I loved everything about this book. I read it quickly because I could not put it down. It started with a story line that I thought I had 100% figured out, and then immediately switched and I didn't know anything about the main character that I had spent countless chapters reading about. Lisa has a fantastic gift for drawing the readers in to the characters' heads, and makes it hard to forget them once they're gone.

I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to gift it to friends!

I loved this book! It kept me on the edge, just when I thought I had things figured out something else would come up. Very well researched and written.

This is a great read. Things are not what they seem..could not put it down.

Lisa Scottoline has penned another affecting and entertaining stand-alone thriller in “One Perfect Lie.” Chris Brennan has just taken a job as a high school government teacher and assistant coach for the baseball team. He seems like the perfect candidate for the job, yet nothing about Chris is what it seems. He’s hiding a great deal, but so are the boys on the baseball team and their parents. The gradual revelation of these secrets produces some sensational plot twists, particularly the stunner about a third of the way through the book. I don’t want to provide any spoilers, so all I will say is that Scottoline maintains a high level of suspense throughout the book, while also delving into the characters’ lives and perfectly capturing high school life. My only reservation with the book was that the James Bond type heroics at the conclusion of the book seemed a little over the top. That small quibble is totally redeemed by the wise and highly appropriate advice from one of the characters - “She was ditching Facebook and going back to real books.” An excellent idea, and “One Perfect Lie” is a great place to start!

My review was posted on Goodreads 3/31/17.

Suspense and twists abound in this story, my first read from this author and it was captivating.
I will skip past a recap of the blurb, since you've read it. The book starts with a chain of lies. Lies devised by one Chris Brennan, teacher and coach who comes to a small town in Pennsylvania but why? What's his motive? More importantly what's the end game?
Woven through the story are subplots mainly of the three main young high school students he coaches and their families. Pretty edgy stuff and serves to throw the reader even more off balance. Well done. The book is fast paced, reads well and the twists are turns never stop. Right up to the last page. I really did like Chris (and the Rabbi) Lies or no lies, serves us all to see below the surface and look a little deeper. Things are definitely not always the way they appear.
Great story. Loved it.

**arc from NetGalley and St Martins in exchange for a fair review**

One Perfect Lie

by Lisa Scottoline

St. Martin's Press

General Fiction (Adult) , Mystery & Thrillers

Pub Date 11 Apr 2017

I am voluntarily reviewing One Perfect Lie through the publisher and Netgalley:

Things aren't always what they seem and that is certainly the case with Chris Brennan. Chris Brennan is a fake he has applied for a teaching job at Cental Valley High School but he is a fake. On paper he looks perfect, but in reality...

Chris in fact isn't Chris at all but in fact Curt Abbott. Curt in fact has something else in mind, something sinister. He rents a truck big enough to carry an ANFO bomb but is he out to hurt people or help them?



Ryan's Mother senses something is wrong he is being secretive and one night she gets a call from him saying he's at the police station. Ryan is arrested for burgularly .

Raz is angry, throwing a bat in anger when he does not make it as a starter.

When Abe ends up Everyone believes it is a suicide and the first Sunday after his death Chris knows better though. Abe was murdered and he vows to get justice for the teacher.

Soon the teammates start getting pics of naked girls. Sexts.

When Raz's Mother finds a gun in her Son's room, she's fearful.

Is Curt really a bad guy, or is he out to catch the bad guys?

Chris isn't who he says he is, in fact he is an Undercover ATF Agent trying to stop something big from going down on the anniversary of The Oaklahoma city bombing.

Can Chris/Curtis stop these people from destroying more lives?

Find out in One Perfect Lie?

Five out of five stars.

Happy Reading!

Good. Solid. Book. Decently paced book that has a good twist about 25% of the way through.

Was interesting to see the mystery unfold, I was continually guessing which varsity player was involved.

I would put this in the category of a good beach read. Not too light, not too heavy but will keep your interest throughout.

Intriguing from the first page! Things are not always what they seem and Scottoline captures that in One Perfect Lie.

Chris Brennan is the new government teacher and assistant baseball coach at Central Valley High School. Raz, Jordan and Ethan are three of his students/players. Raz’s mother Susan is proud of her son, but he’s been in a vulnerable place since his father died. Heather Larkin is a struggling single mother who lives for her son Justin. Ethan and his father are keeping secrets from his mother, Mindy Kostis, who is filling her days with too much to drink. At the center of each of these stories is Chris Brennan. But why does Chris want to be so involved? Is he simply trying to support his students/players? That’s where the suspense and intrigue come into play. You’ll feel compelled to turn the pages to see what lays around the next corner.

