Category: True Crime

True Crime Story by Joseph Knox

 

With the huge popularity of true crime — particularly true crime podcasts– it isn’t surprising that authors would want to explore the genre in their fiction.  For example, I already wrote about how a true crime podcast drives the action in the novel Conviction by Denise Mina (previous post). Today let’s take a look at a novel that takes things a step further, True Crime Story:  What Happens to All the Girls Who Go Missing? by Joseph Knox. The paperback is coming out on December 7, 2021.

The first chapter starts with a black and white photograph of a young woman and the words:

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.

She was never seen again.

Seven years later writer Evelyn Mitchell becomes interested in “What Happens to All the Girls Who Go Missing?” and starts investigating Zoe’s disappearance.  What she discovers unfolds through a series of interviews with the Zoe’s friends and relatives, plus emails, police reports, letters, etc.

Although the central question of what happened to Zoe is a compelling one, readers might find other questions on their minds, such as, “What is the author up to?”

Fiction or Nonfiction?

For a reader who picks up the novel cold, whether this is really true crime (nonfiction) is unclear.  Part of the confusion occurs because the author, Joseph Knox, inserts himself as a character, an author who helps Evelyn with her investigation and her writing. But all may not be as it seems. On the first page is a note from the publisher for the “amended second edition.” It implies Knox is not reliable and there has been a scandal, although the details are muddy.

It isn’t a spoiler to reveal that this novel is entirely fiction impersonating nonfiction. Even the note from the publisher is fiction.

Why did the author choose to create a fictional true crime novel? Perhaps Knox gives the answer on page 377 in the paperback version:

At such times, I remember why fiction is so often preferable to fact.

Homage to True Crime or Satire?

Joseph Knox put an incredible amount of work into this novel. He created interviews with multiple characters plus emails, plus a subplot of the interaction between the character Joseph Knox and Evelyn, the writer.  With the details and amount of time he put into it, one might guess the novel is a homage to the genre. However, an homage should lift up the genre, to show it at its finest, and that’s not the case. He sticks to the dry style of straightforward nonfiction.

If you look up “mimic” in the thesaurus, you will also find the words lampoon, parody, spoof. By mimicking true crime, Knox is likely poking fun at it. But again, it isn’t entirely clear. If that is the case, you’d expect more tongue-in-cheek, more tearing down of the genre, more over-the-top bits. If the intention is pure satire, then it is subtle enough that at least some readers missed it, a fact that becomes obvious when reading reviews.

Perhaps The Times has come the closest with the suggestion Knox both celebrates and satirizes the genre.

Conclusions

What the novel does really well is explore how authors investigating a crime — getting caught up in it — can color not only what they write, but also what happens. In this case Evelyn actually causes the ending. She is an active part of the story. On the other hand, the Joseph Knox character uses his position to conceal his own involvement in a death. All in all it becomes metafiction at its weirdest and best.

How you respond to this novel will depend on you and your expectations. If you are looking for something entirely new and different, if you really like fiction, then this is the book for you. You will be one of those many readers who give it 4 and 5 star reviews.

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.

Overall, I recommend giving True Crime Story a chance because if nothing else, it raises questions that will likely stick with you long after you read it. Isn’t that the best kind of novel?

True Crime Story:  What Happens to All the Girls Who Go Missing? by Joseph Knox


Disclosure: Book reviewed was an Advance Reader’s Edition. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission, at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

 

#BookBeginnings Chase Darkness With Me By Billy Jensen

Let’s take a look at Chase Darkness with Me: How One True Crime Writer Started Solving Murders by Billy Jensen for Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Book Beginnings is a fun meme hosted by Rose City Reader blog. To participate, share the first sentence or so of a novel/book you are reading and your thoughts about it. When you are finished, add your URL to the Book Beginnings page linked above. Hope to see you there!

 

book-beginnings-Billy Jensen

Chase Darkness with Me: How One True Crime Writer Started Solving Murders* by Billy Jensen

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Summary:  Tired of writing about unsolved murders, journalist Billy Jensen decided to use his investigative know-how to solve cases. In this book he reveals how he uses social media to hunt down killers.

First Sentence:

It starts with an overhead shot — in color, but with no sound — of a man walking into a 7-Eleven. It’s late, well past 2:00 a.m., but the scene is glowing, the streetlamps working with the store signs to give off a glimmer you don’t usually see on the typical nighttime surveillance video.

Discussion:

Billy Jensen first came to my attention when I read I’ll Be in the Dark by Michelle McNamara (my post). Michelle passed away before finishing her book , so Billy Jensen and Paul Holes pieced the story together and finished it. I’m looking forward to reading more about him.

What do you think? Do you read true crime? Would you give Billy Jensen’s book a try?

