Listen for the Lie

its.brittanyb
May 24
9 min read

“People don’t believe women who fight back. When a man lashes out, people say he’s lost control of his temper or made a terrible mistake. When a woman does it, she’s a psychopath.”

REVIEW

Would I read this again? Yes No Maybe

Spice Level Legend How spicy is this book?

Tropes	Trigger Warnings
Amnesia	Physical assault, Emotional assault, Verbal assault, Gaslighting, Trauma, Murder

SUMMARY

At first when Lucy is found walking down the road, covered in blood, with no memory of what happened, everyone is worried. The night before she had been at a wedding with her husband Matt, her best friend Savvy, and Savvy’s boyfriend Colin. Savvy had been found earlier that morning, in the woods close to the wedding venue, dead. Lucy was taken to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (that was causing the lack of memory of the previous night) and the blood all over her was Savvy’s. Savvy also had scratches on her arms and Lucy had her skin under her fingernails. Everyone assumes Lucy killed Savvy but the police don’t really have any evidence, or murder weapon, to press charges. Lucy maintains her innocence and says she doesn’t know what happened but she knows she would never have hurt Savvy. Unfortunately, in a small town, even though she was never arrested or convicted of a crime, the locals collectively agree that Lucy must have killed Savvy. The lovely court of public opinion. Lucy’s grandma, Beverly, is really the only one who truly believes Lucy. Even Lucy’s parents and husband imply that they know she did it. Lucy and her husband get a divorce and Lucy says fuck this place and leaves Texas for California.

Five years later, a true crime podcast, “Listen for the Lie”, is dedicating their second season to the murder of Savvy. This renews public interest in the case and even in California, Lucy can’t escape it. Her job finds out about it and fires her. Her new boyfriend, who she is living with, never comes out and says that he is listening, but starts treating her differently.

The thing about Lucy is her sense of humor and personality. That truly makes this book something special. She approaches public disdain with sarcasm and humor that makes others around her uncomfortable, and it's marvelous to read.

Beverly calls her up shortly after the first episode of the podcast comes out. Tells Lucy that it's her 80th birthday, she wants a big family shindig and Lucy, being her favorite grandchild, has to come. She will buy her a ticket and she won’t take no for an answer. Lucy is like might as well, I have no job. As soon as she arrives in her hometown, she immediately regrets her decision. Unlike in LA, she can at least walk around without people recognizing her but she can’t do that here. Everyone knows her. Everyone thinks she is a murderer who got away.

Beverly is another delight in this story. She is 80 years old, believes alcohol is a food group, and has more sex (and different lovers) than some of the spiciest books I’ve read. She is an icon.

She is also devious and manipulative (in all good ways). The podcaster, Ben, has been in town interviewing all the locals about the case and Beverly has spoken with him. Beverly believes that if anyone can help solve this case, it might be this Ben guy and his podcast. The first season of his podcast, he helped solve a cold case, so he might be able to do it again. Since Beverly is the only one who believes in Lucy’s innocence (even more so than Lucy), she wants Lucy to talk with Ben. She has planned this whole birthday party just so she could guilt Lucy into coming home.

At first, Lucy is like no way, absolutely not. But when she runs into Ben (“runs into” means Beverly set her up) at a diner, she decides to talk to him off the record. He tells her that whenever she wants to talk on the record, he is available. In the meantime, he encourages her to listen to the first few episodes of the podcast, because he has undercovered new information. After listening to the first few episodes, Lucy agrees to be interviewed for the podcast.

This book is what a thriller/mystery should be. You are second guessing yourself every time you think you know who did it. Everyone has reasonable doubt and almost every single person lied to the cops the first time around so they all seem suspicious.

Let’s recap each person - that might be the best way to sum this up.

Lucy - Best friends with Savvy. Was the last one seen with her. Has no memory and was covered in Savvy’s blood. During flashbacks, we see that Savvy confessed to killing a guy before, and tells Lucy she will help take care of Matt whenever she is ready.

Matt - Lucy’s ex-husband. Domestic abuser. Lucy and him had a very volatile relationship. He would hit her, she would hit back. Whenever she mentioned leaving him or telling someone, he would be like well you hit me too. He was also cheating on Lucy, while Lucy was cheating on him. All the women in town love Matt, but probably because he has slept with half of them and he is very charismatic. He lied to the police stating he went home, drunk, and didn’t leave the house. But a neighbor remembers seeing him argue with someone in a car, that person drove off, and then he left as well. When Lucy was discharged from the hospital after the incident, he won’t let her back in the house, and tells her to go stay with her parents. Remarried after Lucy, beat that wife as well. She leaves him, goes on the podcast, and tells everyone how Matt really is. Towards the end, Lucy is getting fragments of memory back, he tells her that he found her wandering out of the woods, holding a big stick, she had said, “Let’s kill…”. Matt questioned her you killed someone? She said, “Deserved it. We had a plan. Savvy tried to…” Matt believed that Lucy had killed Savvy, he took the stick from her, went and disposed of it, and when he came back, Lucy was gone, so he just went home. Do we think Matt is lying and he killed Savvy? Yeah, kinda, he is very suspicious, and he has proven to be violent towards women.

