Cover reveal - My adult debut!

Welcome to my murder era.

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“Watch out world, I’m entering my murder era!”

I’m delighted to share that my first novel for adults, LISTEN FOR THE LIE, will be published March 5, 2024 by Celadon/Macmillan. It’s a darkly humorous mystery/thriller with a deeply sarcastic main character who makes inappropriate jokes about murder even though everyone thinks she’s a murderer (that quote above is hers). I can’t wait for you all to meet Lucy.

Here is the beautiful cover, which we officially revealed yesterday:

Yes, Stephen King really did call it “a world class whodunit.” I can’t believe it either!

In fact, I kind of can’t believe this cover — with all those amazing blurbs — is real. If you’d shown this to me in 2019, when I first started writing the book, or in 2021, when I was querying for a new agent with it and got so nervous that I stopped sleeping, I would have laughed. I would said, “keep dreaming, Amy!”

But this is apparently real life (unless the Wachowskis were right about The Matrix), and LISTEN FOR THE LIE is coming your way in less than five months! Here’s what it’s about:

What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn't matter?

After Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer. Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all, and if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life.

But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast "Listen for the Lie," and its too-good looking host Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one that did it.

The truth is out there, if we just listen.

Want to pre-order it? Of course you do. Alex Michaelides said it was “an extremely successful high-wire act, balancing between dark comedy and darker thrills.” You definitely want this book. Pre-order links on my website! You can also read an excerpt over at CrimeReads! Or add it to your Goodreads!

I’ve been getting a few of the same questions about this book, so I have answers for you below!

This is an adult novel?

Yes! This is my adult debut. The main character is 29 years old. LISTEN FOR THE LIE is for fans of Jessica Knoll, Alex Michaelides, or Liane Moriarty (who, by the way, said LISTEN FOR THE LIE was “laugh-out-loud funny, thrilling and twisty, edgy and scary, but also surprisingly sweet.”). Teens who are already reading those types of books may enjoy this one, but it is very much an adult novel!

Are you going to write more YA? What about sci-fi/fantasy?

Right now, no. I’m in my murder era! I loved my time in YA, but I want to whole ass one thing, as Ron Swanson would say.

Will I like this book if I enjoyed your YA books?

Yes? I hope so? I mean, Courtney Summers, YA legend, said this about LISTEN FOR THE LIE: “This bitingly funny and subversive thriller is one of the freshest and fiercest you’ll read this year.” So don’t take my word for it!

But seriously, if you enjoyed my feminist take on sci-fi and fantasy, and you appreciate my tendency to make jokes at inappropriate times, I think you will like my adult thriller too! If you, like Callum, laughed at that part of REBOOT when Wren told him not to scream when she broke his bones but crying was fine, then stick around! My morbid sense of humor hasn’t changed.

Is LISTEN FOR THE LIE the first in a series?

Nope, it’s a standalone! I’m working on my second adult mystery/thriller now, which is unrelated to LISTEN FOR THE LIE, but will have similar dark comedy murder vibes.

How scary is LISTEN FOR THE LIE?

Not very? It’s a mystery/thriller, not horror, so no jump scares or anything like that. Think Alice Feeney, who said that the book is “original and deliciously dark with a wicked sense of humor.” So, it’s dark! But also funny!

(I promise I’m almost done being insufferable about these blurbs.)

Will there be an audiobook?

YES AND I’M VERY EXCITED ABOUT IT! The true crime podcast in the book is a big part of the story, and I can’t wait to hear what the people at Macmillan Audio come up with. More soon about the audiobook!

That’s all for now, but I will be back soon to talk more about how LISTEN FOR THE LIE came about, all about switching from YA to adult, and how the first one of the amazing blurbs for this book arrived in my inbox while I had Covid and eye shingles at the same time and I thought I was dying but at least I got some good news first!!

In the meantime, you should pre-order LISTEN FOR THE LIE. After all, Chandler Baker said it’s “hands down the most fun I’ve had reading about murder,” and you don’t want to miss out on that!

(Okay, I’m done being insufferable.)

(For now.)