One of Us Is Lying * Karen M. McManus

 When five high school students walk into detention but only four walk out alive after a notorious campus gossip columnist is fatally poisoned, the surviving four classmates become the prime suspects in a high-stakes murder investigation where everyone has a motive to hide.

The Story: Written by prominent young adult thriller pioneer and global chart-topper Karen M. McManus, this celebrated 2017 blockbuster stands as one of the most successful, era-defining mystery novels of the 21st century. The narrative completely steps past predictable, low-friction teen drama formulas. Instead, McManus constructs a substantial, deeply atmospheric cat-and-mouse puzzle that masterfully pairs classic Breakfast Club character archetypes with modern psychological suspense, demonstrating that the digital landscapes of social media can act as a lethal weapon when secrets are weaponized for vengeance.

The plot centers on Bayview High, where five distinct students are sent to afternoon detention: Bronwyn (the brain), Cooper (the athlete), Nate (the criminal), Addy (the beauty), and Simon (the outcast). The routine takes a sharp, terrifying turn when Simon - the ruthless creator of the school’s notorious About That gossip app - drinks water laced with peanut oil, suffers a catastrophic allergic shock, and flatlines before emergency services arrive. When investigators discover that Simon was planning to publish devastating, life-ruining secrets about his four detention mates the very next morning, the local police department treats his passing as an intentional homicide, dropping the remaining four teenagers straight into a national media circus.

Rather than navigating a standard police inquiry, the "Bayview Four" face an intense, high-stakes countdown to clear their names while their private diaries, hidden family traumas, and romantic lives are hollowed out by anonymous online copycats. Told through rotating, multi-character first-person perspectives, the narrative unpeels the shifting layers of trust and alignment between the suspects as they run an independent tracking loop to catch the real killer before the grand jury hands down indictments. Published as a premium trade hardcover by Delacorte Press / Random House Children's Books, this relentlessly pacy page-turner keeps the adrenaline at an absolute boil until its final courtroom revelation.

Perfect For: Fans of fast-paced locked-room mysteries, shifting multi-POV suspense thrillers, and teen drama-noirs; readers who thoroughly enjoy the intricate plotting of authors like Holly Jackson, Maureen Johnson, or Lucy Foley; and book collectors securing the foundational volume of a massive international multimedia franchise.

South Carolina Book Award Nominee for Young Adult (2020), Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult (2019), Rhode Island Teen Book Award (2020), Evergreen Teen Book Award Nominee for High School (2020), Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis Nominee for Preis der Jugendjury (2019), Lincoln Award Nominee (2019), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2017), Gateway Readers Award Nominee (2020), Hea Noorteraamat (2019)

Published 2017 by Delacorte Press.

Fiction / Young Adult / Contemporary YA Thrillers / High School Noir / Locked-Room Whodunits / Multiple-POV Suspense / Psychological Mystery