There are many characters and a lot is going on, but Scottoline connects them all in a believable, heart pounding story. Not once was I confused by who was who or what part they played. Scottoline develops each character nicely and the story flowed seamlessly. One Perfect Lie was a high octane charged adventure from the beginning. And the twists? Don’t worry suspense junkies. This book has plenty of those.

How does it end? You know I can’t tell you that! I can tell you that all points are brought to a satisfactory close. This reader would have been happy with just a little bit more. Of course, that’s usually the case for me. I just don’t want the stories to end. I want the authors to keep telling me the character’s stories because I have a hard time letting go :) And the suspense was so good that it was hard to come down from the adrenaline high. Grab your copy of One Perfect Lie today! You can thank me later ;)

‘One Perfect Lie’ is a novel full of action and excitement. It starts when Chris Brennan applies for a teaching job at Central Valley High School. Straight away you know that he is not who he seems to be. He is playing a part like the seasoned actor he is and the only thing you actually don’t know is why he is deceiving everyone, which adds to the intrigue and mystery of the story.
Of course he is handsome and charming. He has everybody fooled with his suave chat lines and knowledgeable answers to their questions, once safely installed as a teacher in the school. He is helpful, talented and very friendly. He is very good with his pupils and a willing support to Coach Hardwick as assistant baseball coach. All of the check-ups have endorsed him and he is above suspicion. But we the reader know that his life is a charade and that he is playing the game until the very end.
One of his pupils who is also a member of the baseball team is Jordan, who lives with his mother Heather. He is a talented player who is hoping that he will get through to college on the back of his good conduct, academic record and talent for sport. Immediately Chris identifies Jordan as the perfect candidate to help him with his plans and he befriends him. He is seeking out information from Jordan, playing towards the end game, manipulating him and situations that may play in his favour. ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive’ – and this is only the very beginning of the novel, not the substance of it.
I really enjoyed reading this novel. It gripped me from the very beginning and I was totally unprepared for what the truth would hold as it was gradually revealed. There were thrills and spills, crimes and deceptions and more than one red herring. The characters were deftly created and developed, to a one; interesting and involving. The storytelling was vivid, fast paced and very thrilling. I mistrusted Chris Brennan for his devious behaviour to begin with, but then I changed my mind. You will certainly understand this change of heart when you read this story. I loved Jordan who was a really nice boy, if not a little too trusting. I loved the way the story unwound – it was an absolutely cracking, explosive ending. I would like to thank NetGalley and publisher Headline for my copy of ‘One Perfect Lie’, sent to me in return for an honest review. It is a good read within this genre. Lisa Scottoline is a terrific author, her material varied and her research impeccable, and I’m sure this new novel will be very popular.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of Lisa Scottoline’s latest stand-alone, One Perfect Lie.
As with most of Ms. Scottoline’s works, this was a gripping, can’t stop, don’t want to stop reading book which takes place in Central Valley, a small affluent suburban town in Pennsylvania. Chris Brennan is the new teacher and assistant coach at the high school, but who is he really? We learn early on that he isn’t there just to teach, he’s is plotting some scheme that seems like it may be somewhat terrifying. He tries to get close to a core group of boys that are both in his class and on the baseball team in order for his scheme to work. We are introduced to these boys and their families, and of course to their back stories which play a pivotal role in how the story plays out.
Filled with many twists and turns, One Perfect Lie is another winner from Lisa Scottoline. I highly recommend!

Lisa Scottoline has written another compulsively readable book with One Perfect Lie. We learn early on that Chris Brennan is lying. Almost every single word he says is a lie, but we do know that for som reason, he's taken a job at a high school and is closely evaluating some of his students. Throughout the first section, as we see him carefully watching these students, it was very eery and disturbing as it was clear he was planning something horrible, and wanted to pull one of his troubled students into his plans. As the book goes on, we learn more about Chris and his plans, but also about the troubled students and their families that he's working with. Scottoline masterfully keeps the tension up throughout the book, never letting the story lag. A very compelling mystery/thriller from one of the masters!

I thought enjoyed this book thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read this.

This was not the level of excellence that I have come to expect from Lisa Scottoline. While the events leading up to the climax were good, the ending left me disappointed. Predictable ending with no surprises.

I received an ARC of this book through Netgalley. It was very slow for me in the beginning. Seemed like too much detail with a lot I wasn't interested in. Then it picked up and became much more interesting about one third of the way through. I thought it was going one way and it changed directions, which turned out to be a good thing. I enjoyed the read; not something I would have picked up to read, so was happy to get the chance with this one with Netgalley.

