You can often find me walking around my small town in New Zealand listening to podcasts about the worst things humans can do to each other. And I’m not alone in this slightly macabre habit – it’s estimated that at least 75% of the millions of true crime podcast listeners out there are female.
Like me, these women are listening to a broad range of stories, helmed by podcasters with an equally broad range of backgrounds. Some hosts are current or former journalists. Some are citizen detectives, or self-confessed true crime afficionados, while others are regular citizens obsessed with that one cold case from their childhood. The very best of these hosts combine humour, pathos, and diligent investigative work to shine a line into the darkest corners of society. And maybe solve some crimes in the process.
Ruth-Ann Baker, the citizen detective leading my new novel, Leave the Girls Behind, is only pretending to be a podcaster. When she creates a podcast called The Other Women, it’s merely a ruse to get access to three women she believes might be connected to the murder of her childhood best friend 19 years ago. The novel is set in early 2015, and no one immediately doubts Ruthie’s intentions (or capabilities for that matter), because back then, true crime podcasts were still on the cusp of the popularity and ubiquity we’re now so familiar with. Serial, which premiered in late 2014, is considered the game-changer in this medium, and now, a decade later, there are well over 20,000 true crime podcasts for us to listen to. But when Ruthie introduces her idea to friends and family, the genre is only just taking off. Which is lucky for her because, for the most part, she really doesn’t know what she’s doing, and many of her tactics are highly questionable.
If Ruthie is an unreliable host from the early days of true crime podcasting, here are four novels featuring fictional podcasters who do know what they’re doing … most of the time:
Girl, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke (2021)
Elle Castillo is a former social worker turned vigilant(e) true-crime podcaster who hosts Justice Delayed, where she’s been investigating a horrific serial killer case from 20 years ago. That case might have been resolved after the suspected murderer likely died in a cabin fire, but when a listener with a hot tip for Elle ends up dead, the podcaster’s professional and personal lives cross over, leaving the host in her very own life or death situation.
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (2023)
Bodie Kane is an film academic come podcast host who finds herself back at her old prep school in New England, teaching a podcasting course to a small group of students. One of those students revives Bodie’s interest in an old case – the death of her former roommate, Thalia. That murder was supposedly solved, but like any good podcaster, Bodie begins to suspect (or is it remember?!) that there was always more to the story.
None of this is True by Lisa Jewel (2023)
Alix Summers is a successful lifestyle podcaster who doesn’t start out focused on crime, but soon finds herself in the thick of it, after she picks her ‘birthday twin’, a stranger named Josie Fair, as her new podcast subject. A thriller, where the guest quickly turns the tables on the host, this novel pays homage to the impact of true crime podcasts, by showing what it’s like to find yourself thrust into the middle of one.
Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (2024)
Lucy Chase is not a podcaster. But she might be a murderer. That’s where Ben Owens comes in. He’s the popular host of a hit true crime podcast, and Lucy is his new favourite subject. Did she murder her best friend Savvy, then conveniently forget about it? And is Ben out to prove her guilt – or her innocence? Here we have another professional podcaster, but this time we see them through the lens of the suspect being investigated. After Ben brings his show to town, and the two form a connection, all of Lucy’s buried memories start to surface, one startling episode at a time.
These four podcasters might have the kind of experience and skills Ruthie could only hope for, but they’re all haunted by the past like she is. And just as determined to put their ghosts to rest.
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