 

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Side note:  If you have clicked on my blog over the last week or so, you have probably noticed it has been out of service. The switch from http to https has not been a smooth one.  Hopefully I’ll get the bugs out soon and participate more regularly.

Thank you for visiting.

 

#BookBeginnings The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson

Let’s take a look at the extraordinary true crime tale The Feather Thief:  Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson for Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Book Beginnings is a fun meme hosted by Rose City Reader blog. To participate, share the first sentence or so of a novel you are reading and your thoughts about it. When you are finished, add your URL to the Book Beginnings page linked above. Hope to see you there!

 

book-beginnings-Gershkowitz

The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Summary:  Kirk Wallace Johnson investigates the theft of 299 irreplaceable bird specimens from the British Museum of Natural History. On the surface doesn’t seem like a spectacular crime, but what he discovers is an obsession with fly-tying, and a blatant disregard for the value of nature, history and science.

In an interview at This American Life,  Johnson reveals his life was threatened while he researched the book. He and his interviewer also throw around some hilarious bird-related puns.

First Sentence of Prologue:

By the time Edwin Rist stepped off the train onto the platform at Tring, forty miles north of London, it was already quite late.

I like how he answers who, where, and when in the first sentence.

First Sentence of Chapter One

Alfred Russel Wallace stood on the quarterdeck of a burning ship, seven hundred miles off the coast of Bermuda, the planks heating beneath his feet, yellow smoke curling up through the cracks.

Discussion:

That must have been terrifying!

I’ve seen this book on several “best of true crime” lists. I’m looking forward to reading it.

What do you think? Have you read The Feather Thief? Would you like to read it?

 

#BookBeginnings The Spy and The Traitor by Ben Macintyre

Today I’m reading a true spy story recommended by a friend, The Spy and The Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre for Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Book Beginnings is a fun meme hosted by Rose City Reader blog. To participate, share the first sentence or so of a novel you are reading and your thoughts about it. When you are finished, add your URL to the Book Beginnings page linked above. Hope to see you there!

 

book-beginnings-Gershkowitz

The Spy and The Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Summary:  This is a nonfiction biography of Russian spy Oleg Gordievsky, who secretly worked for Britain’s MI6 during the cold war years. Britain hid him from the CIA, but the Americans wanted to have a piece of the pie. CIA officials assigned Head of Counterintelligence Aldrich Amos to find out the Russian’s identity.  In a spy thriller-worthy twist, Aldrich was secretly spying for the Russians. Which spy will win?

First Sentence:

For the KGB’s counterintelligence section, Directorate K, this was a routine bugging job.

Discussion:

This has been very exciting to read so far. The first paragraph reveals the spies sprinkled radioactive dust in their targets’ clothing and shoes, so they could track them with a Geiger counter. A few paragraphs later we learn the spies made a small, but critical error which let their primary target know they had breached his home. Still, his life is in extreme peril.

 

What do you think? Have you read The Spy and The Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre? Is it something you’d like to read?

 

by Ben Macintyre

#BookBeginnings The Old Man and the Gun by David Grann

With the recent release of the movie starring Robert Redford, today we’re featuring The Old Man and the Gun: And Other Tales of True Crime by David Grann for Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Book Beginnings is a fun meme hosted by Rose City Reader blog. To participate, share the first sentence or so of a novel you are reading and your thoughts about it. When you are finished, add your URL to the Book Beginnings page linked above. Hope to see you there!

 

book-beginnings-button-hurwitz

The Old Man and the Gun: And Other Tales of True Crime* by David Grann

 

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Summary:  This small volume is a collection of three articles previously published in The New Yorker between 2003 and 2008. The first, “The Old Man and the Gun” is about a man who keeps up a crime spree well into his seventies. “True Crime” describes the investigation of a novelist who might have revealed the details of a real murder in his fiction. In the third, The Chameleon,” a Frenchman pretends to be a missing boy from Texas all grown up, but soon finds out he might not be the only one who is being less than truthful.

First Sentence of “The Old Man and the Gun:”

Just before Forrest Tucker turned seventy-nine, he went to work for the last time.

Discussion:

What possibly go wrong when your “work” is robbing banks?

David Grann is the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, which was on a lot of must-read lists last year.

What do you think? Would you keep reading? Are you going to see the movie?

#BookBeginnings I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

A good friend recently gave me a copy of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark:  One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara. Let’s take a look at it for Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Book Beginnings is a fun meme hosted by Rose City Reader blog. To participate, share the first sentence or so of a novel you are reading and your thoughts about it. When you are finished, add your URL to the Book Beginnings page linked above. Hope to see you there!

