I’m kicking off 2026 with a book that’s been on my radar since it was published at the start of last year (and how strange is it to think of 2025 as last year?). Tell Me What You Did by Carter Wilson is the first pick for the mystery/thriller book club I joined last year, making it the perfect choice to start my reading year. The novel promises a fresh take on the true-crime podcast angle that’s become so prevalent in contemporary crime fiction, and I was eager to see how Wilson would make it his own.
Poe Webb is the host of a wildly popular podcast where people anonymously confess to crimes they’ve committed. Each guest is given fifteen uninterrupted minutes to tell their story. Poe makes no promises that law enforcement won’t come knocking, but the lure of anonymity paired with instant notoriety has proven irresistible. Remarkably, both the confessors and the audience have embraced the format. There have been a few guests who veer into the unhinged, but Poe is usually able to leave the darkness behind once the recording ends.
What her listeners don’t know is that Poe has secrets of her own. When a man comes on the show and begins confessing to his crimes, Poe immediately senses something familiar about him. Then he reveals the truth. He killed a woman. Not just any woman. He killed Poe’s mother. Suddenly, the past comes rushing back with brutal force. Poe was there that night. She saw her mother die. There’s only one problem. This man can’t be her mother’s killer. That man is dead. Poe knows this for sure because she’s the one who killed him.
Tell Me What You Did sees seasoned thriller author Carter Wilson deliver his own original spin on the podcast trope that’s become so prevalent in crime fiction. There’s a delicious irony in Poe building a career around other people confessing their crimes while harboring the secret that she’s committed dark acts of her own. That tension creates a compelling and surprisingly fresh juxtaposition between hero and villain.
Do things veer into the unbelievable at times? Of course. But I was so invested in the cat-and-mouse game at the heart of the story that I found myself far less bothered by it than I might have been otherwise. All in all, Tell Me What You Did is a solid psychological thriller and an excellent way to kick off a new year of reading.
For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2026, 1)
