Listen for the Lie

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

5 stars! I'm obsessed with this. A favourite of the year!

“A podcaster has decided to ruin my life, so I'm buying a chicken.”

Fun and funny with a wonderfully snarky protagonist, but also dealing with the nature of true crime and female victimhood in an incredible way. It's such a good time, but also has a lot of depth! And we all need a grandmother like Lucy's Grandma!

Given the nature of the story, there are some darker topics addressed in this book, but I loved the way those were handled. Taken seriously, but never feeling heavy. Perfectly pitched for a character-driven thriller with a comedic edge to it! All of the thematic content is direct, but never heavy-handed or soapboxy. It also doesn't just vilify all men without any nuance to tell the story of a woman's murder. It's just very well done and wouldn't you know it, people are complex and complicated beings!

The humour in the narration is a new all-time favourite; I just adored how this was written. The podcast element was also great and interspersed at just the right moments.

And yes, the whodunnit reveal didn't surprise me, but while it was possible to predict it, it never felt obvious, which is the important factor for me with this genre. I could always think of other possible solutions and questioned my idea of the main suspect until almost to the end. As someone who has read and watched mysteries all their life, being able to figure out the ending doesn't impact my enjoyment at all. It's about how we get there and for it to never feel blindingly obvious! And hey, who doesn't like being right sometimes?

I will be honest, I did not expect this book to have as much of an impact as it did. I was hoping it might be a fun popcorn thriller, but it's genuinely brilliant. Everything in this worked for me. I found a new favourite thriller!