true-crime-storySynopsis “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 Review

Well this book has given my first book hangover of 2023! A very clever contemporary fiction, although from the disclaimer in the front of the book, you’d think it really was a true crime story! That’s what’s so clever about it.

It’s completely fiction, but it convinced me that I was reading a true crime account of a missing person. I really don’t know how the author pulled this off! 🤔

The story is set in Manchester and told through interviews with the friends, family and acquaintances of Zoe Nolan, looking back at the circumstances regarding her disappearance as they are interviewed by Evelyn Mitchell, a friend of the author Joseph Knox. 

The story is full of what feels like unreliable narrators, especially as they were constantly bad mouthing each other. I really didn’t think I could trust anyone’s account. I had one suspect all the way through and I was completely wrong, but not surprised by the big reveal at the end, it all made sense.

Highly recommended if you enjoy dark, twisty crime novels, full of suspicious characters!