This Story Might Save Your Life

By Tiffany Crum

Book Overview

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"Both a riveting mystery and a love story, This Story Might Save Your Life is one of the best thrillers I've read this year." --Amy Tintera, bestselling author of Listen for the Lie
"A heart-pounding thriller and a heart-melting romance, this is the most compelling novel I've read in years." --Annabel Monaghan, New York Times bestselling author of It's a Love Story

Best friends Benny and Joy like to say they've been saving each other's lives since the moment they met. Until the day Joy disappears and Benny is suspected of murder . . .

Benny Abbott and Joy Moore host one of the most beloved podcasts in the world. Each week, they delight listeners with a different "against all odds" survival story, gleefully finding the weird, life-affirming humor in near-death experiences. Since their first episode on Joy's experience with severe narcolepsy, they've been the best friends everyone wants to befriend--and thanks to the meticulous management of Joy's husband, Xander, they've built a lucrative empire.

The problem is, their next survival story may be their own. When Benny arrives at Joy and Xander's one morning to record, he finds shattered glass and an empty house. The one clue shedding light on the couple's disappearance is the incomplete, previously unseen first draft of Joy's memoir. Benny is desperate to find them, even when the police soon zero in on him as their prime suspect.

Millions of devoted listeners think they know the "real" Benny and Joy. But as the hours tick by, and the odds seem increasingly stacked against Joy and Xander being found alive, not even the most devoted fans could guess the terrible secrets their favorite famous BFFs have hidden from the world--and from each other.

"I truly loved reading This Story Might Save Your Life. The pace was terrific, and it was so smart and engrossing. The pages practically turn themselves in this nuanced thriller. I couldn't put it down "
--Nina Simon, bestselling author of Mother-Daughter Murder Night

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250395232
• ISBN13: 9781250395238
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Twisty and Turny!

Wow! Just Wow! This was our book club book this month and I’m so glad it was picked! I got it through BOTM but it was relegated to the TBR until it was suggested and I’m so glad I read it. Trigger warnings: loss of a baby, domestic violence, murder Joy was diagnosed with narcolepsy when she was in high school, and determined to have as normal a life as possible, but never expected it would lead to meeting her best friend, Benny, when she accidentally “napped” at a concert. They went from strangers to spending every day together, even getting apartments one on top of the other, in a short period of time. They seemingly both have feelings for each other, but when Benny’s father unexpectedly dies and he is forced to leave LA to help his sister with arrangements in Colorado, Joy meets Xander. Xander is seemingly the perfect guy and when Benny comes back, Joy introduces them, hoping they would become friends, but they do not. In an effort to keep her friendship alive, Joy and Xander set Benny up with Luna, a vivacious divorce attorney. ‘ When Joy and Xander decide to try for a baby, causing Joy’s narcolepsy to be less manageable, it causes her to rely more and more on Xander. When she loses the baby, Xander forces everyone from her life in an effort to let her heal. Benny and Joy don’t see each other or talk in 3 years and when they run into each other again at a craft store, they pick right back up where they left off. Benny proposes they start a podcast and Joy agrees knowing it means she will have to see her best friend on a more regular basis. Their podcast is a comedy survival podcast where one provides a topic and lets the other determine how they would survive, until finally the other tells the story of how the person did. They end up a huge success, going on tour, but just when things are going to get even bigger, Joy and Xander go missing. Benny becomes a suspect, while he works to find out what really happened. This book twists and turns through a sort of two person narrative that fills in the gaps of one character without filling in the other.