ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Based on a True Story by Sarah Vaughan

Posted on 24th March 2026 By Nicola

Based on a True Story by Sarah Vaughan will be published by Simon & Schuster on 26th March 2026. My thanks to the publishers for the proof copy.

A lavish 70th birthday party. A body found on a storm-lashed beach. And a secret that someone is dying to tell…

Famed children’s author Dame Eleanor Kingman has summoned her family and friends to her exquisite manor house on the cliffs. They’re celebrating her birthday – and her latest number one bestseller in her series of books based on a mother fox and her cubs.

But the night before the party, Eleanor receives an email: an email that threatens to expose the lie she’s kept up for over half a century.

Someone knows her secret. Is it her estranged literary agent? Is it her ex-husband, to whom she no longer speaks? Is it the nanny she fired all those years ago, who always did have a knack for storytelling? Or is it one of her three daughters, all of whom have a stake in the publishing empire she has built…

With a TV crew arriving to film a documentary of her life, Eleanor needs to find out who sent the email – and preserve her multimillion-pound career.

But when push comes to shove, and it’s time to tell the truth – will anyone actually believe her?

Dame Eleanor Kingman is about to turn 70 and will celebrate with a lavish party at her new Cornish home. Eleanor is a popular children’s author and as well as her family and friends, the party will be attended by a team who are making a documentary about her which is threatening to turn into more of an exposé, as Eleanor has a secret, one which somebody seems determined to reveal. Eleanor’s not the only one with a secret though. Her three daughters are all hiding something too.

This is a book packed full of secrets and lies. It’s told from various viewpoints which helps to build up the story as a whole and if there aren’t any particularly likeable characters (with the exception perhaps of Eleanor’s daughter, Gilly, who has something of an awakening – go Gilly!) they are definitely interesting and multi-layered. I thought the windswept setting by the Cornish cliffs was ideal and depicted perfectly to give the impression of somewhere isolated yet accessible via cliff paths, offering ways onto Eleanor’s estate for guests who might not be quite welcome.

The premise of Based on a True Story grabbed me the moment I heard about it. The intrigue I was expecting never fully materialised though, which I felt was because there was rather more telling than showing. I was still compelled to keep reading to find out what the big reveals were going to be and I do love Sarah Vaughan’s writing (a new book by her is always something to celebrate for me). Overall, this is a good twisty read about a dysfunctional and complicated family.

Sarah Vaughan read English at Oxford and spent eleven years at the Guardian as a news reporter and political correspondent, before leaving to write fiction. Her first two novels were followed by her first psychological thriller, Anatomy of a Scandal: a Sunday Times top five bestseller, Richard & Judy pick of the decade, and global number one Netflix adaptation. Her fourth novel, Little Disasters, was a Waterstones thriller of the month and developed as a number one Paramount Plus show. Her fifth novel, Reputation, was a Sunday Times thriller of the month and is currently in development by the team who made Anatomy of a Scandal. Based on a True Story is her sixth novel. A million-copy international bestselling author, her books have been published in twenty-seven countries.