when true crime comes home

It’s Alix Summer’s forty-fifth birthday, and she is out celebrating with her husband and sisters and friends. She’s a popular podcaster, interviewing successful women about how they became so successful. She is enjoying the food and champagne and company, having an amazing night.

At the next table, Josie Fair is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. But it’s just her and her husband Walter. She watches Alix’s table, and when Alix excuses herself to go to the bathroom, Josie does also. That’s where she introduces herself to Alix, saying, “Hi. I’m your birthday twin.” They realize that they were not only born on the same day, but in the same hospital. And when Josie bumps into Alix again, out walking her dog near where Alix’s kids go to school, Josie tells her that she has an idea for her next podcast.

Alix had been finishing up her series about the successful women, and she was wondering what to do next. She wanted something different, something new, but she didn’t know what yet. So she decides to hear Josie out. Josie tells Alix a little about her background, how she was just a teenager when she’d met her husband, who had been much older. And now, she was tired of it. She was tired of it all and wants to break free. And so, her idea: what if Alix does a podcast about someone who is about to be successful, someone who is about to change their life?

Alix is intrigued by the idea and by Josie herself. The woman had been a teenager when she’d married a forty-year-old man. And now she wants to leave him, start all over, break free. Alix isn’t sure where the story will go, or if she’ll be able to make any kind of podcast out of Josie’s story, but she feels like there is something there. So she decides to try to some interviews with her, record some talks, to see what the story is, what it could be.

As Josie’s story unwinds, her marriage at eighteen, her controlling husband, her two daughters and what happened to them as teenagers, Alix captures it all in her recording studio. Alix meets Josie’s mother, her husband. One daughter ran off as a teenager, and the other one stays in her room all the time, so Alix can’t talk to them. But she slowly starts to put the pieces of Josie’s life together.

Until it all blows up for both families.

When Alix’s podcast is finally edited and put together, it becomes a viral sensation almost immediately. But then, the newscasts had already reported on much of the story. Three people were dead, one was in the hospital, and the killer is on the loose. And Alix has to figure out—how much of what Josie had told her was true?

None of This Is True is a powerful novel of truth and lies, and the trouble that follows when we allow evil into our lives. It blends modern topics of podcasting, the pandemic, and the popularity of true crime with timeless themes of good versus evil and resentment versus forgiveness. But mostly, it’s a genuinely compelling story. It hooks you in immediately and doesn’t let go. Told partly through podcast transcripts, news stories, interviews, and clips from the documentary made from the podcast, this novel leads you down one path for a long time before flipping on itself so quickly you feel like you have whiplash.

I thought that None of This Is True is brilliant. There is the right blend of questions and answers, of secrets and revelations. The stories in this one are not easy to read, but the book is so hard to put down. It’s as absorbing as a favorite true crime podcast or documentary, and I found myself coming back over and over just to learn more of the story, to find out more of the truth. This book is fascinating, mind-bending, emotional, powerful, and unforgettable. It’s a wild ride, but it will take you through a long weekend and make you so happy you jumped on.

Egalleys for None of This Is True were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.