Living down the street from a jail may have been the spark that ignited Karen M. McManus’s love for a good thriller. Just driving up to the gate and getting as far as you could go exhilarated many a local teen in McManus’s Walpole, Massachusetts hometown. Could the kernel of what she would become been planted all those years ago?
Hailed as the undisputed “Queen of YA Thrillers,” McManus is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the One of Us Is Lying series and other YA thriller novels. She is known to have reinvented and reinvigorated the teen thriller genre when she burst onto the scene in 2017 with One of Us is Lying, an addictive mystery about what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Since its publication, it has been translated into 42 languages and has been on the New York Times bestseller list for five years, as well as was adapted for a television series that aired on Paramount+ and Netflix. And as Entertainment Weekly has said “when it comes to YA suspense, Karen M. McManus is in a league of her own.”
In the seven years since McManus has become a published author, all her titles have been New York Times bestsellers, and a lot of up-and-coming authors look to her as someone whose career they hope to emulate. McManus herself just wants to keep doing what she loves and creating thrillers that her fans and new readers will love and to be able to stretch her writing muscles with different types of thriller writing. In her latest novel SUCH CHARMING LIARS, a heist story featuring former stepsiblings, flawed parents, a teen boy love story and a wealthy family, McManus continues to craft books that readers are drawn to and captivated by (and THAT is the truth).
Karen will be on a 6-city tour this summer promoting SUCH CHARMING LIARS and will be visiting Carle Place, LI on 7/31.