By Karen M. McManus

Published: 2017

AR level: 5.1

AR points: 14.0

Word count: 91,844

I suggest: 7th grade+

I love a good murder mystery, and Karen McManus delivers an intriguing read with One of Us Is Lying. Secrets, lies, and even a little romance all stack up to make a fast-paced, hard-to-put-down read.

I think my favorite part of this novel is how expertly McManus handles multiple first-person delivery without giving the mystery away. This seems effortless, and yet, such a skill is absolutely necessary for the build-up to a surprise ending. The characters will have you rooting for them and wondering all along who the real killer is!

Here’s the description:

“Pretty Little Liars meets The Breakfast Club” (Entertainment Weekly)in this “flat-out addictive” (RT Book Reviews) story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. 

Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
    Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. 
    Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. 
    Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
    Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
    And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose? 

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.