By: Lisa Scottoline
ISBN: 978-1250099563
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: 4/11/2017
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 4 Stars One Perfect Lie is an emotional thriller and a suburban crime story that will keep you guessing until you turn the very last page. On the surface, it tells the tale of the struggling single mother of a high-school pitcher, a shy kid so athletically talented that he’s being recruited for a full-ride scholarship to a Division I college, with a future in major-league baseball. But the mother fears that she’s losing her grip on her son because he’s being lured down a darker path by one of his teammates, a secretly disturbed young man from an affluent family, whose excellent grades and fun-loving manner conceal his violent criminal plans. Add a handsome stranger who comes to town and infiltrates the high school, posing as a teacher but with a hidden agenda all his own. The mix becomes combustible when a beloved faculty member turns up dead as a suicide, in circumstances equally consistent with murder. Only then is the true identity of the fake teacher revealed, and the single mother finds herself engaged in a battle for the future, the soul, and the very life of her only son.
One Perfect Lie is a riveting and suspenseful family drama, and by the time you close the book, you will realize that nothing was as it seemed at the beginning.
My Review
Lisa Scottoline returns following Most Wanted landing on my Top Books of 2016 with her latest, ONE PERFECT LIE. A mysterious new teacher lands at a high school. Is he a fraud? A twisty suburban crime thriller, keeping you on the edge-of-your-seat, classic Scottoline style. “Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others."— Fyodor Dostoyevsky Chris Brennan is applying for a teaching job at Central Valley High School, bt he is not forthcoming about his past. He had scoped out the school and the teachers in advance. After all, everyone liked a clean-cut guy, and they tended to forget that appearances were deceiving. Even a fake resume. His resume says he went to Northwest College in Wyoming. He even picked a housing development nearby, Valley Oaks. The small town is located in south-central Pennsylvania, known for its outlet shopping. No one would imagine what he was up to. His story was his parents passed away five years earlier in a car crash (drunk driver). An only child he says, so he decided to come to the area for higher pay and he loved kids. Chris led the officials at school to believe he wanted to be accessible to his students on email, social media and believed in personal contact and mutual respect. He also said he coached. He even applied for the assistant baseball varsity coach position. What better way to get connected? He was setting up a plan. Chris is not who he pretends to be. What is his motive? Chris bonds immediately with students. Can he fool the other teachers? Can he be trusted? We meet a variety of moms, students, and teachers. Susan, Raz, Heather, Justin, Mindy, and Evan. The baseball team. Chris keeps abreast all the families and all the activities. Will he accomplish his mission? He puts his plan in place. Mr. Y (Abe Yomes) gay, African American who teaches eleventh grade. He also lived in the town with his partner Jamie who owned a realty company. He is from Wyoming (for real). Soon enough, however, Mr. Y is dead, an apparent suicide, and Chris is ready to move forward with his plan. There are certain people he needs to befriend. They are all part of his plan. Chris targets three teenage boys. Absorbing and entertaining, you never know what is going on in suburbia. Domestic terrorism? Justice? Take a walk down Wisteria Lane.
Domestic suspense is all the rave today. What goes on "behind closed doors" in normal neighborhoods. The lies we tell ourselves as well as each other. Action-packed family drama, a thriller complex ride with lots of twists, turns, secrets, cover-ups, and suspense. Scottoline once again surprises her readers with contemporary issues and topics which filter into our lives. A special thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an early reading copy.
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Praise for Lisa Scottoline
"Scottoline keeps the pace relentless as she drops a looming threat into the heart of an idyllic suburban community, causing readers to hold their breath in anticipation." –Booklist
"Readers can be assured that the author nails the high school milieu, from athletic rivalries to sexting...they're in for one thrilling ride." –Kirkus Reviews
"Entertaining...This fast-paced read culminates in a daring chase that would play well on the big screen." –Publishers Weekly
About the Author
LISA SCOTTOLINE is a New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author of numerous novels. She has 30 million copies of her books in print in the U.S., and she has been published in thirty-five countries. She has served as the president of Mystery Writers of America. She writes a column with her daughter, Francesca Serritella, for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and those stories have been adapted into a series of memoirs. She lives in the Philadelphia area with an array of pets. Read More
