AMY TINTERA....

Lucy Chase’s life is shattered the night she is found wandering barefoot through her small Texas hometown’s streets, her dress soaked in blood that isn’t hers. Hours earlier, her best friend Savannah (“Savvy”) had been brutally murdered, and Lucy’s mind, fogged by a traumatic brain injury, offers no memory of the night’s events beyond these disjointed fragments. Public opinion quickly turns against her—despite the police lacking enough evidence to press charges, Lucy becomes the prime suspect in the eyes of her community, her own parents, and even her husband. Only her fiercely supportive grandmother Beverly and her childhood friend Emmett believe in her innocence, while Lucy herself is consumed by uncertainty and guilt, tormented by the deadly possibility that she may be the murderer everyone claims.

In the aftermath, Lucy tries to construct a new life in Los Angeles, distancing herself from the town and its cloud of suspicion. However, the wounds refuse to heal: a true crime podcast, “Listen for the Lie,” hosted by the charismatic Ben Owens, decides to investigate the unsolved murder as the focus for its new season, throwing Lucy’s traumatic past into the national spotlight. Her job is lost to the scandal, and her relationship with her boyfriend in LA crumbles under the weight of the accusations and relentless renewed scrutiny. Reluctantly, Lucy returns to her hometown at her grandmother’s urging as Ben arrives to begin his investigation, hoping to exhume forgotten clues and uncover a truth hidden beneath layers of lies and resentment.

Ben’s podcast stirs the small town’s tensions while reopening old fault lines in Lucy’s memory. His probing interviews and questions reveal cracks in the town’s story, especially concerning Lucy’s abusive ex-husband Matt, whose alibi for the night is quickly undermined by eyewitnesses. As Lucy teams up reluctantly with Ben, her memory starts to return in flashes; she recalls Savvy urging her to kill Matt for his abuse, and she remembers her own complicit silence about Savvy once killing a man in self-defense. Meanwhile, Ben and Lucy’s relationship evolves, shifting from uneasy partnership to mutual affection as they peel away the night’s mysteries together.

Lucy’s fragmented memories slowly knit themselves together as new evidence surfaces. She discovers that Matt lied about his movements on the night of the murder and that he tried to shield her by destroying evidence—specifically, a bloody tree branch. Amidst these revelations, Lucy learns that her grandmother, Beverly, had orchestrated her return in hope that Ben’s podcast could finally clear her name. The real breakthrough comes when Lucy, planning to leave town once again, witnesses Emmett’s violent behavior toward his girlfriend Nina, triggering a full recollection of the night’s terrifying climax.

In a flood of memory, Lucy realizes that Emmett—her childhood friend and supporter, secretly in love with her—had been the man she’d kissed at the wedding and, after her rejection, had turned violent that night. In a desperate struggle, Savannah intervened to protect Lucy but was killed in the process. Emmett had successfully pinned the blame on Lucy and manipulated the town into believing her guilt. Confronted by Lucy, Emmett’s guilt is finally uncovered, leading to his arrest for Savvy’s murder. Ben, present as a witness, supports Lucy’s account, helping to vindicate her in the eyes of both the law and the community.

With the actual murderer in custody and her name finally cleared, Lucy tries to mend her strained family ties and express gratitude to her grandmother for her unwavering loyalty. Her parents, exposed for withholding evidence, are also implicated, displaying the widespread moral failings masked by the town’s surface respectability. Lucy decides to return to LA, feeling liberated from the crushing suspicion that has dogged her for years, and chooses to pursue a potential relationship with Ben, carrying the lessons, scars, and hopes of the past into her future—haunted but no longer destroyed by what she survived.

WORDS TO BE NOTED-                                                                                                                 

1. Shattered – Completely destroyed or broken, especially referring to a person's emotional or mental state after trauma.

2. Prime suspect – The main person that police or others believe may have committed a crime.

3. Consumed – Overwhelmed or filled up completely, often with an emotion (e.g., consumed by guilt).

4. Traumatic – Deeply shocking or distressing, leading to lasting emotional or psychological effects.

5. Scrutiny – Careful and detailed examination or inspection.

6. Reluctantly – Doing something with hesitation or unwillingness.

7. Probing – Thoroughly investigating or exploring something to discover the truth.

8. Alibi – An explanation or proof that someone was elsewhere when a crime took place, used to show innocence.

9. Complicit – Involved with others in an activity that is wrong or illegal, even if only by knowing about it and not stopping it.

10. Vindicate – To clear someone of blame or suspicion with evidence.

11. Orchestrated – Carefully arranged or coordinated, especially secretly or behind the scenes.

12. Manipulated – Controlled or influenced someone or a situation dishonestly or cleverly for personal advantage.

13. Liberated – Set free from a situation, condition, or feeling that had been limiting or oppressive.

14. Fragmented – Broken into pieces; not whole or complete, often describing memories or thoughts.

15. Unravel – To solve, clarify, or untangle something that is complex or mysterious.

SOURCE- NOVEL LISTEN FOR THE LIE

WORDS COUNT- 550

F.K SCORE - 15.5