This book sucks you in and never lets you go. There is such a masterful blending of storytelling that for a good portion of the book, I wasn't sure if I was listening to a fiction or non-fiction piece.
The voice actors of the story were incredible and the reader finds themselves hanging on to their words just waiting for them to respond to each other through the recorded interviews. Each of the characters are fully developed and sometimes you love them, sometimes you tolerate them and sometimes you just really really hate them.
The twist comes within the last few chapters of the book and truly makes the reader look back on the previous chapters and wonder how they didn't see it before.

This story is also available in a print format but I truly believe that the experience of listening to the audiobook makes the whole book come to life in a way that can't be accomplished through print. The voice actors really sell the story and Joseph Knox blends the ideas of fiction and nonfiction masterfully.

4/5 ⭐️
Okay so this was surprisingly good for a true crime that was also in the fiction category. I really enjoyed all the different interviews and the different narratives instead of just one.

While I loved the setup of this story being told through interviews, newspapers and emails between fellow authors, I did find that it could be a little confusing at times. For me, with this format, there were a few too many characters to keep track of. As I listened on audio, the characters just kind of blended all together.

The characters for me weren't very likeable and I think that contributed a lot to having trouble following the story as well. It focused more on all these unlikable characters instead of what happened to Zoe and that kind of missed the point in my eyes. Also, Zoe herself wasn't all that interesting 😬...

I've heard good things about some of the authors other works though, so I'll chalk it up to this one just being a bit of a miss for me.

I was excited to receive this audio book but unfortunately it was very dissapointing. I've not read the novel so weren't sure what to expect but in hindsight I dont think this is the right sort of novel to turn into an audio book.

Firstly the person reading as Joseph Knox was incredibly monotone and had no inflection in their tone. You might as well have had a robot reading it. The other chapters had a great cast who made the characters come alive.

The big problem was that their was just to many characters and so it was very difficult to keep track of who and what was going on.

This is such a unique premise and I loved the investigation / documentary style. I was completely hooked at the beginning, but by the 50% mark I was completely confused about what was going on in the story. I love a full cast recording, but I think the number of characters and the quick switches between voices made for a confusing audio for me. Might be easier to follow in print. Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for this advance listeners copy.

I love an audiobook with a full cast. This one was entertaining and felt like a podcast (as intended). The format and novelty was the best part. I do t think this would have worked for me as well in print.

I loved the way this book was written. I felt like I was listening to a true story, even though in the back of my mind I knew it was fiction. The author did an amazing job or making it seem like you were involved in the case and like he was really there throughout parts of it.

Wow, just wow! I've just finished listening to this audio book and it is such a unique and exciting concept, I just loved it.

The book is written from the point of view of author, Joseph Knox, pulling together years of research and interviews conducted by his friend and fellow author, Evelyn. The story they are telling is that of missing student, Zoe. The book is written as a series of interviews from the people closest to Zoe as the author tries to make sense of her disappearance.

This works so incredibly well as an audio book, particularly as every character was voiced by a different person. I love that we learn all about Zoe's life from so many different points of view.

We are gradually drip fed more and more information about the circumstances surrounding Zoe's disappearance, with plenty of cryptic clues hidden throughout. The book is full of twists and turns and it kept me guessing right to the very end.

Overall, a very cleverly written book, like nothing I've read before, I would highly recommend this.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me the ARC in return for an honest review.

I was really excited that this book had a full cast of narrators. However, I think this book would have been better for me if I had read a physical copy. I really enjoyed it, but it was hard to remember which voice went to which character and I found myself just kind of going along with it, not knowing who was being interviewed/talking. I have not seen a physical copy of this book, but I can only assume that the names are present before the interview. I think it would have helped if this also happened in the audiobook. It would have made it much less confusing.
Something that was also a little confusing, but didn't really take anything away from the story was the fact that Evelyn is writing a book about this disappearance/murder that happened and she is sending chapters to her friend Joseph Knox...who is the actual author of the book. For a while I thought that this had been an actual murder case and an actual correspondance about the book. Especially because we got parts where the book had a sidenote that something had been added or rewritted in the second printing. It's not. Either way, it wouldn't have changed anything I felt about the book, it was just something that confused me every time the emails came up.
Like I said before, I loved having the full cast, but found it difficult to pin the names/characters to the voices. I did like the characters though. The confusion about the characters made this a very plot driven book for me. I love me a murder mystery. And the book being written in interviews/emails etc was so different and engaging (even if I didn't know who was being interviewed sometimes). There was so much to unfold in this case and so many suspects and motives and so many questions. Following Evelyn's journey, we almost get 2 books in 1. We get the book she is writing and how she is figuring it all out. It broke it up nicely and when we got to the email parts, I was always sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to go back to the book she was writing.
This was a book you really needed to pay attention to. If you missed one sentence, it may have been a crucial plot point. I actually rewound parts several times just to make sure I understood what was happening. The ending was something I didn't see coming and even though it felt a tiny bit rushed, everything was explained to us. Both in the book being written in the book, and in the lives of Evelyn and Joseph.
Definitely one to check out if you like murder mysteries/disappearance stories and want a little bit of a mixed media approach. I really want to reread this at some point in a physical format!

