#BlogTour True Crime Story by Joseph Knox @josephknox__ @DoubledayUK #TrueCrimeStory @RandomTTours

 

True Crime Story by Joseph Knox was published on 17th June 2021 by Doubleday. My thanks to the publisher for the review copy and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the blog tour invitation. 

 

'What happens to those girls who go missing? What happens to the Zoe Nolans of the world?'

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 finished reading True Crime Story by Joseph Knox two weeks ago in anticipation for this blog tour. Let me just tell you now there is so much I am bursting to tell you but this is one of the difficult books to review, one of those where you just had to be there to form your own opinions. I have been struggling with what to say but have come to the conclusion that nothing I can say will do this book justice but surely you want to find out what happened to Zoe Nolan as much as I did.

Rather embarassingly this is the first book I have read by this author and so therefore I did not know what to expect. I was so pleasantly surprised and bewildered by the originality and the scale of this. The strands of a story told in snapshots by different people and mediums. Sometimes there seemed a lot to go on in the quest to find out what happened to Zoe Nolan and at other times there was nothing at all. The author skilfully draws the author in and then pushes them away, a game of cat and mouse. A tale with shadows that lurk just around the corner. 

Zoe Nolan disappeared in 2011. She was a student, who one day just walked away from a party and wasn't seen again. Evelyn Mitchell is on the hunt for the scoop of her career the story that will propel her in the world as a credible mytery writer, she enlists the help of Joseph Knox (I know!) a crime writer and secure interviews with friends and family. The reader gets to read this and also the emails between Joseph Knox and Evelyn Mitchell. 

Slowly the story is teased out and the ending was unexpected and expected all at the same time. The plotting was magnificent and I loved the way the author was able to create something so special by not being afraid to do something new. It is as original as it is audacious.

I loved True Crime Story. I like to be kept on my toes, favourite programmes include Black Mirror and Inside No. 9. This had the elements of mystery and enough to keep me guessing all whilst tackling important themes and even prejudices. 

I know I have told you everything and nothing at all but if you read one crime book this year then I implore you to make it True Crime Story.

 

About the Author:

Joseph Knox was born and raised in and around Stoke-On-Trent and Manchester, where he worked in bars and bookshops before moving to London. He runs, writes and reads compulsively.

Sirens, his debut novel, was a Sunday Times bestseller, and his work has now been translated into 18 languages.

The Sleepwalker, his third novel, was released in July, 2019. 

 

You can find the author on Twitter: @josephknox__

 

 

Please do have a look at the other stops on the blog tour.