I like Lisa Scottoline books, but this one missed for me. At first, I didn't want to read another school-bombing, teacher-lying book. It turned me off. But then, Chris Brennan is nothing like what he seems. It did have a good twist in the middle, but the ending was so far-fetched. Not a book I would recommend.

In One Perfect Lie, Lisa Scottoline divides her book into steps. In Step One, we meet Chris and he admits everything about his life is a lie. Well he admits it to the reader and no one else. So in reading Step One, I had a definite idea where this book was going. So much so that I never expected the twist of Step Two. I don't want to say anything more than that because that twist totally changes the scope of the entire novel and frankly just proves the writing talent of Lisa Scottoline.
I must say one of the things that I really enjoy about all of Lisa's books is that they are primarily set in and around the Philadelphia area. Being from this area, I always get a kick and how detailed her descriptions are of the setting since it's basically home for me. That said the chase scene at the end of the novel was even better because I could totally visualize the action and it made it that much more exciting. The scene was exciting anyway but even more so when you know the area.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this novel.

Woah! What a heart stopping book!
I could not stop reading, because I HAD to know what was going to happen!
Chris Brennan has gotten a job in a high school and has become an assistant baseball coach.
He has to get the boys on his team and in his classes to trust and share information with him.
Why? What is Chris planning? Is he a part of this strange, devastating plot?
Read to find out how this small town becomes more than just a quiet place to live.
You will not believe what is going to happen!

I have read and enjoyed a couple of this author's books so I had high hopes for this one. I was especially quite intrigued by the blurb as it sounded quite different to the books I have been reading recently.
So, Chris Brennan goes for a job as a high school teacher. He has an ulterior motive though which soon has him scoping out certain members of the baseball team. It becomes apparent quite quickly that Chris is there to do a little more than just teach and coach and, as the story unfolds and starts to give up small parts of the puzzle that is Chris, it all starts to come together.
I was swept away by the story initially and followed meekly as the author took me down certain roads, but it was not until a couple of key pieces were uncovered that made me go back and reassess certain assumptions that I had previously made, that I soon started to see the bigger, rather shocking picture.
We meet quite a few characters on our journey, all of them came across as quite real and on the whole credible. The main ones were easy to connect with and that always makes for a better read for me. Obviously some are more open than others but hey, that's true in life too so why not fiction?
Having recently just been to the States to watch my first live baseball match, I was especially interested in the baseball parts of the book. Don't worry, for those with no interest in the sport, they don't overshadow the book at all; I just liked the connection I made with it.
The three boys that the story focuses on are all from different backgrounds. They have different home lives, have suffered different things, and have different relationships with their respective family members. We follow each boy and their mother too and get a glimpse of what life is like for them. I am usually bad with a lot of main players in a book but each character was well drawn and distinct enough so I didn't have any trouble distinguishing them and remembering who went with who!
Pacing was also good. It starts off quite slowly with a bit of scene setting and character development but when the action starts, it goes off at a pretty fast, action packed pace. This is also where Chris really holds his own. And that's all I will say as to explain would provide spoilers. It all culminates in a rather thrilling finale which left me breathless as it wrapped up.
All in all, another great book from someone I now have on my watch list. Must revisit her back catalogue and fill in my gaps.

My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book had me hooked from the beginning. It was fast paced and thrilling. The story bounces between several characters, but was easy to follow along. I read well into the night, as I couldn't wait to uncover the climactic ending.

From the very beginning, I was drawn into this story. The twists & turns of the plot & the timing of certain revelations kept me on the edge of my seat, reading feverishly. All I can say is that nothing is as it seems. The story begins with Chris, his background & interactions with the others. We know from the beginning that he is blending in as a school teacher & baseball coach. His "targets" are boys on the baseball team. Everything about him is false. What is his purpose for being there? Why? Good or Evil? Why is he so interested in Jordan, Evan & Raz?

We also gain insights to the families of the boys. You begin to see that the elaborate facades of the perfect family aren't always representative of their true lives. It sometimes takes drastic happenings to wake up family members to what is going on. Evan's mom, Mindy isn't aware her husband & son have been hiding secrets from her. She's been hiding behind her society facade & too many gin & tonics. Jordan's mom has been raising him single handedly, working a dead end job to get by. Raz's dad died unexpectedly several months ago & the entire family is floundering. His mother has been grieving & not stepping up to force Raz & his brother to face what's going on. Will Chris gain their confidence?

This is an excellent thriller set in a suburban community. Unfortunately, the threat is on that is realistic & relatable. Ms. Scottoline does an excellent job of setting the scene & using descriptive prose to make it all realistic. The interactions between Chris & the boys are intense. You can feel the tension ratcheting up as the story goes along. I really didn't see the ending coming!!