On Monday it might be a mysterious poisoning in Miami, while she’s getting ready for work. Tuesday’s commute brings an update on the woman who vanished in the centre of Edinburgh. By Friday afternoon, she’s tangled in the twisted web of half-truths and omissions with links to several cold cases. This is an average week for Billie Norman, 32, who’s rarely seen without her earphones in and a thoughtful look playing across her brow. “Nothing scratches an itch in my brain like an investigative podcast, so I’ve almost always got one on the go,” she says. “It’s not just the twists and turns, it’s the fact that I’m fully immersed, finding out new clues at the same time as the reporters. It’s like being inside the story.”
It was West Cork that first converted Norman into a true crime devotee, the Audible Original following the real-life hunt for the murderer of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, whose body was found days before Christmas 1996 in the Irish countryside. “I remember the feeling so vividly; I was thinking about it at work, trying to put two and two together, wondering about the mindset of the prime suspect and the feelings of Sophie’s family. I’m pretty sure I missed my train stop a few times when I was listening and, while I’m not proud of this, I did flake on a friend’s birthday so I could finish it. I was just so invested. You grow to care about the characters so much that it feels personal.”
