True Crime Story

In 2011, 19-year-old University of Manchester student Zoe Nolan, the victim at the center of this stellar standalone from British author Knox (the Aiden Waits series), inexplicably goes missing during a chaotic fire alarm evacuation in her high-rise dorm. In the aftermath, her disappearance irrevocably alters—and in some cases destroys—the lives of her twin sister, her boyfriend, and numerous friends, some of whom are witnesses and potential suspects. In a metafictional twist, crime writer Joseph Knox takes an interest in the case after another writer, Evelyn Mitchell, starts investigating what happened to Zoe and sends him chapters of the true crime story she’s working on—a story that involves drug use, infidelity, and mental illness. Then there’s “the so-called Shadow Man, who stalked Zoe through the city, tracking her every move.” Interview excerpts and emails sometimes corroborate events and other times refute them. The impressively twisty plot drops one bombshell revelation after another. Twin Peaks fans won’t want to miss this one. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House. (Dec.)