#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of One of Us Is Lying comes a brand-new pulse-pounding thriller. It's Ferris Bueller's Day Off with murder when three old friends relive an epic ditch day, and it goes horribly—and fatally—wrong. Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day. Type A Ivy lost a student council election to the class clown, and now she has to face the school, humiliated. Heartthrob Mateo is burned out from working two jobs since his family’s business failed. And outsider Cal just got stood up . . . again. So when the three unexpectedly run into each other, they decide to avoid their problems by ditching. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they’ve barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say. . . . . . until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school—and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it’s about to get worse. It turns out Ivy, Mateo, and Cal still have some things in common...like a connection to the dead kid. And they’re all hiding something. Could it be that their chance reconnection wasn’t by chance after all? Fans of the hit thriller that started it all can watch the secrets of the Bayview Four be revealed in the One of Us is Lying TV series now streaming on NBC's Peacock! Gr 9 Up-Ivy, Mateo, and Cal became best friends in middle school after skipping out on a school field trip and having the Best Day Ever. Now high school seniors, they don't talk with one another or move in the same circles. But all this changes the morning after Ivy loses the student council election to Boney Mahoney. The three end up in the parking lot together before school and decide it is a perfect day to skip. Cal is tired of being a loner and is uncertain about his new love interest. Mateo is worried about needing to work three jobs to help support his ailing mother and his cousin Amanda's latest money scheme to help support the family. Ivy is embarrassed to sit through Boney's acceptance speech. Even though they haven't spent time together in years, all three set out together to forget about what awaits them at school. In downtown Boston, they see Boney Mahoney has also skipped school, and they follow him to a vacant downtown building, where they find him murdered. The three become involved in investigating what happened to Boney on what soon becomes the Worst Day Ever as they realize they all have more in common with Boney and one another than they realized. VERDICT In her latest thriller, McManus draws readers in with her multiple voices (the narrative moves among Ivy, Mateo, and Cal) to bring readers a suspenseful day of murder and mayhem that will keep them guessing until the end.-Rebekah Buchanan, Western Illinois Univ., Macombα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. ★ "With fast pacing and her signature flair for the dramatic, McManus weaves a masterful tale of secrets, lies, and twisted intentions that will be sure to keep readers guessing whodunit, from start to finish." — Booklist, s tarred review " A master of the teen thriller delivers again" — Kirkus Reviews "[A].... pulse-pounding thriller ." — Publishers Weekly Karen M. McManus is a #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of young adult thrillers. Her books include the One of Us Is Lying series, which has been turned into a television show on Peacock, as well as the standalone novels Two Can Keep a Secret , The Cousins , You’ll Be the Death of Me , and Nothing More to Tell . Karen’s critically acclaimed, award-winning work has been translated into more than forty-two languages. 1 Ivy I respect a good checklist, but I’m beginning to think my mother went overboard. “Sorry, what page?” I ask, flipping through the handout at our kitchen table while Mom watches me expectantly via Skype. The heading reads Sterling-Shepard 20th-Anniversary Trip: Instructions for Ivy and Daniel, and it’s eleven pages total. Double-sided. My mother planned the first time she and Dad ever left me and my brother alone--for four days--with the same thoroughness and military precision she brings to everything. Between the checklist and the frequent calls over Skype and FaceTime, it’s like they never left. “Nine,” Mom says. Her blond hair is pulled back in her signature French twist and her makeup is perfect, even though it’s barely five a.m. in San Francisco. My parents’ flight home doesn’t take off for another three and a half hours, but Mom is never anything but prepared. “Right after the lighting section.” “Ah, the lighting section.” My brother, Daniel, sighs dramatically from across the table as he overfills a bowl with Lucky Charms. Daniel, despite being sixteen, has the cereal tastes of a toddler. “I would have thought we could turn them on when we nee