Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (18+)

To her horror, Lucy Chase is unexpectedly propelled to fame in Los Angeles, the celebrity hub of the world. For most, overnight promotion to stop-and-stare status in this sunny city would be considered a success, yet this development forces Lucy to face the painful truth (or lack thereof) that she’s been running away from for years…

Perhaps infamous is a better way to describe her situation: Lucy’s newfound notoriety in the press is not attributed to her many popular romance novels she’s secretly published under her pen name, but because up-and-coming true crime podcaster, Ben Owens, is brandishing the story of how she allegedly murdered her best friend in her small hometown of Plumpton, Texas, five years ago for his highly anticipated second season.

The Listen for the Lie podcast with Ben Owens digs up unsolved murders of women and girls across the United States and has an excellent track record of uncovering the cold-blooded killers.

Lucy, although widely accused of murdering the loveable Savannah (Savvy) Harper, has always maintained the same account of what happened that fateful night: nothing, as she seemingly has no memory of how Savvy was brutally murdered, or how she was found wandering the woods covered in her best friend’s blood soon after.

When Ben Owens brings this unsolved murder case back into the spotlight, Lucy is unceremoniously fired from her job and (kind of) dumped by her non-confrontational live-in boyfriend.

With no job or lease keeping her in Los Angeles, Lucy’s firecracker of a grandmother – Beverly – urges her to return to Plumpton for the first time in five years to attend her 80th birthday bash. Throwing caution to the wind, Lucy decides to return to the scene of her (maybe) crime and fulfil her grandmother’s uncharacteristic request.

Initially, I picked up Listen for the Lie as a spontaneous true crime read, but I stayed for the emotional complexity that is woven into Lucy’s story, especially as she so directly confronts her past upon returning to her hometown.

Tintera delves into Lucy as a human: unapologetically sarcastic (which can definitely bleed into caustic at times, but in the most surprisingly funny way) and blunt, tangled in the emotional web that come with the trauma of her best friend’s murder, the self-blame associated with not being able to remember how it happened, and the guilt of potentially being the one responsible.

Given this intense pressure, her close relationship with her grandmother is a well received relief, as Beverly is the only person who has ever believed in Lucy’s core moral character: that she wasn’t the culprit.

The mixed media format is a clever delivery for this suspenseful story: the narration alternates between Lucy’s first-person perspective and episodes of Ben’s podcast itself! For this reason, I’d equally recommend audiobooking Listen for the Lie, as listening to the podcast-styled chapters can feel like you’re listening to the real-life interviews and ever-evolving uncoverings of an undiscovered killer (if you’re into that)!

Furthermore, Lucy’s point-of-view in this dual narrative is often unreliable due to the amnesia element, and the reader is always adjusting expectations of who to trust as we play the page-turner guessing game of who committed the crime.

Ben’s interviews with various townspeople give insight into details related to Lucy’s past that she might not have been as forthcoming with in her own narrative; I found the experience of slowly building a profile for who Lucy is (and was…) to add to the mystique of who our main character truly is at heart. We also get a front-row seat of how her relationships with her family, the other townspeople, and Ben develop throughout this 350-page novel.

The constant process of unpicking and untangling the complicated and twisted series of events that led to Savvy’s bloody murder five years ago will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat.

As someone that was quite surprised at the ending, I’ll confirm that the real series of events that killed Savvy is not cliché or predictable from the jump at all – happy sleuthing! Most of the fun of reading true crime is going into the novel blind without spoilers, so I’d advise maintaining this element of surprise for maximum enjoyment!

• On a final note, I would also like to hear your thoughts on my column; for any comments on Listen for the Lie, or simply to give me a book recommendation of whatever you’re reading at the moment. Contact me at bookspacebda@gmail.com to tell me all about it. I’m always looking to review books from a variety of genres and authorial backgrounds, so all recommendations are appreciated