True Crime Story: The Times Number One Bestseller

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Ingredients for this iconic Italian dish were derived and evolved from many cultures and places: pasta, the dried form, came from Arabs--not, as once believed, from Marco Polo on his return from China. Cheese and tomato--once considered lowly peasant foods--arrived in Italy from Spain via South America. It was Italian culinary ingenuity--along with a penchant for cuisine marked with onions, garlic, basil, chili and olive oil--that ultimately put these components together to form what has become a symbol of Italian identity. On the other hand, if you are a diehard fan of true crime and like your nonfiction unadulterated, then you might wonder why Joseph Knox didn’t put all his time and considerable talent into writing a novel that suspends disbelief, rather one than causes it. Oakes ( The Nones Are Alright) organizes her work into several provocative categories of identity, including "Barren," "Angry," "Crazy," "Butch/Femme/Other" and "Alone." Her subjects are sometimes officially saints: women who are now venerated by the Catholic Church and other religious groups. But all of them are gloriously messy humans who, during their lifetimes, elicited powerful reactions in the (mostly male) people who had control over their lives.

I understand that this isn't a phenomenally written book and a lot of things that happen are purposefully in-your-face twists to make the reader jump. BUT WHEN I TELL YOU I WAS JUMPING.In the early hours of Saturday, December 17, 2011, Zoe Nolan, a nineteen-year-old University of Manchester student, walked out of a party taking place in the shared accommodation where she had been living for three months. In a serpentine narrative that reads like a podcast, the friends, parents, and twin sister of a 19-year-old college student recall the events leading up to her disappearance as well as the criminal investigation and personal travails that followed. 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. 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.

Edgar finalist Kathleen Kent ( The Outcasts) launches an explosive finale to her trilogy about Detective Sergeant Betty Rhyzyk with The Pledge, which melds a thrilling police procedural with a complicated home life. Evelyn enlists the help of Joseph Knox, a well known crime author (and author of this book). She hopes that between the two of them, they can figure out the secrets surrounding Zoe’s disappearance. As Joseph reads more of what Evelyn has written so far and offers his theories, Evelyn starts to feel watched...and thinks someone close to the book may not want the story to be told.The impressively twisty plot drops one bombshell revelation after another. Twin Peaks fans won’t want to miss this one." — Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review

Cleverly blending the real and imagined worlds until the reader can't differentiate the two, Knox has created a twisty, turny thriller that cuts through the heart of the modern true crime fascination, all while keeping us enraptured by it."—BuzzFeedI see why some reviewers enjoyed this one, but while there were definitely intriguing and clever bits, it wasn’t enough for me. The crime and characters just weren’t compelling. If you’re looking for something similar (and stronger) in terms of reading like a true crime novel, I recommend Chasing The Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar. 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. In 2011, Zoe Nolan walked out of her dormitory in Manchester, England and was never seen or heard from again. Her case went cold. Her story was sad, certainly, but hardly sensational, crime writer Joseph Knox thought. He wouldn't have given her any more thought were it not for his friend, Evelyn Mitchell. Another writer struggling to come up with a new idea, Evelyn was wondering just what happens to all the girls who go missing. What happens to the Zoe Nolans of the world? I don't think I used any one young woman as inspiration--if only because I was more interested in the milieu of a murder/missing person. The press--good and bad--the grieving families and friends, and the ones who clearly see it as the start of their 15 minutes. There's a lot of opportunity attached to tragedy--a grotesque kind of fame--and I think that's what I was more interested in than anything. True Crime Story by Joseph Knox is an epic thriller everyone will want to put on their must read list!