"Listen for the Lie" by Amy Tintera
Published by Celadon Books, March 5, 2024
Genre: Fiction Thriller
Format: Started paperback, changed to audiobook. Def audiobook this one.
Stephen King calls this one a "world-class whodunit" and that along with the 56,000 reviews and 4.5 average stars on Amazon is all you really need to know, but I'll throw in my few cents. You know that feeling when you’ve been riding a roller coaster, full of obvious twists and long dips? This book isn't that. The twists aren't cheap.
Amy Tintera has given us a mystery that unfolds like reality. The interjection of the podcast episodes makes the story smoother. The reveals are placed with intention. There’s still tension, still the itch to know the truth, but the book lets you breathe between questions.
Lucy returns to her Texas hometown for her grandmother’s birthday. Small towns never forget, and Lucy’s particular claim to local fame is… less than enviable. Years earlier, her best friend was murdered, and Lucy was the prime suspect. She remembers nothing of that night, but the small town has none of the same amnesia.
Enter a true-crime podcaster, ready to turn the unsolved case into content. He wants to know the truth. So does Lucy. And if she’s honest with herself, she’s not entirely sure she didn’t do it.
Listen for the Lie is unpredictable.
There’s a place for jolting, formulaic mystery/thrillers. I've read a few of those for book club, too. Some days you want your pulse pounding and your jaw dropping every chapter. Other days you want to sink into a voice that trusts you to sit with the characters, to catch the way a memory changes when it’s told twice.
In small towns, you’re always performing. For neighbors. For family. For strangers in the grocery store who still remember what you wore to the funeral. The podcast makes that performance literal. And it asks the same question mystery novels always ask: when you tell a story, are you remembering the truth, or creating one?
Lovely Bit
“I am not responsible for the fake version of me you created in your head.”
If you're a thriller fan who likes quality writing like Gone Girl or The Patient, you'll probably like this one.
Here's a book club guide for Listen for the Lie if you want to use it for your own book club.
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