Listen for the Lie

Crime fiction is a popular genre of fiction in which the narrative revolves around a crime. Crime fiction is sometimes seen as synonymous with the “detective story,” in which a crime is introduced and investigated until the culprit is revealed; Amy Tintera’s Listen for the Lie broadly falls into this classification. However, crime fiction can also contain sub-genres—for example, courtroom or legal dramas, which focus on the legal proceedings and nitty-gritty of a case. Tintera’s story blends the genre of crime fiction with the genre of true crime.

True crime is historically a genre of non-fiction revolving around the story of a crime that actually took place. True crime authors expound on the details of the case and its investigation, present multiple perspectives and nuances, and work at recreating the atmosphere surrounding the original case in their books. Just like crime fiction, true crime has existed for years as a genre within nonfiction. However, it gained an exceptional level of popularity and came to be seen differently with the publication of one book in particular: Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood (1966). Capote’s famous work brought in narrative elements in the way he explored the 1959 murders of members of the Clutter family, and his book came to be seen as a nonfiction novel (“