One of Us Is Back

by Karen M. McManus Narrated by Shannon McManus, Holly Linneman, Robbie Daymond, Jeff Ebner

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Fans of One of Us Is Lying won’t want to miss One of Us Is Back, the third installment in the epic thriller series so full of twists and turns you’ll be hard-pressed to put it down after picking it up.

The global phenomenon returns with the third book in the One of Us Is Lying series, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen M. McManus. When someone from the Bayview Four's past resurfaces, history begins to repeat itself—and the consequences are deadly.

The third time's a charm.

It's been almost two years since Simon died in detention, and the aftermath has been hard to shake. First the Bayview Four had to prove they weren't killers. Then a new generation outwitted a vengeful copycat. Now the entire Bayview Crew is back home for the summer, and everyone is trying to move on.
 
Only, this is Bayview, and life is never that simple.
 
At first the mysterious billboard seems like a bad joke: Time for a new game, Bayview. But when a member of the Bayview Crew disappears, it's clear this “game” is serious—and whoever's in charge isn't sharing the rules. Or maybe there aren't any.
 
Bronwyn. Cooper. Addy. Nate. Maeve. Phoebe. Knox. Luis. Kris. Everyone's a target. And now that someone unexpected has returned to Bayview, things could start getting deadly.
 
The thing is, Simon was right about secrets—they all come out eventually. And Bayview has a lot it's still hiding.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 05/22/2023

Someone from the Bayview Crew’s past has resurfaced to finish what they started in this electrifying mystery, the third installment in McManus’s One of Us Is Lying series. After Addy, Bronwyn, Cooper, and Nate exonerate themselves in Simon’s mid-detention death, and Knox, Maeve, and Phoebe thwart a copycat killer’s lethal bout of truth or dare in the previous volumes, the trauma-bonded teens crave a carefree California summer. But history seems destined to repeat itself: when a digital billboard displays “TIME FOR A NEW GAME, BAYVIEW,” the gang wonders if they prematurely retired their “Murder Club” moniker, especially after one of them goes missing. Frustrated by the Bayview Police Department’s continued incompetence, the friends, their partners, and some unexpected allies join forces to survive their latest investigation. McManus skillfully seeds the kaleidoscopic first-person-present narrative—which alternates between several Bayview Crew members—with shocking secrets and a veritable school of red herrings, but the factors elevating this tale are the alchemy sparked by combining previous entries’ intersectionally diverse casts and the gratifying culminations of their emotionally complex arcs. Bombshell reveals unfurl alongside reflections on honesty, empathy, and cycles of violence, resulting in a soulful, high-stakes thrill ride. Ages 14–up. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (July)

From the Publisher

★ "Bombshell reveals unfurl alongside reflections on honesty, empathy, and cycles of violence, resulting in a soulful, high-stakes thrill ride."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“McManus keeps the cinematic plotting tight with plenty of twists, red herrings, and long-buried secrets as she entwines the mysteries from the first two books…Another solid thriller from a master of the genre.” —Booklist

"A satisfying and hopeful closer in a masterful trilogy." —Kirkus Reviews

“McManus fans are sure to delight in the ending, even if they wish more books were forthcoming.” —School Library Journal

School Library Journal

09/01/2023

Gr 9 Up—The Bayview Murder Club is back for the riveting conclusion to the "One of Us Is Lying" trilogy, where Simon's final secret is slowly unspooled, generating destruction and chaos in its wake. Told through the alternating points-of-view of Addy, Phoebe, and Nate, plus vignettes from Jake and Simon's friendship six years prior, all of the narrators come into this last installment unsettled. Though Nate has a stable relationship with Bronwyn, he hasn't figured out where his life is headed and can't shake the feeling that their relationship won't last. After Jake is released from prison pending a retrial, Addy feels terrified and on edge, certain he is going to come after her, seeking vengeance. And Phoebe is completely stuck, racked with guilt over what happened in One of Us Is Next, unable to move forward. After an electronic billboard is hacked to display the message "Time for a new game, Bayview," the friends are resolute in their determination to find answers, stop the violence, and finally address some of Bayview's glaring problems. While this final addition to the trilogy has more suspense than mystery, the growing sense of impending doom followed by the headlong crash into the conclusion still leaves readers feeling satisfied. All characters default to white aside from the Rojas sisters and Luis, who are Latinx. VERDICT McManus fans are sure to delight in the ending, even if they wish more books were forthcoming.—Katie Patterson

Kirkus Reviews

2023-04-24
A new game is starting in Bayview…but no one knows the rules in this latest installment in McManus’ bestselling One of Us Is Lying series.

