Finding Tess Audiobook By Beth Macy cover art

Finding Tess

A Mother’s Search for Answers in a Dopesick America

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Finding Tess

By: Beth Macy
Narrated by: Beth Macy
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $8.95

Buy for $8.95

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

On Christmas Eve, 2017, Tess Henry was found dead in a dumpster in Las Vegas. Tess was a 28-year-old new mother, a former honor roll student, and a high school basketball player from suburban Roanoke, Virginia, a place ravaged by the national opioid crisis. The New York Times best-selling author Beth Macy chronicled Tess and her mom, Patricia, through Tess' harrowing, years-long battle to recover from heroin addiction in her award-winning book Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America. But just as Tess was on the brink of returning to a normal life with her young son, she was brutally murdered.

Finding Tess: A Mother’s Search for Answers in a Dopesick America is a psychosocial autopsy of sorts, not just a retracing of Tess’ final steps on the streets of Las Vegas but also a dissection of what went wrong during the six-year span of her opioid addiction as well as the changes inspired by her story. This exclusive audio documentary - a coda to Dopesick - features interviews with Tess, her family, and many of those who tried to help her along the way as well as the systems and the people who failed her. By tracing Tess’ final steps as she tried so hard to make her way back to Virginia - and to her son - Finding Tess illuminates a journey shared by too many of the 2.6 million Americans battling opioid addiction, offering lessons from a cast of unlikely heroes and, along with them, hope.

©2019 PaperGirl, LLC (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC
True Crime Inspiring Emotionally Gripping Exciting Funny Scary Las Vegas Virginia

Go Behind the Scenes of Finding Tess

0:00

Our favorite moments from Finding Tess

An American family challenged to deal with addiction
-0.00
Tess attends recovery meetings.
-0.00
An expert explains the science behind addiction.
-0.00
"…and that basement sometimes even had a trap door."
-0.00
  • Finding Tess
  • An American family challenged to deal with addiction
  • Finding Tess
  • Tess attends recovery meetings.
  • Finding Tess
  • An expert explains the science behind addiction.
  • Finding Tess
  • "…and that basement sometimes even had a trap door."
Beth Macy

About the Creator and Performer

Beth Macy is the author of three New York Times best-selling books. A journalist who writes about outsiders and underdogs, Macy has won more than two dozen national journalism awards, including a 2013 J. Anthony Lukas award for Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local—and Helped Save an American Town and an L.A. Times Book Prize for her recent Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America. She has reported from Roanoke, Virginia, for three decades, and has published essays in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and for NBC News. Finding Tess: A Mother’s Search for Answers in a Dopesick America is her first audio documentary.

Credits

In loving memory of Theresa Helen Henry

Dedicated to Patricia Mehrmann and families across America battling addiction

Written and Narrated by Beth Macy

Executive Produced and Edited by Emily Martinez

Additional Editing by Collin Campbell

Recording Engineers: Bill Trifiro, Denise Allen-Membraño, and Steve Hobbs at VPS Studios in Roanoke, Virginia

Sound editing and assembly by Caleb Brooks, Reel Audiobooks

Mixing Engineer: Mark Galup, Reel Audiobooks

Sound Design, Mixing and Mastering by Steve Frend & Peter Mack, Outloud Audio

Fact-checked by Roni Greenwood

Special thanks to Tyler Cabot, Keith O’Connell, Kirk Schroder, Dorian Karchmar, Lora Stradley & Donna Hefner

"i carry your heart with me (i carry it in)". Copyright 1952, ©1980, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust,
from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage.
Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation

What listeners say about Finding Tess

Highly rated for:

Heartbreaking Story Compelling Narrative Emotional Storytelling Powerful True Story Eye-opening Account
Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,815
  • 4 Stars
    1,147
  • 3 Stars
    453
  • 2 Stars
    141
  • 1 Stars
    111
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,491
  • 4 Stars
    908
  • 3 Stars
    321
  • 2 Stars
    83
  • 1 Stars
    53
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,492
  • 4 Stars
    828
  • 3 Stars
    341
  • 2 Stars
    85
  • 1 Stars
    86

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Informative and Heattbreaking

I fell in love with Tess and her journey. Her story resonates as my own mother struggled with addiction before ultimately passing from the disorder

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

More than a story, it's a lesson.

For those of us with loved ones suffering from opioid addiction this is a must read. This book teaches a valuable lesson.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Sad Truth

This story hit home, having family members with addiction and also having known many who have died due to addiction.... It is very heartbreaking. I'm glad I listen to this And I hope others will listen to it. This will help in dealing with loved ones with addiction.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Heartbreaking

I would recommended this to anyone & everyone. Addiction is everywhere & there are to many that stay blind to it but know it’s there! Poor Tess & her Family! This book was heartbreaking & told so beautifully! Beth Macy did an amazing job writing this book. Once I started I couldn’t stop! So here I am on the lawnmower crying over this story! Such a Beautiful women lost to soon!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Finding Tess

This book is a heart wrenching story about a young lady who represents an ongoing epidemic of people who get addicted to opiates. The struggle is real. I have several friends who have battled opiate addiction and are now working in recovery helping others.

This story breaks the stigma of who can become addicted. All people. All walks of life. It’s good to see her legacy continues as change have been made in the medical because of her story. Thank you for sharing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Must Listen for Every Parent

This is very reminiscent of a podcast in it's storytelling. It feels very much like you are right there with them. I couldn't stop listening. The audio quality and narrator are great. If you're particular about your narrators (I am), you're safe with this.
It's such a timely and compelling story. Beth Macy truly humanizes the opioid crisis. I think it's so important for parents to realize how accessible these drugs are and how quickly it can lead down the path to heroin. I will be sharing this with my teenager. The story of Tess and her family will stay with me for a very long time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

You had to have been there...

While I understand the frustrations many readers felt with this book, those who have been there understand. We lost my nephew about 7 years ago to a drug overdose, my sister's only son. Like Tess, he was smart and fun and grew up with parents who have him every advantage and relatives who loved him. When a family goes through this kind of heartache, their emotions vascilate by the hour, sometimes the minute. I don't understand the pull of drugs myself but I have an honest respect for it, how could I not? This is an excellent book and it points out intelligently how one cure does not fit all. That is the conundrum that we face. Well worth the listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Must-Read

This moving story is so powerful and poignant. Although I may not agree with everything I heard reported here, my heart cannot help but cry out for the injustice of our collective loss. This is a must-read for high school students and parents and educators.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Must read

this is a must read. it has given me so much to think about and has opened my eyes to the way we treat the addicted here in America. I am a nurse and this book honestly makes me look at addicted individuals with new eyes and a more sympathetic heart.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

God bless Tess

I'm glad that someone is speaking openly about this problem, its becoming more and more tragic by the day. After recently losing my sons best friend to a fentanyl overdose, I'm finding myself craving information so I can help anyone avoid the pain of loss due to fentanyl laced opioids. thank you to the writer and Tess's mom for sharing her story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful