This Story Might Save Your Life

by Tiffany Crum ★★★★★

Joy Moore and Benny Abbott are best friends and have been from the moment they met. Each unabashedly claims the other as their favorite person, but their friendship has always been platonic. That friendship eventually leads to a collaboration on a "comedy survival" podcast, in which one half of the duo will propose a real-life survival scenario while the other is "in the hot seat ad-libbing survival tactics for the life-threatening topic of choice." As readers, we're thrown right into a recording session, and against all odds, their back-and-forth banter about what should be a harrowing situation is in fact funny, leading to a meteoric rise on the podcasting charts.

What's also undeniable from the jump is the chemistry between the two. Despite that, each has found other romantic partners: Joy with her husband Xander (also the executive producer on the podcast), and Benny with a woman named Luna. After recording a session, Joy surreptitiously slips a note into Benny's pocket asking him to meet her back at her home later that evening. The next day, she and Xander are missing.

Benny is beside himself—this isn't just his business partner, it's his best friend and favorite person—but we learn he did see her the night before as requested, and it did not go well (but we don't know why). When the police arrive on the scene, there are signs of a potential struggle, and a there is broken glass in the home that could be from the Santa Ana winds but could also be from some sort of forced entry. There are additional complicating factors revealed, ingredients that could point the finger at a number of known or unknown assailants that might have motivation to cause harm to Joy or Xander.

Despite Joy's disappearance in the first few pages of the book, we still get to know her well through excerpts from her memoir, which recount her origin story with Benny and the ensuing years leading up to the creation of the podcast and beyond. That also allows us to see the evolution of their friendship, touchingly rendered at a level on-par with any modern friends-to-lovers or "will-they-or-won't-they" romance novel. There are some similarities to Emily Henry's The People We Meet on Vacation (and plenty of other novels/movies), in the sense that the pair have been best friends from the start but frustratingly never explore "something more", despite the obvious connection. Debut author Tiffany Crum actually handles the reasons Joy and Benny started down the platonic path better than Henry did in the aforementioned novel, but one can't help but wonder how the subject was never broached over their deep ten-plus-year friendship.

What we're left with is a genre-bending mashup of mystery and romance—"romanstery" perhaps?—where you have elements of both genres in nearly equal measure. We have the active investigation trying to locate Joy and Xander interspersed with the historical meet-cute and "why won't they just get together already!" pseudo-romantic sections of the book. It's a different combo, but in this scenario it really works, and the sweetness of the friendship between Benny and Joy helps to amplify the tension as the hours and days accumulate without any sign of Joy and Xander.

Crum parcels out the clues and occasional misdirection to keep readers' investigating wheels churning, while also in many ways writing a homage to everything Los Angeles, both the good (hot dog's at Pink's, concerts at the Hollywood Bowl) and the bad (the threat of Santa Ana winds, the pressure of fame). As Joy writes in her memoir, after receiving a never-ending cascade of reminders from the public of ways she might have offended someone, "I had no idea how vile I was until I was borderline famous. Before the podcast I never bothered to imagine what life must be like for public figures. There are a million ways to mess up every day." The story oozes L.A., but with main characters who lack any of the superficiality for which that city is famous.

The mystery is better than average, and the connection Crum builds between two characters who just clearly are each other's "person" is top-notch. It's a propulsive read you'll likely finish in a few sittings, and a darling of story that I think will pop up on a lot of favorites lists this year. Recommended for anyone who likes mysteries or romance novels, and certainly for readers (like me!) who enjoy both.

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Quick Facts

• Title: This Story Might Save Your Life

• Author: Tiffany Crum

• Publisher: Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar

• Release Date: March 10, 2026

• Format: Ebook

• ISBN-13: 978-1250395245

• Pages: 368