Guest Written by Abi McEwen Bookstagram: @abisliterarylounge
True crime podcasts are super popular and have made their way into literature like “Sadie” by Courtney Summers (a great book, by the way). But what I haven’t seen as much is literature that has incorporated true-crime documentaries or docu-series. Charlie Donlea is one of the authors who took the docu-series show vibe and stuck it in a book.
Sidney Ryan is an ambitious filmmaker who has created a specialty for herself—making true-crime docu-series on convicted felons. And these series have been successful, not only in the film industry, but by focusing on evidence and uncovering truth, she was able to provide enough reasonable doubt to get all three of her subject’s convictions overturned. Due to this success, she received hundreds of letters from inmates claiming their innocence and asking for help. Grace Sebold is one of these, and she has been persistent, writing letters to Sidney for ten years.
Grace has been convicted of murdering her boyfriend, Julien Crist, while on vacation at Sugar Beach Resort in St. Lucia, an Eastern Caribbean Island. In her letters, she describes her relationship with Julien, always playing the mourning and in-love girlfriend. Being an American imprisoned in a foreign country for so long, she was not able to have many visits from her family or friends.
Impressed by her persistence, Sidney decides to investigate Grace’s case and produce a 10-episode docu-series that is filmed and produced in real time.
What I loved about this book was the layout. We get chapters from Sidney’s perspective as a filmmaker with lots of behind-the-scenes of her process interviewing, filming, and editing the show for each week’s installment. And the whole process almost adds to the urgency of figuring out “whodunit,” since we and the public are learning the facts and clues of the case right along with Sidney and her team. If I hadn’t gone to school for English and Literature, I would have gotten my degree in Digital Communications and studied documentaries, so I particularly love this mix. We also get some chapters from Grace’s perspective and her family, and even some from the jury as they deliberate over the case. It’s a great mix and Donlea balanced all of the voices and perspectives really well.
There were a lot of characters to keep track of, but I wouldn’t say there were too many. Each person was clear and unique, all except for Gus, who, instead of being introduced up front with the rest of the characters, was brought in halfway through and remained nameless for the first few of his chapters. Because of this, I felt like Gus was kind of a random character, but his role becomes sharper towards the end of the book and he rounds out the story pretty well.
The only character who didn’t seem to fit the story in any way was Sidney’s dad, who was in jail for a crime the author never tells us about. It would make sense if he was the reason why Sidney got into true crime in the first place, but it doesn’t seem like she feels positively towards him at all. If the bits with him were removed from the book, the story would be the same.
“Don’t Believe It” is Donlea’s third novel and, while I haven’t read any of his other books before, he is an author I will definitely be picking up again. The mystery/thriller comes with short chapters and lots of twists. I was suspicious of everybody. There wasn’t a character who I felt was really innocent, and I changed my mind on the subject so many times leading up to the reveal.
I do feel the ending was a little too ambitious and open, but maybe that’s just me being nit-picky. Either way, I would still rate this novel a strong 4 out of 5 stars.