What's on True Crime Tonight?

by Catherine H. Ambrose

But can time become a clue?

Ariadne Foster, a forensic analyst, is in quarantine at home along with her boyfriend, Mark. As they adjust to this new order of reality, a case of two unsolved murders comes back to the spotlight after eighteen years. Intrigued by the story, they decide to initiate their own research.

As the tangled yarn of mystery unrolls, a new seemingly irrelevant puzzle begins to occupy Ariadne’s mind. A vague memory from her childhood, the disappearance of a boy. What was originally an excuse to escape reality, has now become an investigative journey for the young couple.

Is, however, a fresh perspective enough to join scattered pieces of old evidence together? As the quest goes on, they realize an unexpected ally is on their side.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

66 pages, Paperback

First published May 3, 2020

About the author

Catherine is a true-crime enthusiast and enjoys suspenseful fiction, though, in real life, she'd rather avoid any stress-inducing situation. However, this is not always the case. When she's not following clues or drinking coffee, she fancies going for long walks. She also loves danish rolls.

Reviews

[Veronica ⭐️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun novella about a young couple in Covid lock down doing some amateur sleuthing whilst watching their favourite true crime shows. The use of the internet in everyday life is highlighted as the couple use it to search for clues, look through social media and do some online shopping.

The story was a bit slow for such a short book however I really enjoyed the added twists at the end.

What's on True Crime Tonight is a quick read and a lot of fun!

[William Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't seek out this genre, but Ambrose pulled me right in. This is a light, easy going read, yet there was the perfect amount of suspense and conflict. The voice was very clear and memorable. The plot was also well developed and there were elements of literary fiction in this work. I intend on reading some more!

[Sarah Gabriel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I always hate giving negative reviews, but i want to give an honest reaction to what i read, so here it is...
If it were possible to give a book 0 stars i would have. I know art is subjective, and I’m glad there are people out there who enjoyed this, but I’m genuinely shocked at the overall Goodreads rating for this story, because i found it to be totally and utterly soulless, wooden, and just a general boring mess.
So bad are the characters and their dialogue I legitimately Googled whether this was a computer-generated story! The central characters read like two aliens trying to pass as humans but haven’t yet gotten the knack for Earth-speak, and it’s impossible to get invested in them or the mysteries they’re looking into. The only saving grace was that it was only 60-odd pages long, and even at that it’s riddled with constant typos and grammatical errors... 🙈
A fun concept, and i have huge respect for anyone making art and putting it out there, but this one really missed the mark for me.

[EarnedIt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short true crime story was entertaining to read and especially relatable given current events. We often find ourselves trying to keep up with news on the pandemic, only to immediately feel the need for an escape, a distraction from reality. Not to mention the anxiety we sometimes feel if we experience any symptom pointing towards COVID-19.
I enjoyed listening to Mark and Ariadne discussion crime and how they were discovering circumstances that might provide an explanation to the unsolved cases.

[Nastazia Nielsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an engaging novelette! 👁️‍🗨️ The writing is in the first person, present tense which I love because it makes the characters so relatable. The whole time I was turning the pages I felt like I was next to Ariadne and Mark, solving the crime and eating their delicious soups! The plot takes place in April 2020 so much of Ariadne's routine and emotions feel familiar. No gruesome details are involved so if you are a mystery enthusiast what are you still doing here? Go purchase the book and dive right into it!

[Robert Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice little novelette by a fresh, new author! I really liked this writer’s style. At only 58 pages it took me just under an hour to read. The story takes place during modern day quarantine, which is super relatable at the moment. I also really enjoyed the authors depictions of the characters meals and drinks, the definitely had me salivating.

[Maria Zamm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this short story! A young couple tries to investigate short criminal stories during quarantine time. Fresh, surprising and well structured!

[Terra Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

this writer needs to make a much bigger book of diff crime stories. i cant wait for her next book because she has a smooth writing style that easily sucks you in after the first couple pages.

[Brigitte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I discovered this author on TikTok and the title alone piqued my interest. I feel like I ask my husband a variation of the title every Friday night (we like to watch Dateline and 20/20).

My first impression of this book was that it read like nothing I’ve read before. It had a certain peculiarity to it.

