Joseph Knox

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Imposter Syndrome

Detective Aidan Waits is a troubled junior detective haunted by his past. Facing an uncertain future, and disconnected from his history, DC Waits and his partner, Detective Inspector Peter 'Sutty' Sutcliffe work on Manchester's streets to uncover the city's worst criminals among the grime of the underworld.

The Sleepwalker

The Smiling Man

Sirens

True Crime Story

Penguin Shop: 3 Clothbound Classics for £33

Scandalously entertaining...Knox is a fantastic writer. His ambitious fourth novel satirises and celebrates the true-crime genre with glee ... by turns horrific and hilarious

Truly immersive: complex, disturbing, unexpectedly funny and very smart

One of the most engaging cold-case novels I have read

Knox the author pulls off a hybrid triumph: at once an old-fashioned whodunnit and a smart postmodern literary novel asking questions about the ethics of all editing, as well as the true-crime genre.  Dazzlingly original.

The gifted Joseph Knox continues his upwards trajectory...forging something original and innovative.

Best new fiction. Knox tears up the rule book, this bravura performance it's darkness leavened by very black humour

This satire of the true crime genre is ingenious, funny and totally original

Reads like a cinematic true crime documentary. Brilliant, compelling and original.

An absolute triumph. It sucked me in, chewed me up, spat me out and left me blinking like the moment the lights go on at a fuzzy basement nightclub. Phenomenal, current, bleakly devastating. An iron gauntlet in the guts. Loved it.

Highly original and mischievous novel - a complete triumph

Absolutely brilliant. I think it's a game-changer

Pure genius - all the things you want to a crime novel to be, also hilarious. I love it

True Crime Story is phenomenal. One of the most original thrillers I've read in years, perhaps ever. A gritty, twisted murder mystery told in the unique style of a true crime account. I've rarely raced through a book so fast. I'm just gutted that it's probably ruined me for thrillers for a good long while! Absolutely remarkable.

WOW ! this is a work of outstanding and staggering genius! You always get beautiful prose and a crackling plot from Mr Knox. But this has extra madness. It's the most original book I've read in ages

The most exciting and original crime book you'll read this year

Dark, seedy, and not to be trusted, and that's just the character Joseph Knox, as written by Joseph Knox!This is a very clever book indeed. Fiction so convincingly written as true crime that I ended up Googling the victim just to check I hadn't got the wrong end of the stick.

Totally gripping, original, and white- hot suspenseful

One of the most unafraid contemporary crime writers ... a genre defying complex construct of smoke and mirrors, this book is very, very clever.

A story that'll leave your head spinning and questioning just who gets to shape the narrative when a woman goes missing...

Supple and urgent - another slab of Knox brilliance

Knox has produced something extraordinary ... post-modern playfulness [embedded] in a rich and compelling plot that twists and turns until the final pages

Astonishing! So clever, so original! Highly recommended

This clever novel reads like a true crime story (at times you have to remind yourself it's fiction), which makes it all the more compelling

A very stylish novel revealing not only the unreliability of witnesses, but also the voyeurism in much crime reporting, crime investigation, and yes, in those of us who enjoy crime fiction

Book of the year 
 True Crime Story by Joseph Knox, a provocative mix of real and fictional crime in which the author himself investigates the disappearance of a student named Zoe. But is she a real or fictional character? With a fragmentary narrative style, this is something new in the overcrowded crime genre

Joseph Knox cements his reputation as one of the best of the new guard of British crime writers with True Crime Story, in which one Joseph Knox - a deliciously unflattering self-portrait - becomes entangled in the investigation into the disappearance of a student. It's a meta-fictional trick that helps to create a genuine (and genuinely pleasurable) sense of unease.

The Times Number One Bestseller

'What happens to those girls who go missing? What happens to the Zoe Nolans of the world?' 
 
In the early hours of Saturday, December 17th, 2011, Zoe Nolan, a 19-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.

'A triumph. Dazzlingly original' Sunday Times 
'Riveting and relentless...A unique story, brilliantly told' Terry Hayes 
'Brilliant, compelling and original' Steve Cavanagh 
'Highly original and mischievous' John Boyne 
______________ 
 
'What happens to those girls who go missing? What happens to the Zoe Nolans of the world?' 
 
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. 
______________ 
 
Readers love TRUE CRIME STORY: 
 
'Perfectly combines the best parts of true crime, fiction and mystery. Superb' 
'My favourite read of 2021...fascinating, perplexing and bloody brilliant' 
'I've been looking for something different and new in the crime genre. Here it is'

Joseph Knox has lived in Stoke on Trent, Manchester and London. In 2020, he became an Irish citizen. His debut novel Sirens was a bestseller and has been translated into eighteen languages. The Smiling Man and The Sleepwalker are the second and third books in the Waits trilogy. His first standalone novel, True Crime Story, was a Times number one bestseller.

True Crime Story

The Times Number One Bestseller

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Scandalously entertaining...Knox is a fantastic writer. His ambitious fourth novel satirises and celebrates the true-crime genre with glee ... by turns horrific and hilarious

Truly immersive: complex, disturbing, unexpectedly funny and very smart

One of the most engaging cold-case novels I have read

Knox the author pulls off a hybrid triumph: at once an old-fashioned whodunnit and a smart postmodern literary novel asking questions about the ethics of all editing, as well as the true-crime genre. Dazzlingly original.

The gifted Joseph Knox continues his upwards trajectory...forging something original and innovative.

Best new fiction. Knox tears up the rule book, this bravura performance it's darkness leavened by very black humour

This satire of the true crime genre is ingenious, funny and totally original

Reads like a cinematic true crime documentary. Brilliant, compelling and original.

An absolute triumph. It sucked me in, chewed me up, spat me out and left me blinking like the moment the lights go on at a fuzzy basement nightclub. Phenomenal, current, bleakly devastating. An iron gauntlet in the guts. Loved it.

Highly original and mischievous novel - a complete triumph

About Joseph Knox

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