Tell me what you did A novel

This intriguing if shaky thriller from Wilson (The Father She Went to Find) centers on a true crime podcaster consumed by guilt. Thirty-year-old Poe Webb of Manchester, N.H., hosts the wildly popular podcast Tell Me What You Did, in which she encourages anonymous callers to share details of the disturbing--and often criminal--things they've done. Part of Poe's motivation for starting the show is rooted in her private guilt for getting away with murdering the man who killed her mother 17 years earlier. When someone named Ian Hindley calls into the podcast claiming to know details about Poe's life in New York City and her mother's death, she fears she's about to be exposed. Then Ian identifies himself as the man who killed her mother, and Poe must reassess everything she thinks she knows about that tragedy. Wilson toggles between transcripts of Ian and Poe's conversation, scenes of the cat-and-mouse game that unfolds between them, and flashbacks to Poe's time in New York. Despite the strong setup, Wilson struggles to sustain the rush of the first few chapters, with Ian deploying the same lukewarm scare tactics again and again until the satisfying-enough finale rolls around. This doesn't fully live up to its potential. Agent: Pamela Ahearn, Ahearn Agency. (Jan.)

A successful Vermont podcaster who's elicited confessions from dozens of criminals finds herself on the other side of the table, in the hottest of hot seats, over her own troubled past. Poe Webb was only 13 when she saw her mother, Margaret McMillian, get stabbed to death by the man she'd picked up for a quickie. Poe had vowed revenge, but how could a kid find and avenge herself on a stranger who'd vanished as quickly as he appeared? In the long years since then, Poe's made a name for herself as a top true-crime podcaster who routinely invites her guests to tell her audience exactly what they did. Now, she's being pressed, and pressed hard, by Ian Hindley, whose fake name echoes those of England's Moors Murderers, to join him in a livestream her fans will find riveting because, as Hindley tells her, he's actually Leopold Hutchins, the pickup who stabbed her mother 14 times when she failed to use her safe word. Skeptical? Hindley knows endless details about the killing that were never released by the police. If Poe won't do the broadcast, Hindley threatens to harm everyone she loves: her father; her producer and lover, Kip Nguyen; and her black Lab, Bailey. And there's one more complication that makes the pressure on Poe even more unbearable. Seven years ago, against all odds, she succeeded in tracking Leopold Hutchins from Burlington to New York and killing him herself. In fact, it's that murder that Hindley most wants her to talk about. Which bully is more fearsome, the man who's threatening her or the man she killed? Better set aside several uninterrupted hours for this toxic rocket. You'll be glad you did. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.