I picked up Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera 3 days ago. At first, I was skeptical of the layout of the novel. Some chapters are in Lucy’s (the main character and coincidentally the woman everyone thinks murdered her best friend) point of view and other chapters are in a script format of transcripts of the podcast episodes that are releasing in real time. Later in the book there are also flashback chapters. I have been disappointed with layouts like this in the past. The books that try to be too modern by using social media posts or captions imbedded in their narrative have a tendency to pull me out of the story.

I have never been so incredibly glad to be wrong. This book hooked me from the very beginning with almost no context. The opening chapter was strong and gave immediate insight into Lucy’s state of mind. She’s picking out a chicken recipe to make while waiting to be fired as an apology to her boyfriend because the whole world now knows she’s suspected of murdering her best friend. Listen for the Lie is the title of the podcast by Ben Owens. It had one successful season where he solved a cold case and now he’s decided to try to solve the murder of Savannah, or Savvy, Lucy’s best friend. It happened five years ago and no one has ever been arrested or seriously questioned. Ben arrives in Lucy’s hometown of Plumpton, Texas and starts interviewing everyone he possibly can. Lucy wants nothing to do with it, but when her grandmother calls her up and begs her to be there for her birthday party, how can Lucy say no? Her entire life is falling apart anyways, can it get any worse from Texas? It’s certainly better than waiting for her L.A. boyfriend to grow the balls to break up with her and kick her out of the house they share.

I couldn’t put this book down! I read it in record time and have to say that the last half of the book had me neglecting chores, social engagements, and work. I wanted to do nothing but bury my nose into Listen for the Lie to figure out if Lucy really did kill her best friend.

The magic of this entire book is Lucy has no memory of what happened that fateful night so she is listening to the podcast and finding out things she never knew about that night and the people in her life. I love a good unreliable narrator and we get insight into Lucy’s thoughts while the rest of the town only gets what she says out loud, which isn’t much. Ben, the podcaster, is a clever, enigmatic character with charm and wit that carries the story against Lucy’s blunt, no-nonsense personality. The back and forth throughout the story is truly what kept me going.

I highly recommend this book and rate it 5 out of 5 stars. What a great start to my 2025 reading list. This is book 3 of 50 I’m hoping to read this year. I cannot wait to meet up with my book club and talk about all the riveting details I can’t share with you! No spoilers here! Keep an eye out for my reviews of the other books I’ve read so far this year. Happy reading!