THEN, I was getting nervous because this novelette is only ~60 pages and at the halfway point, it wasn’t quite picking up the way I thought it would.

There was an air of monotony and uninteresting conversations to this narrative. But I’m taking into consideration the fact that this story takes place during the initial quarantine period of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was certainly monotony and uninteresting conversations going on in all of our homes.

With not much else to do, I can relate to vivid memories resurfacing and interest in true crime intensifying.

The ending was unexpected (in a good way). But I could see this novelette not being for everyone.

[Xochi Tamez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I discovered Catherine Ambrose on TikTok and love rating Indie Authors. At just under 60 pages, you have a quick read that follows along with the main character’s attempt to get through quarantine while doing some amateur couch surfing sleuthing.

I started to worry about halfway through when the climax had not taken place and the storyline had not started to pickup.

With the setting never changing from the apartment, most of the storyline revolves around day to day task, interactions and the main character’s point of view during quarantine. There is little outside storyline that involves scene setting, some history for plot setup and generally an unexpected and quick ending.

[Sikato · Rating 5 out of 5]

The central, carantine-inspired idea in this book is fantastic and could even serve a very long novel. Ambrose admirably structures her story and style around this idea. Some of the choices made because of it can unfortunately come across as sloppy writing to the first-time or otherwise unaware reader; happily, all is mended after a second reading (or a good first reading). Unrelated to the central conceit, other sentence-level stylistic choices can also be read as inattentive writing, but this is will vary greatly from reader to reader.

I think What's On True Crime Tonight? is a remarkable first effort that suffers a little due to lack of strict editing.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very relatable situation for people during the pandemic, especially lovers of true crime and sleuthing. A couple quarantined at home watch true crime documentaries and try to solve some cold cases. Seems they had one pegged right and it ended with a clue to.the first one so looking forward to the next one.

[Brandi · Rating 1 out of 5]

.5 stars if possible. I only finished this book because I paid .99 cents for it on kindle. If it had been a free read this would have been DNFed. There was just so much going on and nothing connecting. The main character is sick but you never find out what is causing her to be sick. The couple “slice” two crimes but do nothing about the information. Just, a boring read.

[Sarah Reiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

A witty and relatable story set in the modern quarantine period. The narrative is overall direct, refreshing, and the plot is neatly handled. Bonus: it combines traditional sleuthing with the effect of social media and technology.

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this little novelette! It pretty much described me as my true crime podcasts are what got me through 2020…and 2021. The story left me wanting more and more. I wish it didn’t have to end so soon!

[Kirk Weikart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aria and Mark slough through the pandemic by listening to true crime podcasts discussing cold cases. It was clever to use the pandemic to relate the moods of the characters, and any mystery is a good mystery. This self-proclaimed novelette suffered from lack of character development. It also suffers from lack of direction; it seemed as though the author was writing a rough draft.

[Amanda Krutsick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine, but a little disjointed and I had a hard time sinking myself into it even though it was only 60 pages. Some of the dialogue felt very forced and I kept getting taken out of the story by the lack of clarity in the time jumps.

[Amy Ingalls · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.

The sentence structure was a bit odd at times, and there were times it seemed like not much was happening. but it did end up keeping my interest, and I liked the ending.

[Jessica Henshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fast read. A lot of fun leaves you thinking and wanting to look up these cold case files. Definitely a slice of life on we we all keep busy during quarantine.

[Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like this was pretty choppy in a lot of places and you couldn’t tell a lot of the time who was speaking. The book went in too many directions all at once

[JK.Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

A unique idea and it was somewhat interesting. Just an average read though I didn't enjoy it that much.

[Destiny :) · Rating 1 out of 5]

A waste of my time.

[Liberty Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars)

I found this book very interesting when the main characters were discussing the facts of the cases they were armchair investigating. Even though the ending to the book was good, it was very much a cliffhanger and no real resolution was brought to the first case in particular. With some inference you can somewhat work out what happened in the second case that Ariadne and Mark look into but there is also no definitive answer to this case either.

I have ordered the next book in the mystery and suspense files series and I am excited to see what that brings.