One of Us Is Lying Series Books in Order

One of Us Is Lying Series by Karen M. McManus is a YA mystery series launched with one of the decade's most compelling high school thriller premises: five students walk into detention; only four walk out. The fifth — Simon, the creator of a gossip app who had dirt on all the others — is dead, and each of the remaining four had motive. One of Us Is Lying is an Agatha Christie-style ensemble mystery for the social media age.

McManus writes YA mysteries with genuine puzzle craft and psychological insight. She understands that the best whodunits make readers suspect everyone without cheating — the solution must feel both surprising and inevitable — and her plotting achieves this balance with considerable skill. The high school social hierarchy provides a richly stratified setting for these dynamics.

The sequel One of Us Is Next returns to Bayview High with new characters and a new mystery that builds on the world established in the first book, demonstrating McManus's ability to sustain a fictional setting across multiple stories.

Begin with One of Us Is Lying — one of the defining YA mysteries of the 2010s. Read in publication order for the Bayview world continuity. Fans of Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, Liane Moriarty's adult mysteries adapted downward, and YA thriller fiction that takes its puzzle-craft seriously will find McManus essential reading.