True Crime Story
Joseph Knox
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to RB Media and NetGalley for the ALC in exchange for my honest review!

This audiobook was an EXPERIENCE. It had the production value of a true crime documentary, where, essentially, you’re listening to a dozen or so interviews spliced together to tell the story of a woman who goes missing from her college apartment building and is never seen again. As an avid audiobook listener, as well as a lover of true crime in all forms (books, podcasts, documentaries, etc.), I can say with full honesty that True Crime Story was something I’ve never experienced before.

Because of all the different narrators, etc., it’s extra important to give the audiobook your full attention, especially in the beginning (for those of us who love to listen while cooking/driving, etc.). There were also a few parts that I felt were a little slow-moving, but the last half of the book flew by for me.

The other aspect that I really loved were how the woman conducting the interviews/writing the story (Evelyn) and her true crime writer/friend Joseph were weaved into the story. The emails back and forth between them discussing the missing girl and the people surrounding the case were SO interesting and an aspect of true crime that I just haven’t seen much of.

Also - the characters - Andrew made me laugh-out-loud with his brutal honesty several times, I empathized with Kim a lot and the whole cast of college friends reminded me of people I know in my real life. And the ENDING. I did not see that coming.

I could go on and on about this book…. it truly was such a unique experience that I highly recommend for other fans of true crime. The story itself was probably a 4-4.5 stars for me, but the audiobook production was an easy 5 stars!!

DNF @ 10%

I didn't enjoy the writing style and how the author wrote himself into the story. The interview parts of the book were fine, and I liked that it focused on the victim, but that wasn't enough to make me want to read more of the book.

The narrators were really good, so I believe that if you like this type of mystery book you'd love the audiobook, and I would recommend it. It's just a shame this book wasn't for me.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for letting me listen to the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

While listening to this story I was not invested. Most of the beginning of the story is the author recapping on the idea and how it came to be. The narrators voice was excruciatingly dull and monotone. Unfortunately, I did DNF this book approximately 16% in. I found that I was not invested in the missing persons case and as it progressed I was becoming bored with the situation.

I’m afraid this one was not for me.

This was very difficult to follow. At first I felt like I was listening to a pod cast, which was great, but the more I listened the more I found myself confused by the number of characters and storylines that are introduced. This made is extremely difficult to follow along, especially in an audio format. I unfortunately did not continue as this story was escaping me.

True Crime Story - Many narrators

At first when I started listening to this I genuinely thought it was a true story (that’s how it's supposed to sound) as the story went along, I got bored of the characters all slagging the missing girl off. Even her twin sister sounded too catty for my liking.

The premise of the interviews is great and very plausible, but the characters who narrate the interviews sound bored and this made me bored whilst listening.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I’ve never been so creeped out by a book but it was amazing. I can’t wait to purchase a copy for my true crime addicted friend!

I really did love the format of this book. The interviews and the emails between Knox and Evelyn were super enjoyable. I also really enjoyed the audiobook being a full-cast production. I will say that I confused the mother and police officers' perspective because the voice actor sounded similar.

I do love mysteries that are complex and there is certainly a lot going on in True Crime Story. I was definitely invested and wanted to know what was going on. Unfortunately, I think this kind of does cross over the line of too much going on. At times I struggled to keep track of everything going on. I think I would have enjoyed this more if it had just focused on the students and maybe Zoe's family.

Pub date: Dec 7
Genre: thriller/mystery
In one sentence: Zoe Nolan left her dorm never to be seen again, and writer Evelyn Mitchell is determined to find out what happened to her - but then Evelyn becomes a victim herself.

