Such a fascinating book. This was really good and I had to keep reminding myself that it's fiction. Or is it? So well written and so compelling!

Aspiring writer Evelyn is writing a book investigating the unsolved disappearance of student Zoe Nolan some years before. She seeks feedback from her friend and mentor, published crime author Joseph Knox- and here is the twist. Knox is a real person and author of this (fictional) account of how she uncovers what happened to the missing girl. She interviews Zoe’s friends, parents and others involved with the case, but as she gets closer to the truth, it becomes apparent that she herself could be in great danger. I really enjoyed the unusual style of this novel, which uses transcripts of interviews to explain the events leading up Zoe walking out of a party at her student flat and never being seen again. The characters all have their own (different) interpretations of what was going on, and all have their own motivations and prejudices, and some are obviously more reliable than others. I was gripped and kept changing my mind about what had happened to Zoe and why as more pieces of the puzzle are revealed. The characters, although largely unlikeable, are convincing and layered, and the seamier side of student life and relationships is well portrayed. Underlying the narrative is a kind of sly humour, despite the often dark subject matter. It has a freshness and vitality that makes it stand out from others in the crime/psychological thriller genre. Recommended.

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 labored through to the end reluctantly.

Joseph Knox is always a must read for me. one of the most interesting and original voice in the thriller genre in the recent years, a genre that unfortunately often lack originality. This book is his best so far, young writer, will continue improving I'm sure, great great characters, strong story, awesome writing. I highly recommend reading this book and this author in general!

When true crime story waltzes with fiction genre: it’s so eventual to expect the unexpected because your reality simply gets distorted and you may obviously have hard time to differentiate what is real and what is fiction at the end.

After reading Richard Chizmar’s Chasing Boogeyman: I truly get invested to read thrillers written in true crime story style based on real life events. The details and documents, photographs, the choices of words at the interviews always make you rethink what if the thing you’re reading is not a product of a talented author’s creative mind!

Joseph Knox has another brilliant mind who can easily fool us to question everything you’re reading in this book. Even the created backstory about the real reason he decided to work on a missing girl’s story is well constructed.

This story is tense, dark, full of twists you never see them coming, taking place in Manchester, England as like the author’s previous Aidan Waits crime thriller novels.

In December 17th 2011, 19 years old Manchester University student Zoe Nolan walks out of the party where it takes place at a shared accommodation she’d been living for last three months. Nobody sees her again and her body isn’t found! Her disappearance is still a big mystery!

After seven years later of her disappearance, Evelyn Mitchell, an author who is chasing new story ideas and dealing with her terminal disease in the meantime, getting intrigued with Zoe’s story and she connects with Joseph Knox to share her ideas via emails.

Joseph cuts his connection with her because he’s focusing on his next novel but Evelyn’s sudden death, making him change his mind. She already left her interviews, her detailed notes behind. Joseph gets drawn into haunted story of Zoe, doing his best to complete Evelyn’s unfinished business.

It seems like Zoe Nolan is missing, she’s presumed death: but her story is just only the beginning.

The story folded by striking, short interviews of Zoe’s her twin sister and also her flatmate, her other friends from school, her parents, her ex boyfriend Andrew, her detective who’s investigating her case.

The most of the characters are so unlikable, flawed, did so many disturbing things and you cannot simply guess who may be the culprit because each one of them’s narration is unreliable, biased. And each of them points finger to the other.

Even twin sister Kim who lived in the shadow of Zoe, insisting she’s been kidnapped by a white van, witnessing their own father always chose her sister over her is a potential victim.

Even though there are so many voices, characters, the author adroitly achieved to write the story centered on Zoe and what happened to her. She was always the main character. To learn more about her secrets and past help us more to complete the whole puzzle.

I enjoyed the engrossing, gripping, dark writing style and this smart, multi layered, extremely interesting story!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for sharing this impressive digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

True Crime Story is a clever, fictional whodunnit written as if it is a true crime story. Made up of transcripts of interviews, readers will have to remind themselves that the story of the missing Zoe Nolan is, in fact, made-up! Joseph Knox's writing is fantastic and will draw readers into this addictive plot that will keep readers guessing. Filled with several suspects and plenty of twists, the story will have you hooked! Highly recommended!

I enjoy true crime stories, but I wasn't quite sure what to make of this one. It says it's a novel, yet it feels like a true crime story, which was a bit confusing. It felt like reading a podcast, and they're not something I regularly listen to. I did like how it went into motives and alibis, and it did have me questioning what happened to Zoe.

I saw all the rave reviews for True Crime Story by Joseph Knox and thought it sounded intriguing. I also thought it was a novel, told in an interesting and compelling way. I was excited to see a writer unravel a crime in a fashion we've never experienced.

However, its not a work of fiction, its a true crime book. And I do love a crime book, going allllll the way back to when I was a teenager reading books by Ann Rule.

So I shifted gears in my brain to realize this is in fact a very real, very true story.

Here are the details:

"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."

I just started it, so I don't have much to report. I'll be reading it later and am anxious to dive in a little more.

Are you a fan of true crime? Do you read this genre often? Tell me your favorite unsolved case?

Taking a page from Daisy Jones and the Six, a rockumentary about a made-up rock band, Knox’s latest novel, True Crime Story, uses the documentary journalism style to report about a missing college girl. If you pick this up expecting something like the fourth Aiden Watts gritty police novel, be prepared for something completely different, a burst of creative energy in a totally different direction. The story is still dark and deadly and still takes place in Manchester, England, but that’s where the resemblance ends.

Here, the story is told in a series of short, punchy interview excerpts from the survivors of Zoe’s disappearance, including that of Kimberley, her twin sister and flatmate, her ex boyfriend Andrew Flowers, her other flatmates, her parents, the investigating detective, and other hangers-on.

As you hear them talk to the erstwhile interviewer, Evelyn, who also exchanges emails with our author, Joseph Knox, the reader isn’t explicitly told whether it’s fact or fiction or whether this is yet another well-publicized case of a missing girl.

All the principals in the story are at each other’s throats, blaming each other, and the internet is outing these people too. As the story goes on, we are heading done different directions, chasing one red herring after another from the creepy professor who dates and dumps his students to the creepy father who favors Zoe over Kim, to the jealous less-well-known twin sister, to the missing underwear, to the exposed sex tape, to the sinister shadow, to the white van that kidnapped Kim.

At first, it seems like a sordid nasty soap opera that Zoe left behind, but eventually every minor detail becomes important.

The interview technique of telling this story works well because all these small things are how people remember things and each person has a distinctly different perspective. All in all, well done.

Knox delivers -- and some how creates-- a perfect new genre. We open with two authors discussing the premise of a new book : what really happened to Zoe? It reads as emails between the two authors discussing key interviews from the investigation and 'chapter' selections. The novel reads just like a pod cast and is just as engaging. It's a dive into motives, alibis, and deep secrets of Zoe's inner circle. Who killed her? Is she really dead? What in the world does Joseph Knox have to do with her?

If you love true crime podcasts this is truly the perfect book.

I love true crime. This book is the perfectly put together true crime. Informative and interesting at the same time.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

This was very good. I read it all in one sitting, and while it perhaps sagged a little in the middle, it really kept me guessing throughout. I wasn't quite sure of the value of the author inserting himself into the story, although it did add another layer of potential unreliability. The characters depicted in the 'extracts from transcripts' were clearly distinguishable from one another and I loved Lui Wai, who was in HR with 'at least seven' people below her.

I gather this is very different from this author's other works, which I haven't read, but I recommend this one highly.