Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

January 6, 2024

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

Lucy and Savannah were best friends, until the night that Savvy is murdered, and Lucy is found wandering the streets covered in Savvy's blood. Because of a severe head injury, Lucy has no memory of what happened, so her friends and family immediately suspect that Lucy killed Savvy. She relocates to Los Angeles and starts a new life, until a popular podcast called "Listen for the Lie" announces that their next season will investigate Savvy's murder.

So many lies here. There is a lot going on: we have an unreliable narrator who has no recollection of events due to a head injury; the small town of Plumpton, TX, is a twisty little place, with everyone focused on projecting the image that life is perfect, when in reality, everyone is having an affair with everyone else; a couple of men that everyone loves are actually very violent and abuse their partners regularly. I hated Lucy's parents for automatically believing the story that Lucy's lying husband was telling - they also did not see that Lucy received proper care for her injuries (my mother would have been the same way, more concerned what the neighbors and the people at church would think, and telling me not to make a fuss). As one of the characters notes, people always prefer to believe a man's version of events. Grrrrrrrrr. This is a good mystery with well-developed characters - not sure it was necessary to toss in all the adultery and domestic abuse.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

A small town in Texas - don't be fooled by the polite, perfect surface appearance