The Less People Know About Us by Axton Betz-Hamilton

The Less People Know About Us

by Axton Betz-Hamilton

The Less People Know About Us is a really compelling true crime story without any violence or murder. I read it in one sitting and I think people who are potentially interested in true crime but are leery of the violent content will really enjoy this.

When the author was a child, her parents’ identities were stolen, resulting in non-stop collections calls and financial despair. This all happened before the internet, so her parents assumed the thief had to be someone they knew in order to get access to their information. They became paranoid and isolated, instructing the author to always leave the curtains drawn and to never let a stranger in.

While I didn’t have the same childhood issues the author did, I related to her in a lot of ways. She grew up in a rural community where your reputation meant as much to your financial prospects as your credit score. In one episode her dad has their gas turned back on just because he knows the gasman and isn’t the type of person to have unpaid bills.

I also understand the isolation that comes with having parents who are working through difficulties and not being able to have friends over or enjoy the normal social life of a preteen. In my case it was related to my parents being addicts, but I remember the fear and shame that someone would come over and I couldn’t let them in. Like the author I also spent a lot of isolated time reading and bonding with my cat.

Even though there’s no violent crime, the author and her family are victims of something terrible, and her adulthood quest to find out who did this to them is incredibly compelling. This book is paced like a true-crime thriller on the hunt for a murderer, and as a reader I rooted for her to get some kind of vindication after a lifetime of suffering in childhood poverty.

If you want a quick, thrilling read without violence but with high stakes, I really recommend picking this up.

– Elyse

In this powerful and “engrossing” memoir, identity theft expert Axton Betz-Hamilton tells the shocking story of how her family was destroyed by the actions of an anonymous criminal (The New York Times).

When Axton Betz-Hamilton was 11 years old, her parents both had their identities stolen. This was before the age of the Internet—authorities and banks were clueless and reluctant to help Axton’s parents.

Convinced that the thief had to be someone they knew, Axton and her parents completely cut off the outside world. As a result, Axton spent her formative years crippled by anxiety, quarantined behind the closed curtains in her childhood home. Years later, Axton discovered that she, too, had fallen prey to the identity thief.

The Less People Know About Us is a cautionary tale, but not one without hope as Axton looks back on the dysfunctional childhood that led to her desire to help this from happening to others.

Someone you know wants to read this, right?

Nonfiction