 

book-beginnings-button-Michelle McNamara

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer*

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Summary:  True crime journalist Michelle McNamara began investigating a serial rapist and killer from the 1970s and 1980s who she called the Golden State Killer. She created a website to talk to others interested in the case. She relentlessly gathered information from police reports, and tracked down and interviewed victims. Finally, she wrote this book about her findings.

Note:  Michelle McNamara died shortly after getting the book deal in April 2016. Another writer and her husband finished the book and it was published in February 2018. Two months later, authorities made an arrest in the case.

First Sentence:

That summer I hunted the serial killer at night from my daughter’s playroom.

Discussion:

Michelle McNamara explains how she goes through a normal bedtime routine and when her family is asleep, uses her computer to research the case. On the next page she reveals that the Golden State Killer entered homes of victims beforehand and set the stage prior to the actual attack. The juxtaposition of a safe, comfortable home environment and someone breaking in to commit a violent crime is really powerful.

What do you think? Do you read true crime? Have you heard about this case?

Three True Crime Books from @ChiReviewPress

Are you a fan of true crime books? Then you will want to take a look at these new titles from Chicago Review Press.

Even if you aren’t a fan, if you write mysteries, suspense or thrillers, you might want to check them out as research materials. All three books describe in detail both the “law” and the “order” of criminal investigations. If nothing else, you become familiar with the process and  the vocabulary through reading real world stories.

True Crime 1

Convenient Suspect: A Double Murder, a Flawed Investigation, and the Railroading of an Innocent Woman* by Tammy Mal

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Author Tammy Mal is a journalist who wanted to write a book about a horrific double murder that happened in a small town in Pennsylvania. In December of 1994, someone killed a young woman named Joann Katrinak and her baby boy. Three years later another new mother was arrested, one who had never met the victims in person. The suspect, Patricia Rorrer, was quickly convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Because she was curious about the case. Mal figured others would be, too. When she started gathering background information, she thought Patricia Rorrer was guilty. After she began to go deeper, however, she found inconsistencies. By the time she wrote the book, Tammy Mal was convinced that the woman who had been convicted was not the killer and the true criminal is still at large.

Although the topic is a difficult one, Tammy Mal’s writing style is clear and fast paced, so it is relatively easy to read. There is a short note from Patricia Rorrer in the back matter.

True Crime 2

The Trials of Walter Ogrod*: The Shocking Murder, So-Called Confessions, and Notorious Snitch That Sent a Man to Death Row by Thomas Lowenstein

 

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

In a similar fashion, author Thomas Lowenstein says he did not start out to write about someone who was innocent of the crime he had been convicted of. He originally started the book with the idea he would delve deeply into all sides of a death penalty case. In fact, he chose cases at random, and his only criteria was that the inmate agree to communicate about the crime. The case he found turned out to involve another Pennsylvania murder, this time in Philadelphia, and another prisoner who is likely to have been wrongly convicted.

This book brings up the issues of coerced false confessions. The suspect did confess, but only after thirty-six hours with no sleep.

[Side note:  I am interested in false confessions. After reading about a case in Beatrice, Nebraska where six people were wrongly convinced they were involved in a case, I played around with some ideas about using the topic as the centerpiece of a novel. I did some deeper research and found out there’s a lot of information about this topic. In one 2015 study, 70% of subjects subjected to suggestive and repetitive interviewing techniques could be convinced they had committed a crime, when in fact they had not. Talk about power of suggestion.]

Unlike the previous book, The Trials of Walter Ogrod has extensive notes in the back matter.

True Crime 3

Freeing David McCallum*: The Last Miracle of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter by Ken Klonsky

 

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Ken Klonsky is an English teacher. Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was a boxer who had been wrongly convicted, and kept in prison for nineteen years. After reading an article Klonsky wrote about Carter, a convict named David McCallum contacted them, saying that he had also been wrongly convicted. As they went through the case, they found there was DNA evidence that other suspects were involved. Unlike the previous books, David McCallum, has been released after nearly thirty years behind bars.

This book also involves false confessions. The back matter includes an appendix of contrasting false confessions, a helpful list of key figures, and also an index.

Discussion

Admittedly, it is difficult emotionally to read this trio of books in succession. In all three, decisions were made to pursue suspects based on personality or race with little or no evidence to back up the belief of that the person was guilty. For two of the cases, the suspects were coerced into confessing, which sealed their fates.

In addition to difficult subject matter, it is also difficult at times to keep all the various names straight. Each case involved many people, including victims and their families, other suspects, witnesses, law enforcement officers, lawyers, and prosecution. Having a list of key figures in Klonsky’s book made me wish the other two had a similar list.

Overall, all three books were well written, and compelling. Try them and you might end up a changed person.

 

Disclosures: These books were supplied by the publisher for review purposes. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission, at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

 

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