Stories are other examples that immediately spring to mind - are here to stay. And with the success or Serial and all of the imitations and spin offs it gave rise to, it's hardly surprising.

I should say that TCS isn't actually told in a "podcast" format per se but it may as well have been: the story of missing Zoe Nolan is told by what are framed as snippets of interviews that the "author", a young woman called Evelyn who is writing a book about the case is recounting to Joseph Knox, to get his opinion on whether she has enough to publish said book. Their exchanges come at the end of each chapter in the form of emails, and the interviews are with Zoe's flatmates, parents and friends, laid out in brief paragraphs to form the narrative of the story.

I found the format to be fine and it made for a quick read in that respect, although I could have done without the brief summaries at the beginning of each chapter... when my interest is waning and the summary sets out that nothing particularly groundbreaking appears to happen in a chapter, I'm going to end up skimming it. 

My main issue with the novel was that the crime and story itself was just not compelling to me in any way. The characters felt almost like caricatures at times, and there just wasn't enough background or development for me to really care about what was happening to any of them, and as a result I frankly felt quite bored after about 50% when it became apparent the stakes and pace weren't going to ramp up a notch. For this reason the ending fell flat, and I finished the novel feeling wholly underwhelmed. 

Safe to say this was not for me, but I do hope others get more enjoyment out of it.

My thoughts about Joseph Knox’s Brilliantly written gripping suspense murder mystery thriller True Crime Story, was just what can I say beyond excellent just superb. The way Joseph Knox has written the story and the characters, that conducts serious of interviews and investigation’s of Zoe Nolan’s Disappearance,The interview is of her family members and university friends,was just incredible.When you reach the ending of every chapter, when the interview finishes, it finishes with a suprise cliffhanger,that leaves you breathless.True Crime Story is not only a breathtaking suspense mystry thriller,but it is completely different what Joseph Knox has written before that what makes it realistic. The theories you find in each interview investigations, of who’s telling the truth just totally blows you away. True Crime Story, tells the story of the disappearance of 19 year old Zoe Nolan, a Manchester University student who walks out of a party but goes missing and she’s never seen again. If you thought Joseph Knox’s Aidan Waits series was brilliant, then think again His True Crime Story is even better. Take a bow Joseph Knox,True Crime Story is going to be big this year, your best one yet. A brilliantly written gripping hardhiting thriller, that packs a punch. I would like to say thank you to author Joseph Knox, for kindly sending me a signed Advance Review Copy for me to read and review this outstanding thriller. Highly recommended.

I really struggled to finish this book. Clearly I'm in the minority, but I was completely bored the entire time. I felt like I was in the middle of a crowded room with multiple people all shouting at once, with only snippets of the conversations getting through, and I'm still not clear on the ending.

Many thanks for allowing me to try this one but I just can’t get on with the style. There’s just something about this whole book that feels wrong. No reviews/commentary will be posted online.

Bloody hell, I need everyone to read this book so I can talk about it in real life and work out what actually happened. 
My jaw hasn't finished dropping, I am completely blown away by what I have read. True Crime Story feels like a real investigation - and maybe it is- or is it all fiction? It centres around a university student, Zoe Nolan, who goes missing just weeks into her first term at Manchester. The story is told in a series of excerpts of interviews from flat mates, family members and other players, as well as emails between the author and the interviewer.

I absolutely loved it, the story flowed fantastically and the twists and bombshells were perfectly placed. If its fiction-wow, this is first class writing. If its real life, the world is much more twisted than I suspected

Thank you so much for the chance to read it

Billed as "blending fact and fiction" this is the story of Zoe Nolan who goes missing from her student flat in Manchester in December 2011.  This appears to be a journalistic investigation of an unsolved missing person or crime.  There are email interactions between the woman who is researching this and Joseph Knox.  They contain narrative from interviews with various people involved at the time.  It is increasingly obvious that quite a bit was not discovered about Zoe when she first went missing.

In a sense I thought this was quite a good story looking at it as a whole.  There are numerous twists and turns in the narrative as aspects of Zoe and her friends' lives are gradually revealed.  I confess that I thought I knew the answer to this but I was wrong!  From that view point I think this is a good story.

However I cannot honestly say that I got as much pleasure as I was hoping for reading this. I came to this as a fan of Joe Knox's Aidan Waits stories.  However here the narrative style of hopping between contributors was not one I really liked.  I also felt that the first third at least was fairly slow.  Certainly the pace and tension improved significantly from around halfway through.

The other aspect that I found puzzling and a little disappointing was the characters.  It didn't take me long to realise that I didn't really like any of them very much although Zoe's twin sister might be an exception to that.  I felt no engagement with them or really the story for quite some time.  Given that Aidan Waits is one of my favourite characters of recent years and his stories for me were very well written I found this odd.

I must stress this is not a bad read.  Far more it is a case of the fact it wasn't the great read I was expecting.  I can see that plenty of people love this so possibly it's just me.  Personally I would advise people new to Joe Knox's work to start with the Aidan Waits stories.

This latest book from the very talented Joseph Knox is quite different from his Aidan Waits series as it’s presented like a transcript for a documentary. It’s a blend of ‘fact’ with fiction which centres on the disappearance of Zoe Nolan from her Manchester University accommodation in December 2011. What happens to Zoe? This story is told via interviews with key characters and a series of emails which works surprisingly well as you try to work out whose account is believable. 

This is a very ambitious piece of work and I imagine is harder to write than a conventional crime story. It becomes a compelling and gripping read as you see the multitude of complications and the mystery of Zoe’s life. It becomes apparent that it’s like an iceberg in that two thirds of it is hidden from view. You witness a family who are fractured to say the least, with secrets and lies, jealousy, obsession and ambition at its heart. There are several suspects, a lot of weird and unsettling events and it’s clear there are dark forces at work but the ‘who’ and the ‘why’ remains a mystery for years. There’s a very creepy atmosphere which sends shivers down your spine around Zoe’s university accommodation which is literally stuff of nightmares. I can’t say the characters are especially likeable, in particular Zoe’s father Andrew does not emerge out of this story well. All the suspicions, fraught atmosphere and a botched investigation are conveyed well. The ending is a bit left field but is certainly dramatic. 

Overall, an intriguing book which feels very authentic and keeps the interest until the end. I like the fact that Zoe stays centre stage in the inquiry as all too often it becomes about the perpetrator and we forget the names of the victims of crime. How wrong is that? 

With thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld /Doubleday for the arc for an honest review.

This is the story of 19 year old Zoe Nolan who went missing in 2011 as written by author Evelyn Mitchell. Joseph Knox steps in and completes the book when something happens to Evelyn which we are told about in the prologue. It is written as a series of interviews with everyone involved in the case including her twin sister Kimberley. There is also emails between authors Joseph Knox and Evelyn Mitchell discussing the case and what is happening to Evelyn in her life. 

I was honestly quite confused at first as I thought I was reading a true crime story but something made me question whether this was non fiction. I then looked up the book and found that it is actually fiction. I got engrossed in the story very quickly and loved the format of the book. The characters are very believable. I thought that this was a very clever book.

I've loved Knox's Manchester- noir for several years and think this latest novel may be his best yet. Absolutely gripping and with a sinister setting and characters that keep you reading way into the night.