Debut novelist Barber acknowledges that she was inspired by Serial, and her novel asks the reader to reflect on his or her own complicity when the people involved in a real-life crime story are dragged back into the limelight years later by that kind of journalism, and the impact it can have on their lives. The most relevant and interesting aspect of this novel is its exploration of the power of the podcast. Forced to confront the past for the first time in more than a decade, Josie also must face the fact that she may not know the truth about what happened to her father. As more episodes of the podcast drop, Josie’s mother commits suicide when she's summoned home to Chicago by her aunt and cousin for the funeral, she learns that her twin sister, Lanie, is now married to her own former boyfriend and lives a comfortable, Stepford-like existence. Her sense of peace is shattered when she learns that Poppy Parnell, formerly the force behind a true-crime blog, has released a podcast in which she questions the guilt of the boy convicted of killing Josie’s father. Then she met Caleb, and they began to build a real life, settling into jobs and friends and an apartment in New York-but she didn't tell him about her past or even her real name. Meanwhile, the unexpected death of Josie’s long-absent mother forces her to return to her Midwestern hometown where she must confront the demons from her past-and the lies on which she has staked her future.A young woman makes a great deal of effort to distance herself from her past only to have it reawakened by a podcast.Īfter her father was murdered 13 years ago, her mother ran off to join a cult, and her twin sister betrayed her, Josie wandered aimlessly around the world, working odd jobs and avoiding serious entanglements. When investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with a mega-hit podcast that reopens the long-closed case of Josie’s father’s murder, Josie’s world begins to unravel.

The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past-starting with her last name. Now, Josie has finally put down roots in New York, settling into domestic life with her partner Caleb, and that’s where she intends to stay. After her father's murder thirteen years prior, her mother ran away to join a cult and her twin sister Lanie, once Josie’s closest friend and confidant, betrayed her in an unimaginable way. Josie Buhrman has spent the last ten years trying to escape her family’s reputation and with good reason. The only thing more dangerous than a lie.is the truth.

Serial meets Ruth Ware’s In A Dark, Dark Wood in this inventive and twisty psychological thriller about a mega-hit podcast that reopens a murder case-and threatens to unravel the carefully constructed life of the victim’s daughter.

Are you sleeping kathleen barber