Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with a seemingly unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, as it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins—a striking and unexpected coincidence. 

Just a few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time surprisingly outside of 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, the kind an audience would find gripping. Alix is immediately intrigued. But, unbeknownst to her, this is the beginning of a captivating tale of obsession, deception, and the dark complexity of human relationships.

The podcast begins. Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her fairly unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making new episodes. Slowly she starts to realize that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s entire life—and even into her family’s home.

But, just as quickly as she arrived, Josie suddenly disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and truly terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her very own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

This chilling psychological thriller has many unexpected twists and turns, making a powerful statement about the impact of social media on interpersonal relationships—and challenging the idea that we can ever truly know someone.

Readers will wonder up to the very end: Who is Josie Fair, really? And what has she done?

This book contains mentions of child abuse.

I have been a huge Lisa Jewell fan since her breakout novel Then She Was Gone, and every year that we are treated to a new installment in the Jewell universe is a lucky one. With None of This Is True, Lisa Jewell proves once again that thrilling chills and multifaceted characters make for a perfect marriage of psychological suspense.

None of This Is True begins with the unlikely meeting of two women celebrating their forty-fifth birthdays—unwitting “birthday twins” who connect over the occasion in a local bar. Soon after meeting, one of them, Josie, begins listening to her new pal Alix’s podcast about inspiring women and becomes convinced she would be the perfect subject for an episode about midlife reinvention. Alix hesitantly agrees, but once she gets a taste of Josie’s life, she can’t help but become fully mesmerized by and invested in its many twists and turns. The more she learns, the more Alix questions the truth of what Josie tells her, even as she lets her stay in her family’s home. By the time Josie disappears, she has fully ingratiated herself into Alix’s life—and those Alix loves are in grave danger.

This thriller is classic Lisa Jewell—twisted family dynamics, complicated female friendships, and delectably unreliable narrators that will keep you guessing till the bitter end. The podcast excerpts take it up that extra notch, with witness interviews painting a picture of a darkening world that you can’t help but be sucked into. So do yourself a favor and pick up None of This Is True—just be warned that reality might not look the same once you’re done...

Lisa Jewell was born in London in 1968.

Her first novel, Ralph's Party, was the best- selling debut novel of 1999. Since then she has written another twenty novels, most recently a number of dark psychological thrillers, including The Girls, Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs and The Night She Disappeared.

Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over twenty-five languages. She lives in north London with her husband, two teenage daughters and the best dog in the world.