Listen
for the Lie, by Amy Tintera.
Lucy Chase is sent an airline ticket by her Grandmother to return to Plumpton, Texas, for Gran’s 80th birthday celebrations and, though she loves her Grandmother more than anybody, she really doesn’t want to return to a place where she may have murdered Savannah, her very best friend five years before, and where she had to leave because the lack of evidence to convict her did not lessen the gossip and speculation.
A new life in Los Angeles has earned only temporary
respite, for a new Podcast series ‘Listen for the Lie’ has started, and one of
the cold cases it wishes to explore is Lucy’s very own and, despite her
continued rebuffs of Podcaster Ben Owens, he has generated so much advance
publicity raking over all the old coals that she loses her job – and her
boyfriend, whose loss isn’t so bad, except that she will have to find another
place to live and another job. So!
Might as well bite the bullet and go back to help Gran celebrate.
Except that Ben Owens has turned up in that small Texas
town too, and everyone is happy to talk to him – except Lucy: why should she help him make money out of an
event of which she can remember nothing?
For Lucy was found wandering along a road, semi-conscious, concussed and
covered with her friend’s blood: despite
various mysterious and damning circumstances, she can remember nothing and,
despite her longing to know what really happened, the thought that she may have
killed her dearest friend is too horrifying to think about. So she won’t, so there! It’s a shame that no-one else feels like that,
though – even her parents don’t believe that she could be innocent, and her
ex-husband (another big Lucy mistake) has completely different memories of
Savannah’s last night of life. What really happened when Lucy and Savannah
left the wedding celebrations to which they were invited? Lucy can’t face it. But if she didn’t kill Savannah, who did?
Amy Tintera has previously written for Young Adults; this is her first adult novel, and she has
given us unforgettable, cranky, smart-mouth Lucy as narrator – the first big
plus. The second is a clever plot that
unfolds logically and credibly, and the third:
a cover blurb by Stephen King and Liane Moriarty! Those two really know what’s good, and they
are absolutely right: this is a FIVE STAR read.
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