None of This is True: The new addictive psychological thriller from the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Family Upstairs

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Dapple (in comments) has a really intriguing theory on Brooke: that Josie killed Brooke and then told Walter that Roxy did it. Walter, wanting to protect Roxy, helped Josie hide the body. That would explain a) what Erin heard, b) Walter not wanting to go to the police and c) Josie saying she has to tell Alix “what we did,” meaning she wanted to tell Alix that they covered up Roxy’s crime. None of This is True is a psychological thriller about two women who, through a chance encounter, learn they are birthday twins. Their unlikely meeting turns into a podcast in which shared confidences become the motive for murder. A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Maybe Walter had been rejected by Brooke and/or Josie was jealous of Brooke’s closeness to Roxy. Maybe Josie fixated on Brooke the same way she did on Alix (someone makes the excellent point in comments that Josie tends to steal things from people she’s obsessed with, and she stole Brooke’s phone case). I found myself having this conversation with [a friend], Yasmin, where I embarrassedly told her that I was thinking I’d like to write a novel. She said, ‘I’ve had so many people tell me they want to write a novel. Just do it. Don’t say you’re going to do it; just do it. In fact, write three chapters. If you do that, I’ll take you out for dinner to your favorite restaurant.’ We shook hands, I wrote three chapters, and she took me out to my favorite restaurant. But she also made me send those three chapters out to a load of literary agents, and she made me keep writing by demanding more and more chapters. So, it didn’t just end with the bet. She was there for the full duration of that first novel.” Erin says that Walter and Josie fought, and when Erin came into the room, Walter was lying on the floor bleeding. Josie refused to call an ambulance. Then Erin hit her mother (which is why Josie ended up looking battered at Alix’s.) When Erin woke up, she was tied to a chair. I had a sense of panic from the beginning when the "birthday twins" Alix and Josie unexpectantly meet. The story became darker than dark the further I read. It was quite unputdownable and going places that gave me anxiety. I think Alix felt it too, I wanted to shake her!! Tell her to just R-U-N 🏃‍♂️It took me awhile to sort out my thoughts on this one, as it was not quite what I expected, but that isn’t a bad thing. I buddy read this with my sister Irina, and part of the reason I love reading the same book as a friend or friends is due to the fact that you can really hash out your book review content ahead of time. We both ended up with similar feelings on None of This Is True, and foremost agreed that it was a compulsive, must read suspense tale. As the story progresses, it's like a veil being pulled from your eyes, but I still couldn't believe what I was reading. It was so twisted! This story had me gripped throughout but I feel the ending let the book down a little. It was too contrived, and I failed to appreciate what drove this woman to do the things she did. I also enjoy more analysis when taking on difficult subjects and wanted a better ending for Roxy and Erin. The story behind Walter was left vague for me and didn’t conclude on the various aspects of his life and actions. Did he marry a much younger girl or was he guilty of ‘grooming’ her??. I settled on the former in the absence of any more detail. Even that was weird though. Plus she had all those weird conversations with Alix about how much better off she’d be if he was dead. So I’m not sure I buy her story that it was an accident. What was Josie’s Endgame? Alix herself has a pretty good life too - a smart ultra modern home in London, two beautiful children, a husband that she loves - you get the picture, life’s pretty good in the main, although her husband Nathan does have a tendency to go on benders from time to time, which Alix finds worrying.

I absolutely recommend this to anyone who enjoys fast-paced and tense Psychological Thrillers. Bonus points if you have enjoyed Jewell's work in the past, or love stories that incorporate a podcast, or true crime, element. I was engrossed in this story until Walter’s crimes were glossed over. It seems his repeated pedophilia was excusable because he was supposedly a good father. Can a pedo even be a good father? It doesn’t add up. Few New York Times best-selling novelists can say their career was launched with a bet, a handshake, and the promise of a good meal. And yet, that’s precisely how Lisa Jewell came to write her 1999 debut novel, Ralph’s Party. Giving my highly deserved five stars to this mind numbing, complex, highly sinister, perfectly developed and executed novel!Is this why Josie killed both her husband and Alix’s husband? To give them both a clean break? In her twisted mind, she thought she was doing Alix a favor.