Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera. Thriller/crime.

Synopsis

What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn’t matter?

After Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer. Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all, and if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life.

But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast “Listen for the Lie,” and its too-good looking host Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one that did it.

Audiobook review

5 stars

First of all, this will be odd but if you have listened to the book and listened to other “true crime books” with podcasts like “None of this is true” or other recent books, do you recognize the intro sound for the podcast? It drove me mad each time I listened to that music before the podcast episode started as I am certain that sound has been used in another crime book I have listened to!!!!

Sorry for that odd introduction in this review!

As the synopsis states, the crux of the story is to discover if Lucy has killed her best friend Savvy or not six years ago.

Lucy had been discovered walking, concussed and covered in Savvy’s blood. Savvy was dead and wore the imprint of Lucy’s fingers on her arm. With no memories to boot, Lucy didn’t know what had happened. And when even her husband and parents believed her guilty, she had moved from her hometown.

Now she is forced to come back for he grandma’s birthday. But at the same time, a star podcaster, Ben , has decided to focus his podcast on Savvy’s murder and is determined to uncover the truth.

Listen for the Lie was a gripping story with the epitome of unreliable narrator because Lucy doesn’t remember anything from the night her friend Savvy was killed!

Lucy should have been hard to like or love, being abrasive and probably a murderer but Amy Tintera built a complex character, fighting with her own demons and yet, wanting to do Savvy’s justice even if it was to discover that Lucy herself had killed her best friend.

I never could decide if Lucy was innocent or not as she kept hearing a voice in her head screaming “Let’s kill!”. One of her “pastimes” being to  imagine all the ways she could kill the person she is speaking to (she is very creative using a lamp, a pillow, scissors, her hands etc).

I tried to pierce the mystery aided by Ben’s interviews. It seems everyone in that Texas town has something to say about Savvy (she was a golden child) and Lucy (she had a temper and she didn’t deserve her husband nor her friend).

This was an astute “guessing game” that kept me on my toes till nearly the end when I finally guessed the truth! But by that time it was nearly the end so, bravo Mrs Tintera you did an excellent job!

The narrators were excellent with January Lavoy and Will Damron, both seasoned narrators.

Thanks for reading.

Sophie