Read This Book: The Less People Know About Us by Axton Betz-Hamilton

Axton Betz-Hamilton grew up in rural Indiana in the 1990s. After her grandfather died when she was 10, her family began to notice their mail going missing. What started off as annoying but seemingly innocuous became more sinister when their utilities would get shut off for nonpayment…and then the strange bills started showing up. Someone had stolen her parents’ identities, and no one seemed to know who might be at fault, or how the thief kept obtaining personal information. Axton spent the second half of her childhood living in a family clouded by suspicion because the only logical conclusion was that someone close to them must be the thief. As a result, they began to withdraw from friends and family, and became suspicious of everyone. The claustrophobic environment was too much for Axton, but when she escaped to college, she discovered something horrifying–her own identity had also been stolen, and her credit was wrecked, going back to when she was a child. She became determined to find the truth.

I feel like I read this memoir holding my breath. Betz-Hamilton does a brilliant job demonstrating that identity theft is not a victimless crime, starting out with the paranoia that she and her parents experienced, and detailing the financial and emotional effects of a ruined credit score and constant paranoia. She mines the depths of her family’s distress and anxiety and shows how that shaped her childhood and the adult she would become. The events of this book began before identity theft was seen as the threat it is now, and people who found themselves victims of this crime often found themselves helpless, with nowhere to turn. That had a tremendous effect on Axton, and when she realizes the extent of the fraud, she becomes extremely motivated to research the crime. The chapters devoted to her becoming an identity theft expert and investigating her own case are both vindicating and fascinating, but it’s the shocking reveal about who was really behind the theft that readers will remember most from this book. It’s a revelation that leaves Axton shocked and revisiting every moment in her past to see events in a completely different light, and those moments of reckoning are equally powerful. Ultimately, this memoir is engrossing, well-written, and measured, and it demonstrates how a nonviolent crime can have devastating effects on people’s lives.

If you’re intrigued by this story and this is the first time you’re hearing about it, I advise not Googling the author or looking up the author’s episode on Criminal unless you want some major spoilers! If you listened to the podcast, I highly recommend this book for its in-depth and fascinating look at Axton’s life, and the aftermath of her discovery.

Happy reading!
Tirzah