Publication Date: March 5, 2024
#ListenfortheLie #NetGalley

The debut adult novel (she typically writes YA) from Amy Tintera is simply in a word engaging! I'm not typically a lover of the thriller genre but this book kept me up to the wee hours of the morning.

I was reeled in from the first line "A podcaster has decided to ruin my life, so I'm buying a chicken".
With a start like that you'd be expecting a funny book but this book deals with domestic violence, toxic relationships and dysfunctional families. Lucy, the main female character is the unreliable narrator, who hears voices telling her to kill people. It becomes clearer whose voice she's hearing as you get deeper into the story. Lucy can't remember what happened 5 years ago when she was found wandering around covered in her best friend's blood. She was never charged with Savvy's murder, but most of the people in the small town of Plumpton, including her parents and ex-husband were and still are convinced she's guilty.
Ben, who has a very successful true crime podcast, comes to town to try to figure out what happened. Unbeknownst to Lucy, her kick-ass grandmother Beverly has orchestrated the whole thing because she's never believed Lucy was the murderer. Lucy agrees to help Ben but only because her grandmother has asked her to.
There are many twists and turns and a lot of suspects, but the journey to get to the truth was never boring. I really enjoyed this book despite the subject matter.
This is a true "me too" movement book and a lot of good points are made about how a woman's version of the truth is completely dismissed in favour of the man's version.
A quote from the book "Men always believe each other".
5* + read and I'll be looking for more adult novels from this author.

Thank you to Celadon Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.