Lucy’s mom, Kathleen - Do we really think she could have possibly killed Savvy? No. But she did lie to the police and she does seem like she is hiding something. The night of the wedding, she snuck off with Colin (Savvy’s boyfriend) and had sex in a car. She was told by Matt that Lucy had killed Savvy, so she was hiding it, but constantly making comments to Lucy about how everything would be ok if she remembered anything and she was sure it was justified.

Lucy’s dad, Don - We also don’t believe he had anything to do with Savvy’s death but, like Kathleen, he was also told by Matt that Lucy was the murderer. He was protective but also scared of Lucy.

Nina - Lucy’s best friend in high school. After Lucy moves back to town after college and is married to Matt, they talk but they aren’t as close as they used to be. Nina was secretly sleeping with Matt (she was the one he was arguing with in the driveway that night). When Lucy comes back from California, she finds out that Nina and Emmett are dating. She catches them arguing in Emmett’s art store, it looks like Emmett is yelling at her, and Nina flinches away as if she is readying for a hit. Do we think Nina killed Savvy? Not really, but she was jealous of Savvy and Lucy’s relationship, and she said and did some questionable things. The vibe is that she didn’t do it, but she might know who did.

Ben - The podcaster. Obviously, we don’t think he had anything to do with the murder. He honestly doesn’t know who the murderer is, thinks it could be Lucy, but instead of being scared of her because of that, is attracted to her. They end up hooking up a few times. And weirdly enough, they live close to each other in LA. At the end of the book, Beverly asks if she is going to get in contact with him in LA, and its implied she will.

Emmett - Lucy’s best friend growing up. He always had a crush on her but she never felt that way about him. They did make out a few times but nothing came of it. During flashbacks, we see that they kissed while she was married to Matt. Emmett asked her to leave with him and in current time, while they are getting a drink together, she tells him she wishes she would have. She also invites him out to California with her after she finds out that him and Nina have broken up. Do we think Emmett had anything to do with the murder? No.

So what happened?

The days leading up to the wedding/murder, Savvy and Lucy had been discussing Matt’s physical abuse. Savvy told Lucy she had killed a guy before for attempting to hurt her and she isn’t afraid to do it again. They discuss various ways of offing Matt. Lucy kinda thinks its a joke but also … what if?

The night of the wedding, Lucy and Matt were arguing, like always. Matt cornered her back by the bathrooms, trying to make up with her, asking her to go fuck in the bathroom. Savvy walks up on them and is like seriously Lucy? Matt walks away, and Lucy and Savvy argue a little. Savvy is just upset with Lucy because she knows Lucy deserves better.

Later on, Savvy walks up on Lucy making out with someone else - Emmett. She gets Lucy and they leave. In the car, Savvy tells Lucy that Lucy really has the worst taste in men. Lucy is like what are you talking about, I’ve known Emmett forever, maybe I should have been with him. Savvy tells her that she hooked up with Emmett before, the sex was awful, he was aggressive and not in a good way. Afterwards, he treated her like shit, implied that he could have her whenever he wanted because he already had. She’s like he just isn’t a good guy.

As they are driving away, Lucy tells Savvy she doesn’t want to kill Matt. She just isn’t a killer. Savvy and her make a plan to leave. The next morning, they are going to load the car, and drive to LA. Lucy is excited to get away from everyone and to start an adventure with Savvy.

They come up to a truck sitting sideways in the road, Emmetts truck. He appears at the window, he’s pissed off. Savvy tells Lucy not to get out of the car but Lucy says she can handle this. She gets out and walks into the woods with him. Emmett tries to push himself on her, she tells him no, that she doesn’t feel that way about him. He gets aggressive and then Savvy is there. She’s like bitch, she said no. He gets physically aggressive and the girls take off running away from him but turn the wrong way and run farther into the woods not towards the car. They decide to walk back towards the road and flag someone down. They start to hear Matt’s voice calling for them. Then Emmett is back. He has a hammer and is swinging it at both of them. Lucy gets knocked in the head once, as does Savvy. Emmett comes back with a big limb and tries to hit Lucy, but Savvy jumps in the way. Lucy had been trying to tug Savvy out of the way, hence the scratches on her arm. He bashes her skull in, killing her, spraying Lucy with her blood. Lucy manages to get away and runs screaming towards the road. Matt encounters Emmett who is freaked out. Tells Matt that he saw Lucy and Savvy fighting and he thinks Lucy killed Savvy. Matt immediately believes Emmett.

Lucy remembers all of this in fragments. When she finally remembers everything, she happened to be outside of Emmett’s art shop (where she saw him and Nina fighting). She had called Ben, telling him she remembered something. Emmett takes her phone, tells Ben she’ll have to call him back. He leads a very shocked Lucy into his shop. He realizes that Lucy remembers everything. They start physically fighting. But Lucy is like no, sir, you aren’t going to kill my best friend, and then kill me. He comes after her with a hammer, apparently his weapon of choice. She manages to get it away from him. He takes off running out the back door and fueled by rage, she chases him. She catches up with him and manages to knock him down and hit him in the leg with the hammer. Ben shows up. Emmett is like Ben, she has lost it, look she’s trying to kill me.

Ben calls the police, tells the police that he was on the phone with Lucy, felt something was wrong, headed to the art shop, and heard Emmett admit to Lucy that he had killed Savvy.

Later Lucy confronts him and was like that’s not what happened. But ultimately, as Savvy always said, the truth doesn’t matter. It’s what people believe. The police believed Ben’s story. They would have never believed Lucy on her own but … men believe men.