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4.0
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Tell Me What You Did
Tell Me What You Did by Carter Wilson Review: A Propulsive Revenge Thriller That Grips Hard
Tell Me What You Did (Poisoned Pen Press, 2025) is a thriller by New York Times bestselling author Carter Wilson in which true-crime podcaster Poe Webb — who has built a career coaxing confessions from criminals — is forced onto the other side of the mic by a man claiming to be her mother's killer. Kirkus Reviews awarded it a starred review, calling it a "toxic rocket" well worth several uninterrupted hours.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
True-crime podcast fans and thriller readers who relish morally compromised protagonists and plots built on public exposure rather than physical pursuit.
Worth it if
Worth reading if you want a high-concept, propulsive thriller whose central conceit — a confession-extracting podcaster coerced into confessing her own killing on air — operates on multiple levels and rewards tolerance for morally ambiguous heroes.
Skip if
Skip it if you prefer slow-burn, character-driven psychological realism or tend to weigh a satisfying resolution more heavily than the brilliance of a premise.
What readers & critics say
Kirkus Reviews awarded a starred review, calling the novel a "toxic rocket" and urging readers to "set aside several uninterrupted hours," marking it as one of the publication's more emphatic thriller endorsements. Reader bloggers at heididischler.com and thelibraryladies.com found it genuinely entertaining and fast-paced, though heididischler.com noted some disappointment with the characters and ending relative to the strength of the setup.
“Better set aside several uninterrupted hours for this toxic rocket. You'll be glad you did.”
— Kirkus ReviewsAsk LuvemBooks
Was this helpful?
- Is it worth reading?
- For thriller readers who prize a sharply engineered premise and relentless forward momentum, Tell Me What You Did delivers. Kirkus Reviews awarded it a starred review — a distinction the publication does not grant routinely — calling it a 'toxic rocket' and advising readers to 'set aside several uninterrupted hours.' Kimberly Belle and Abbott Kahler both offered specific, enthusiastic praise, with Kahler comparing the book's energy to Thomas Harris and Stieg Larsson while noting it is 'completely its own thing.' The one practical caveat: readers who weigh the resolution as heavily as the setup should note that at least some readers found the characters and ending disappointing relative to the strength of the premise.
- Similar books
- Readers drawn to Tell Me What You Did's true-crime-meets-thriller DNA and morally compromised protagonists will find strong company in the curated selection below. Lisa Jewell's None of This Is True plays similarly on the dangers lurking inside the true-crime podcast world, with an unreliable-narrator structure that rewards the same kind of suspicious reading. Laura Dave's The Last Thing He Told Me delivers comparable propulsive pacing and a female protagonist uncovering life-threatening secrets under extreme pressure. Also on the shelf are Carter Wilson's own Mister Tender's Girl and The Dead Husband, which showcase the author's range with dark, compulsive premises, alongside Denise Mina's Conviction and Kathleen Barber's Are You Sleeping, both of which weaponise the true-crime podcast format in ways that feel structurally essential rather than decorative.
- Who should read this?
- Tell Me What You Did is squarely aimed at thriller readers who already consume true-crime podcasts and will register the genre's conventions as deliberately subverted rather than simply employed. It rewards readers who enjoy moral ambiguity in their protagonists — Poe is simultaneously a true-crime media personality, a victim of violent crime, and a killer — and plots that hinge on the specific threat of public exposure rather than physical pursuit alone. Readers who prize velocity over interiority, and who can accept a resolution that may not fully match the premise's ambition, are the ideal fit.
- About Carter Wilson
- Carter Wilson is an American novelist, essayist, and short-fiction writer based in Erie, Colorado.
- How morally complex is the protagonist?
- Poe Webb occupies an unusually layered moral position: she is a true-crime podcaster who has built a career extracting confessions from criminals, a victim whose mother Margaret McMillian was stabbed fourteen times, and — crucially — a killer who tracked down Leopold Hutchins and murdered him seven years before the novel opens. The novel's tension depends entirely on that layered identity, and blurb writers noted that Wilson crafts 'a protagonist to root for even when you think you shouldn't.' The review notes this moral complexity is structural and intentional, not incidental.
- How does the true-crime angle work?
- The true-crime podcast format is not decorative backdrop but the novel's structural engine. Poe Webb's show — also called Tell Me What You Did — is built on the dynamic of on-air confession, and the entire threat mechanism depends on the coercive power of that live, public format. The man calling himself Ian Hindley doesn't threaten Poe with physical violence as the primary weapon; he threatens her with forced confession on the very platform she controls. Wilson fuses this with the wider true-crime cultural moment — a fixture of the past decade — in a way that feels purposeful rather than trend-chasing.
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Our Review
What the Novel Is About
Significance and Standing
Strengths: Premise, Pace, and Craft
Limitations: Characters and Resolution
Who This Book Is For
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- Cited in this review
- 1
- 2
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heididischler.com
- Further reading
- 5
Carter Wilson, Wikipedia
- 6
kirkusreviews.com
- 7
carterwilson.com
- 8
everand.com
- 9
- 10
roomofonesown.com
Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Ages 16+
Reading level
Adult
Tropes
From how readers and romance sites describe it, not our own reading.
3 content notes · who it suits
Content to know about
Best for: Adults / mature 16+ — revenge killing, coercion, and a protagonist who is herself a murderer make this unsuitable for younger readers.
Skip if you prefer slow-burn, character-driven psychological realism over relentless plot-forward pacing.
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