[QCrit] Upmarket Thriller - THIS IS THE STORY (75k, first attempt)
Hi all! I'm almost done editing this MS, so would love to get feedback on my query. My main concern is that my title is too close to a similar book that came out recently (THIS IS THE STORY vs. THIS STORY MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE). I actually came up with my title before I'd even heard of the other book, but I know agents won't care about that. I'm not comping it in my query, but thoughts on whether I need a title change?
THIS IS THE STORY is a darkly humorous upmarket thriller complete at 75,000 words. It combines the podcast-driven suspense of Amy Tintera’s Listen for the Lie with the dark academia vibes of Charlene Wang’s I Will Follow You, exploring our culture’s fascination with true crime and the blurred lines between storytelling and exploitation.
When Tessa Ford launched her true crime podcast, This Is The Story, she never imagined she’d end up reporting on a murder unfolding at her own college.
A senior at Stonecrest College, Tessa is desperate to grow her struggling podcast into something bigger—even if her father, renowned forensic psychologist and Stonecrest professor Arthur Ford, disapproves of her turning violent crime into fodder for entertainment. But when a sorority girl is murdered on campus and police quickly zero in on the victim’s boyfriend, Tessa becomes convinced they have the wrong suspect. Hoping to uncover the truth (and boost her audience) she invites the boyfriend onto her podcast to tell his side of the story.
The episode goes viral.
As listeners flock to This Is The Story, Tessa inserts herself deeper into the investigation despite warnings from detectives and a series of increasingly threatening messages. Then she uncovers a chilling connection between the murder and a nearly identical killing at a nearby college fifteen years earlier. But the connection points directly to Arthur, whose expertise in criminal psychology suddenly makes him look less like an academic authority and more like a suspect.
With national attention fixed on her podcast and her father pulled into the investigation, Tessa must decide how far she’s willing to go for the truth—and whether exposing a killer is worth destroying her father, her future, and the platform that made her matter.