the persistence of amnesia

Lucy Chase is not living her best life. She’s in L.A., and she just got fired from the job she didn’t like much anyway, and her boyfriend is going to break up with her when he gets up the courage, so she’s also about to be homeless. She hasn’t made many friends, or really any friends, in California, and she certainly can’t go back to Texas. Especially now, with the podcaster digging around in her past.

But her grandmother’s birthday is coming up, and she is insisting that Lucy come back to the small town in Texas where she grew up and help plan and execute the party. Her grandmother refuses to take no for an answer. And really, only her grandmother could get her back to town.

Lucy wants to stay in a hotel, but her parents insist she stay with them. It’s tense in the house, and Lucy is uncomfortable there, but she needs to save her money now that she’s out of work and needing to find a new apartment. Her grandmother asks Luc to pick up dinner from the local diner for them to eat at her place, and Lucy does, because it’s her grandmother. And that’s where she finally meets Ben.

Ben had been emailing her for a few months, trying to get her side of the story. Five years ago, after the wedding of a mutual friend, Lucy had been found wandering around covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood and saying she couldn’t remember anything that had happened that evening. Savvy was dead, her arms scratched and Lucy’s skin under her fingernails. Everyone in town thought that Lucy had killed her. There wasn’t enough evidence for an arrest, and eventually Lucy moved away and hadn’t been back. Until her grandmother insisted.

When Lucy first met Ben, he was just sitting in a booth at the diner. But she knew immediately who he was and what he was doing there. He was the guy from the popular Listen for the Lie podcast. He was known for taking on unsolved cold cases, and during his first season, he was able to solve the case and bring justice after years of nothing from the police. Now he’s turned his attention to Savvy’s murder, and he was wanting to get an interview with Lucy.

Lucy doesn’t want to talk to him, and she doesn’t feel like she has much to add to the conversation. In the last five years, she had not recovered her memory of that night. She had suffered a bad head injury too, and that plus the trauma she faced had made her forget anything from that night. Ben is not convinced that she had killed Savvy, but it was an unpopular opinion. Most everyone else in town thought she had done it, including her parents and her ex-husband. But as Ben goes around town and gets interviews with those who knew Savvy and Lucy, he starts to find some new information. Alibis are questioned. New facts are revealed about Lucy’s life when she was younger.

But Lucy still can’t remember what happened. And she keeps making bad choices. Being back in Texas, having all this stirred up again, makes her hear voices again. Or rather, one voice, that keeps telling her to kill people. Now that she’s back home again, will Lucy finally be able to remember what happened that night, or will she figure out that she really is the villain in the story of Savvy’s death?

Listen for the Lie is a slow burn thriller about a cold case that has haunted a small town for five years. It’s author Amy Tintera’s first adult novel, and it starts strong right from page one. Lucy’s story is interrupted with short chapters of the podcast transcript as Ben finishes them and releases them into the world. This story is compelling, and as the podcast goes on and Ben uncovers more information about the night in question, the secrets start breaking open quickly, and the race to the real truth is on.

I loved Listen for the Lie. I thought that the character of Lucy was brilliantly written, with her sarcasm hiding the sins of those around her and her emotional armor in place to help protect her from those who say they care about her. As her story unfolded, I could not put this book down. I liked the podcast storyline, and I thought it added not just a compelling reason for Lucy to go back home and face what she’d been avoiding all those years, but a perfect way to reveal pieces of the small town that didn’t fit the pristine image. If you love a true crime podcast and find yourself in need of a strong thriller for a day at the beach or a plane ride, then this may be just what you’ve been looking for.

Egalleys for Listen for the Lie were provided by Celadon Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.