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Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

384 Pages

Synopsis: On paper, Chris Brennan looks perfect. He’s applying for a job as a high school government teacher, he’s ready to step in as an assistant baseball coach, and his references are impeccable.

But everything about Chris Brennan is a lie.

Susan Sematov is proud of her son Raz, a high school pitcher so athletically talented that he’s being recruited for a full-ride scholarship to a Division 1 college, with a future in major league baseball. But Raz’s father died only a few months ago, leaving her son in a vulnerable place where any new father figure might influence him for good, or evil.

Heather Larkin is a struggling single mother who lives for her son Jordan’s baseball games. But Jordan is shy, and Heather fears he is being lured down a dark path by one of his teammates, a young man from an affluent family whose fun-loving manner might possibly conceal his violent tendencies.

Mindy Kostis succumbs to the pressure of being a surgeon’s wife by filling her days with social events and too many gin and tonics. But she doesn’t knw that her husband and son, Evan, are keeping secrets from her–secrets that might destroy all of them.

At the center of all of them is Chris Brennan. Why is he there? What does he want? And what is he willing to do to get it?

Not surprisingly given the title and author, One Perfect Lie is filled with enough twists and turns to make your head spin. There’s plenty of suspense, and the final third of the book plays out like your favorite action movie. So, you may be asking why I didn’t give this a higher rating. It’s a little difficult to explain without revealing major spoilers, but for me, my biggest issue was with Chris Brennan. He is a master manipulator of the teens he’s involved with, and even though there’s a twist to his story, I still couldn’t forgive him. Lisa Scottoline took a chance here with including so many sub-plots, but for the most part they worked. I especially loved the backstories of the three mothers involved. Each of them is going through a life crisis and you can’t help but feel for them. Equally well-written are their sons: Jordan, Evan, and Raz. In the end One Perfect Lie is part thriller, part family drama, and part mystery, with plenty of red herrings thrown in. I have to say I didn’t guess entirely what the outcome was going to be until right before the big reveal. The story isn’t perfect or deep, but it is a page-turner that should definitely appeal to the author’s multitude of fans.