Book info

• Title Truth Be Told
• Author Kathleen Barber
• Year 2017
• Genres Thriller, Mystery

Josie Buhrman has spent the last ten years trying to escape her family. Following her father’s murder thirteen years before, her mother ran away to join a cult and her twin sister betrayed her in an unimaginable way, leaving Josie alone. Now, Josie finally has a happy new life in New York with her fiancé, Caleb. The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past – starting with her last name. When investigative reporter Poppy Parnell re-examines her father's case on her hit podcast Josie’s world begins to unravel and then the unexpected death of her mother forces Josie to return home. Now she must confront the secrets from her past – and the lies on which she has staked her future.

Thoughts

I picked this up after watching the TV series on Apple TV+, and was interested to see how the source material had been adapted. The TV show went down with mixed reviews in my household but overall it was enjoyable, so I was surprised at how completely different the book was! Rather than being the protagonist, Poppy the podcaster is really a hated figure that only pops up every now and again and is really, very mean.

The point of view we are viewing this whodunit from is Josie, the sister that ran away, and so for quite a lot of the time it doesn’t feel like a lot is happening. She’s away, then she comes back for a funeral, then she uncovers something that answers the mystery, and that’s it. There are none of the red herrings and misleading suspicions, it pretty much just winds to a conclusion – which is also completely different and far simpler than what happened on screen.

I still liked it though. It was well written and flowed nicely, and even though it didn’t seem like much was happening, I still wanted to get to the end to see how it all turned out.

Rating: 3 / 5