DEATH BECOMES HER

Rebecca Makkai confronts our true-crime obsession.

- KATY WALDMAN

In her new novel, Makkai models a fresh, more ethical vision of crime writing. 

Maybe it was only a matter of time before the novel took on the podcast. You can barely crack the Times without encountering a heady profile of some hot new podcaster; when critics consider how stories are told—or even just use that language, how stories are told—they are as likely to be discussing podcasts as books. These same critics may belabor themes (the fugitive nature of truth, the slipperiness of memory) popularized by shows such as “Serial,” the 2014 blockbuster, narrated by Sarah Koenig, that investigated the killing of a Maryland girl. The series electrified group chats, provided rich loam for conspiracy theories, and turned hordes of millennials into experts on cell towers. Crucially, it also regarded its own genre, true crime, with ambivalence, wearing its nuance like a finely tailored trenchcoat. By melding suspense and self-awareness, it brought podcasts into a space previously reserved for literature. Eventually, it follows, literature was going to notice.