After all they’ve endured, the Bayview Crew—made up of the original Bayview Four (Nate, Bronwyn, Cooper, and Addy); their successors (Maeve, Phoebe, and Knox); Cooper’s boyfriend, Kris; and Maeve’s boyfriend, Luis—attempt to move on with their lives. But Jake (Addy’s ex who tried to frame her for murder and almost killed her himself) has been released from jail and might even get a new trial. When a digital billboard in town ominously announces, “TIME FOR A NEW GAME, BAYVIEW,” the crew becomes vigilant, clinging to one another—because if they’ve learned anything since Simon’s death two years ago, it’s that everyone has secrets, and everyone is a target. While McManus, as expected, succeeds at engaging readers in another thrilling mystery, she focuses much attention on various characters’ challenges as they grow: Nate is determined to make himself worthy of Bronwyn’s love; Phoebe struggles to accept Knox’s affections while holding onto the secret of her brother’s involvement in Jared’s revenge on Addy’s brother-in-law; Addy must learn how to live in a world where she may have to encounter Jake again (despite the restraining order). And even from the grave Simon continues to have an impact on the community. Main characters read White; an earlier title describes Addy and Maeve as Colombian American.

A satisfying and hopeful closer in a masterful trilogy. (Thriller. 14-18)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176894882
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	07/25/2023
Series:	One of Us Is Lying Series , #3
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	692,715

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER THREE


Nate
Wednesday, June 24
 
The digital billboard at the edge of Clarendon Street has had the same ad for as long as I remember—a dancing energy drink—so the fact that it’s changed catches my attention while I’m stopped on my motorcycle at a red light.

TIME FOR A NEW GAME, BAYVIEW.

Those are the only words, red against a stark white background. They fade off the screen and I wait, mildly intrigued despite myself, to see what’s next. Then the ad copy cycles back to TIME FOR A NEW GAME, BAYVIEW once again. So much for building suspense. Or letting people know what the hell you’re promoting. A-plus job, advertisers.

The light changes and I roar through it, following the familiar route to the Bayview Country Club. For a lot of people, summertime in Bayview means beaches, barbecues, and one-upping one another on social media with their no-filter vacation pictures. For me, it means a second job.

Construction work by day, serving drinks to Bayview’s McMansion crowd at night, then trying to sleep for a few hours in a house filled with five other people who have nothing to do except throw parties they keep trying to drag me to.

Living the dream.

I pull into the parking lot and settle my bike between two freshly painted white lines, then take out my phone to check the time. There’s a new text waiting for me—a picture of Bronwyn and Stan, my bearded dragon, sitting side by side on an oversized rock in Bronwyn’s garden. Now that she’s home from Yale for the summer, she’s decided that Stan needs, as she puts it, “more exercise and mental stimulation.” So, some days when she’s done with her internship, she picks him up, brings him to her house, and hangs out with him in the backyard. As far as I can tell Stan isn’t moving any more than he usually does on these field trips, but he does seem to like having a new rock to sit on.

I grin, my mood instantly lifted. My girl’s back in town for the next two months, so I guess I am, in fact, living the dream. Bronwyn’s prelaw, and she had her pick of internships in New Haven or New York for the summer, but she chose one in San Diego. It’s a fantastic job with the kind of woman-owned start- up that she wants to be general counsel for someday, so I don’t even have to stress about her giving up opportunities to be closer to me.

Don’t let a bird make off with him, I text back.

I WOULD NEVER, Bronwyn responds, with a horrified- face emoji.

Of course she wouldn’t. There’s not a person in the world you can count on more than Bronwyn Rojas. I know exactly how good I have it with her, and that’s why I’m doing all this—the jobs, school, the cheap-ass house with too many roommates so I’m not blowing everything I make on rent. One of these days I’m going to be the guy Bronwyn deserves, not the guy she had to save from prison while we were in high school.

In the meantime, though, I have drinks to serve.

I shut off my bike, pocket the keys, and head for the giant pillars that frame the country-club entrance. At the edge of the parking lot, there’s a bulletin board filled with flyers hawking landscaping services, tutoring, housecleaning, dog walking— all the stuff rich people can’t do on their own, because they’re too busy hanging out at country clubs. My eyes land on one I haven’t seen before that’s a lot more glossy than what’s usually there. Bright white, with just a few words in large red font:

TIME FOR A NEW GAME, BAYVIEW.

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