Karen M McManus Books in Order

If you want to start with her biggest series: One of Us Is Lying → One of Us Is Next → One of Us Is Back.
If you like small town secrets and family drama: Two Can Keep a Secret → The Cousins.
If you prefer tense, single day thrillers: You'll Be the Death of Me → Nothing More to Tell.
If you enjoy heists and con artists: Such Charming Liars.
If you just want a quick taste of her style: Up All Night (anthology story).

Karen M. McManus writes twisty young adult thrillers about secrets, friendships, and the moments when everything at school or at home suddenly tilts. She is best known for the Bayview High novels that begin with One of Us Is Lying, along with stand alone mysteries such as Two Can Keep a Secret, The Cousins, and Nothing More to Tell.

She was born in 1969 near Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in the area reading widely, from classic kids' adventures to mystery and horror. As an eight year old she wrote an early story about a witch whose spells kept going wrong, and that classroom assignment planted the idea that she wanted to be an author someday.

McManus studied English at the College of the Holy Cross, where she earned a bachelor's degree in English literature, then went on to Northeastern University for a master's degree in journalism. Instead of going straight into publishing, she spent years working in political consulting and marketing, helping launch consumer products and learning how to think about audiences and stories from a different angle.

Writing, though, never disappeared completely. She took a long break from fiction in her late teens and twenties, unsure whether she could juggle big, complicated plots. Years later, on a cross country flight, she picked up The Hunger Games and found herself so pulled in by the pace and emotion that she started drafting her own young adult story soon after.

Those early attempts did not make it to shelves, but they taught her how to finish a book and revise it. When One of Us Is Lying finally arrived in 2017, the story of five Bayview High students who walk into detention and only four walk out, it struck a chord with readers who loved both the mystery and the messy, real feeling characters. The book spent years on bestseller lists and was later adapted into a television series.

McManus followed Bayview with more stand alone thrillers that keep circling back to similar pressure points, small towns and families that look perfect from the outside but are packed with buried history. Two Can Keep a Secret sends twins to a town where homecoming queens have a habit of vanishing. The Cousins strands three teens at their reclusive grandmother's island resort to untangle a decades old estrangement. You'll Be the Death of Me traps three former friends in a single chaotic day after they stumble into a classmate's murder.

In Nothing More to Tell, a teen true crime fan comes home to investigate her favorite teacher's unsolved killing, only to find that the friends who discovered the body have not told the whole story. More recently, Such Charming Liars moves from high school hallways to a glamorous Maine estate, following a teen and her ex stepbrother as a planned jewel heist collides with murder. Across all of these books, she leans on tight plotting, shifting points of view, and a steady drip of reveals to keep readers turning pages.

Readers often come to her work for the hooks, but stay for characters who are trying to figure out who they are while dealing with grief, ambition, loyalty, and first love. Her stories balance high stakes with sharp dialogue and details of everyday teen life, so the wildest twists still feel anchored in recognizable hallways, bedrooms, and group chats.

McManus lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from where she studied, and she has spoken about how walking along the river or through the city helps her untangle plot knots. When she is not writing or working, she likes to travel with her son, read widely, and daydream about the next group of teens who might find themselves keeping very dangerous secrets.