Why Gillian Flynn Launched her Book Imprint with a Debut Noir About a Rebel Nun

For fans of true crime, history, and criminal justice/forensics. This is a really interesting dive into the history of the lie detector/polygraph — from its creation in the 1920s to its implementation through history to now – including how not all its creators ended up believing in it. The book alternates between the inventors and the creation, to dives into criminal cases through history where the lie detector was used – including to determine whether someone should be executed or not. It’s eye-opening and a big reminder that the lie detector doesn’t meet scientific standards, even if it’s once again back in popular use. You get legal cases, courtroom scenes, learn interesting things like where the term “3rd degree” comes from, and the history of police corruption and crime at the turn of the century.

I inhaled the audiobook, narrated by Paul Bellantoni.

(TW domestic violence/ brief mentions of past child sexual assault, no detail/ suicide, detail, including murder suicide)

For fans of fictional true crime, fictional authors writing a book in a book, unsolved cases, and alternating point of view by sections. The book starts with an author who is writing a book on a case from the ’70s: a lawyer with three kids was the suspect in his wife’s disappearance. But this is not a random case: the author grew up best friends with one of the children, one who is completely against him writing this book. The accused father now has dementia and can’t defend himself. What happens to a family when a mother just never comes home? When the father is accused? And the now grown kids don’t agree on digging into the case?