Listen for the Lie

Ben Owens is a podcaster whose true crime podcast, Listen for the Lie, digs up the cold case about Savvy’s murder. He is cast in the role of a deuteragonist in a way similar to the role investigators play in crime fiction, and he eventually becomes Lucy’s love interest.

Ben is a talented and intelligent investigator. He professes to having had an interest in true crime from a very young age, and he even won journalism awards in high school. The success and popularity of Ben’s podcast speak to both his superior investigative skills and his charming persona. People are happy to listen to him on the podcast, as well as share their opinions and confidential information with him. As a result, Ben digs up new information on the case despite the Plumpton police department’s efforts five years prior yielding close to nothing.

Ben’s astuteness as an investigator stems from his ability to remain objective and non-judgmental. His initial podcast episodes feature the Plumpton townspeople’s perspectives on Lucy and Savvy, most of which are prejudiced against Lucy. Despite this, he is not swayed and reserves judgment for himself until he meets and interacts with Lucy. Similarly, even after he begins a romantic relationship with Lucy, he does not automatically assume her innocence; he reserves judgment until he has all the facts and information.

Alongside Ben’s excellent investigative skills, he also retains a sense of humaneness and empathy. His work necessitates that he commodify tragedy to some degree, as his podcast revolves around true crime. Despite this, he does not forget that there are real people affected by the content he puts out, and often acts sensitively. When there is constant questioning of Lucy’s “amnesia defense” on the podcast, Ben balances out the vitriol by fact-checking his guests and listeners about the validity of Lucy’s memory loss because of her injury. Similarly, he allows Lucy a veto when Maya reveals sensitive information about Matt’s abusive nature

Although the role he is originally cast in—investigating Savvy’s death, which is distressing for Lucy—is an antagonistic one, other qualities ensure that Ben is a likable character. This, along with his romantic relationship with Lucy and the fact that he backs her up to the police about Emmett, establishes Ben as a deuteragonist in the story.

Savannah “Savvy” Harper was Lucy’s best friend and the murder victim around whom the cold case revolves. She is perceived to have been a sweet, angelic young woman incapable of harming anyone. This is constantly contrasted against Lucy’s relative coldness and apparent tendency to violence. In reality, however, Savvy was the one with a murderous past and a history of violence, while Lucy was trapped in an abusive marriage. Not only did Savvy kill a man before, but she also suggested that Lucy and her kill Matt to liberate Lucy from her circumstances.

Savvy and Lucy are very different from each other, but in the opposite way as they are perceived by everyone else around them. Aside from their general personalities, this also extends to how differently their relationship was understood by other people, with the suggestion that there was tension in their friendship and the two women didn’t really know the other’s true self. Throughout the book, however, it is revealed that Lucy and Savvy were the only ones who knew each other’s darkest secrets and remained fiercely loyal to each other until the very end. Savvy as a character functions partly as a foil to Lucy, while her relationship with Lucy helps demonstrate Lucy’s strongest character traits throughout the story.

Matt Gardner and Emmett Chapman are the two antagonists in the book. Matt is Lucy’s ex-husband. Perceived by everyone in their hometown as handsome and charming, Matt is secretly abusive and has an alcohol addiction. Lucy’s experiences of violence and gaslighting from Matt are partly what contribute to her psychological trauma surrounding Savvy’s death and her perception of her involvement in the same. Additionally, Matt directly contributes to this by believing Emmett’s version of events, and later, by throwing Lucy out of the house. This sets off the townspeople’s suspicions as well, and despite Matt’s assertion that he was only trying to protect Lucy, she is the one who ultimately suffers.

Emmett is Lucy’s childhood friend who has always had a crush on her, and he is Savvy’s murderer. Like Matt, despite his attractive and likable persona, Emmett, too, is secretly controlling and violent. His feelings for Lucy lead to a toxic situation: He expects her to reciprocate his feelings for her, and he feels affronted she rejects him, flying into a murderous rage. Emmett’s true capacity for violence remains hidden until the very end, and even when it is revealed in the climax, it is insinuated that the police only believe Lucy’s version of events because of Ben’s backing. Together, Matt and Emmett personify the book’s theme of The Misogynistic Dismissal of Survivors and highlight the misogyny that sometimes sways public perception.