The Truth is Out There, If We Just Listen
You know that feeling when you’re binge-listening to a true crime podcast, totally hooked on every twist and turn, and suddenly realize it’s 3 AM and you have work in the morning? Yeah, that’s pretty much the experience of reading Amy Tintera’s adult thriller debut, Listen for the Lie. This gripping novel plunges readers into a small Texas town where golden girls, dark secrets, and a hit true crime podcast collide in spectacular fashion.
Tintera, known for her young adult fantasy series like Ruined and Reboot, proves she can craft a compulsively readable adult thriller with just as much skill. Listen for the Lie keeps you guessing until the very end, peeling back layers of lies and half-truths as protagonist Lucy Chase reluctantly returns to her hometown to confront the night that changed everything. Did she really murder her best friend Savvy in a drunken rage? Or is there more to the story than anyone – including Lucy herself – remembers?
A Second Chance at the Truth
Five years ago, Lucy Chase was found wandering the streets of Plumpton, Texas, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood. With no memory of what happened and circumstantial evidence pointing to her guilt, Lucy fled to Los Angeles, leaving behind a ruined marriage and a town convinced of her murderous nature.
Now, true crime podcast superstar Ben Owens has set his sights on Savvy’s unsolved murder for his show’s second season. Lucy finds herself drawn back to Plumpton, forced to confront the night she can’t remember and the townsfolk who still believe the worst of her. As Ben digs deeper, interviewing old friends and foes alike, Lucy realizes she may be the key to unlocking what really happened that fateful night—if only she can trust her own fractured memories.
Small Town, Big Secrets
Tintera excels at bringing the claustrophobic atmosphere of small-town Texas to life. Plumpton feels like a character in its own right, with its gossipy citizens, long-held grudges, and secrets festering beneath a veneer of Southern hospitality. The author’s own Texas roots shine through in details like:
“Mom missed her calling as a wedding planner. She would have been so good at projecting a happy image for one day.”
As Lucy reconnects with figures from her past—her disapproving parents, her ex-husband Matt, her grandmother who’s always believed in her innocence—the web of lies and half-truths surrounding Savvy’s death begins to unravel. Tintera keeps readers on their toes, doling out revelations and red herrings with expert pacing. Just when you think you’ve figured it out, another bombshell drops that sends your theories spiraling.
The Podcast Twist
One of the novel’s most compelling elements is its use of podcast transcripts interspersed throughout the narrative. These snippets from Ben’s show “Listen for the Lie” offer tantalizing clues and conflicting accounts that add depth to the central mystery. It’s a clever device that mirrors the current true crime podcast craze while allowing Tintera to play with unreliable narrators and shifting perspectives.
The growing relationship between Lucy and Ben adds another layer of intrigue. As the two grow closer, lines blur between professional and personal, objective and subjective. Ben’s motives become increasingly murky—is he truly after the truth, or just chasing ratings? Lucy grapples with whether to trust him, all while confronting her own spotty memories of that night. Their dynamic crackles with tension, both sexual and otherwise.
Unreliable Memories and Shifting Truths
At its core, Listen for the Lie is an exploration of memory, trauma, and how the stories we tell ourselves shape our reality. Lucy’s amnesia surrounding the night of Savvy’s death isn’t just a convenient plot device – it’s a profound meditation on how we process traumatic events and the malleability of memory itself.
As Lucy’s recollections slowly return in disjointed fragments, Tintera keeps readers guessing about what’s real and what might be false memories created to fill in the gaps. The author deftly plays with this uncertainty, weaving a tale where truth and lies intertwine until it’s nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction.
A Cast of Suspects
While Lucy remains at the center, Tintera populates Plumpton with a colorful cast of potential suspects and unreliable narrators. There’s Matt, Lucy’s ex-husband, who may know more than he’s letting on. Nina, Lucy’s high school best friend turned frenemy. Emmett, the nice guy with a longtime crush on Lucy who might not be so nice after all. And of course, there’s Savvy herself—the vivacious, complicated victim whose own secrets may have led to her demise.
Each character is drawn with nuance and depth, their motivations murky and ever-shifting as new information comes to light. Tintera excels at creating morally gray characters who feel frustratingly, achingly human in their flaws and contradictions. As Lucy observes:
“I wonder whether by ‘do better’ he meant that he was going to stop smacking me around, or whether he was going to stop sleeping with other women. He wasn’t going to stop doing either, no matter how many times he claimed he was trying to be better.”
Digging Up the Past
As Lucy delves deeper into her own fractured memories and the town’s long-buried secrets, the tension ratchets up to nearly unbearable levels. Tintera masterfully builds suspense, each new revelation raising the stakes until the shocking final act. The climactic confrontation had me white-knuckling my Kindle, heart pounding as Lucy finally comes face-to-face with the truth about that night.
While the conclusion may not satisfy readers looking for neat, tidy resolutions, it feels true to the messy, complicated nature of real life. Tintera resists the urge to tie everything up with a bow, instead leaving just enough ambiguity to keep you pondering long after the final page.
A Fresh Take on the Unreliable Narrator
In a genre awash with unreliable narrators, Tintera manages to put a fresh spin on the trope. Lucy’s amnesia feels earned rather than contrived, and her struggle to trust her own recollections adds layers of psychological depth to the central mystery. The author deftly plays with the malleability of memory, exploring how trauma can warp our perceptions of past events.
As Lucy’s memories slowly return in disjointed fragments, readers are kept guessing about what’s real and what might be false memories created to fill in the gaps. It’s a clever device that keeps you questioning everything right up until the very end.
Final Verdict: A Binge-Worthy Thriller That Will Keep You Up All Night
Listen for the Lie is a knockout adult debut from Amy Tintera, proving she’s just as adept at crafting twisty thrillers as she is at young adult fantasy. With its podcast framing device, complicated female friendships, and exploration of trauma and memory, it feels tailor-made for fans of podcasts like Serial and books like Sadie by Courtney Summers.
Tintera’s prose is sharp and propulsive, with moments of dark humor punctuating the suspense. She has a knack for creating complex, flawed characters you can’t help but root for, even when they’re making questionable choices. Lucy, in particular, is a compelling protagonist—prickly and damaged, yet resilient and determined to uncover the truth no matter the cost.
While some of the twists may be predictable for seasoned thriller readers, Tintera throws in enough curveballs to keep you guessing until the very end. The podcast framing device adds a unique layer to the narrative, allowing the author to play with multiple perspectives and unreliable narrators in clever ways.
If you’re looking for a compulsively readable thriller that will have you up way past your bedtime, Look for the Lie delivers in spades. Just don’t blame me when you’re bleary-eyed at work the next day, unable to stop theorizing about what really happened that night in Plumpton, Texas.
For Fans Of:
- Sadie by Courtney Summers
- The Night Swim by Megan Goldin
- I’ll Be You by Janelle Brown
- True crime podcasts like Serial and Up and Vanished