I love the concept behind this book - it's an ode to the true crime stories that have become so popular. I enjoyed the beginning of the story - getting to know Zoe and her complicated relationships with her friends, her boyfriend, and her twin sister Kim. The story is told in interviews recorded by Evelyn, with different voices cutting in and out, as well as short emails and phone calls between Evelyn and friend/fellow writer Joseph.

Although the story started off well, the constant perspective changes combined with lack of action made the middle drag a bit. It was sometimes hard to tell who was speaking, as the character names were not given with each switch. I think I would have enjoyed this book more in written form. But if you're a fan of true crime podcasts, you might like this one, either on audio or in print!

Thank you to Recorded Books for providing an ALC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an impulse request from Netgalley because I thought it was a true crime story, as one might expect from the title. It, my friends, is not. It is a fictional thriller/mystery written *sort of* in the style of a true crime book. I've never, ever seen a true crime book structured like this one, though. It has more elements of an oral history or filmed documentary than it does most true crime books, where the author tends to make themselves known, and provide analysis. This is almost solely told through interviews with the family and friends of missing girl Zoe Nolan, with email interludes and sort of introductions about the making of and behind the scenes of the book (there are meta elements where the author(s) get involved and explain things that happen after the interviews or during the course of the writing of the book).

The main conceit here is that Joseph Knox (the author) is himself a character in the story, except it's a fictionalized version of himself, interacting with other fictional characters, most notably his fellow author friend, Evelyn, who is sending him chapters of this very book as it's supposedly being written. For some *unknown* reason, Knox takes over the shepherding of the book mid-writing, and the version of the book we're reading/listening to is actually the second revised edition that was published after some controversy that is never really made explicitly clear.

Evelyn has taken it up on herself to switch genres and make a name for herself as a true crime writer and investigator after her well-reviewed debut novel didn't sell. The case she decides to cover is the disappearance of Zoe Nolan seven years before. Zoe walked out of a college party in her dormitory and was never seen again. Evelyn interviews her twin sister, her roommates, her boyfriend at the time, his roommate, her parents, etc.

The actual story itself wasn't bad, I just wish it was presented in a different way, more like an actual true crime story, where we get Evelyn's voice and her analysis of events, instead of this half-assed compiling of interviews that she calls "writing", with zero of Evelyn's actual writing. It was also extremely confusing when the interviews started. There was not a good deal of effort made to make it clear who was who and who was speaking. It took me ages to get a handle on simple logistics that could all have been avoided if the audio (and presumably the text?) had just stated who was speaking each time. The audio version also had some cheesy and weird tics, like adding in typing sound effects every time the narrator who was portraying Evelyn read out one of her emails to Joseph. It was also a full cast narration, and while some of the narrators did an excellent job, some of them were truly irritating. Perhaps that was on purpose, but either way, I was irritated. There was also a lot of white noise in the recordings, perhaps meant to make it seem like Evelyn had recorded them outside of a studio. Either way, it was weird, because the hard copy is presumably just the transcript of these interviews, so I'm not really clear why we had to listen to the "real thing".

I also thought the ending was much too sudden, especially considering the at-times laborious build up we get ahead of it. Just some bad pacing there, and I blame the format. It wasn't served well here.

All in all, I would say this book (at least, the audio version) was an interesting failure. I didn't have a bad time listening to it, but it didn't scratch my true-crime itch OR my mystery itch, and the format which could have really added to the story if done well, instead detracted from it big-time.

[2.5 stars]

Knox gives us a unique look at a true crime story in a fiction format. Inserting himself into the book was brilliant, but audio version was quite difficult to follow as there were so many voices. It started too slowly and came across disjointed. I found it to be a much better read than listen and ended up enjoying the book..

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)

My thoughts: I love true crime. Listening to true crime podcasts, watching true crime specials on Netflix or wherever else, and of course, reading true crime books. THIS is not true crime. I’ll repeat that… this is FICTION.

That is important to remember, because the best thing about this book is how easy it is to forget that it’s not real.

This was thoroughly entertaining. It wasn’t on my TBR, but I found once I started it I couldn’t stop, I just wanted to listen until the very end.

The only reason it lost a star was because of the ending. Which was NOT the author’s fault, he just chose to end his story in a way I didn’t like. I’d still absolutely recommend this to any other true crime nerd out there.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.