Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera — My Review (Spoilers)

Loved this more than I thought I would…

I’m not a thriller fan by any means. In fact, I usually stick to romance, but I guess I needed a change of pace. Actually, I think it’s because it was a Book of the Month selection and it was the most interesting sounding one. If not for that, I might’ve missed out on this one.

The opening line is what hooked me.

“A podcaster has decided to ruin my life, so I’m buying a chicken.”

I mean, who wouldn’t be curious after reading that? What does one have to do with the other?

Anyway, I got to reading and found out fairly quickly.

I’ll let you find the correlation on your own.

This book was a lot more interesting than I expected.

It starts off with main character, Lucy, getting fired from her job because she’s been accused of murdering her best friend, Savvy (Savannah Harper).

Her whole hometown of Plumpton, Texas is sure she’s the one who did it. (Even her mom and dad aren’t convinced she didn’t do it.)

Several witnesses saw the two women fighting at a wedding they both attended the night of the murder.

Lucy was found wandering disoriented on a dark road after Savvy was found dead. Police initially assumed someone had attacked both women, but it wasn’t clear from the evidence (especially since most of it got washed away in the rainstorm that followed the murder).

Without enough evidence, the police decided not to arrest Lucy. Since she’s suffered a head injury, she can’t remember anything from the night of the murder (which most people seem to think is pretty convenient).

The story follows Lucy as she finds out about the podcast, called Listen for the Lie, hosted by Ben Owens, a former journalist with his own true crime podcast.

Since the death of Savvy, Lucy’s been hearing a voice in her head that keeps telling her to kill people, which she ignores against the wishes of her therapist.

Eventually, we find out that the voice belongs to Savvy.

And as the story progresses, we get little bits and pieces of the story that help to frame the whole night of the murder. And suggestions from Savvy to kill people through Lucy’s thoughts, which initially was a little weird for me, but then I got used to it and I actually think it makes the story more interesting. (I kept picturing how it would play out on the big screen as a movie.)

Through the podcast, we learn that Lucy’s mom had an affair with Savvy’s boyfriend, Colin Dunn. (Apparently, they had an open relationship…)

We learn about Lucy’s personality in high school — how she refused to take shit from people. And stood up for the voiceless.

Despite what most people’s perception of her was.

Little by little, the full picture of what happened begins to take shape. And Lucy begins to remember things.

Lucy’s grandmother invites Ben to her birthday party — the whole reason Lucy’s back in her hometown of Plumpton, rather than back in L.A. with her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, Nathan, who’s also pretty sure Lucy killed Savvy, yet keeps his opinion to himself (for now).

This alarms the rest of the party guests (and initially, Lucy herself). But that doesn’t stop her quirky grandmother from keeping him on the guest list and promising Ben that he can get Lucy to do an interview with him.

Lucy’s Dad seems to be hiding something, or helping her hide something, making us think he knows more than he’s letting on.

Her mom keeps saying she just wants the truth to come out, but it’s pretty clear to Lucy that her mom might think she did it.

The story goes on to reveal small details chapter by chapter.

There’s even a romance subplot that I kind of saw coming, but it was still fun to read.

It’s wrapped up nicely and the killer is revealed.

Overall, this book gets ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me.

I loved the writing and how the story unfolded. This one’s a page turner.

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