One of Us Is Back by Karen M. McManus is the final book in the young adult thriller/mystery trilogy One of Us is Lying. I have enjoyed the series that started with books One of Us Is Lying, One of Us Is Next and the final book One of Us Is Back. One murder that was an act of revenge has started a whole slew of them. This book does a good job of bridging all the stories together, by flashbacking even before the first book started and what caused the first murder to happen that is tied to the new murders. The story weaves characters from both books pretty seamlessly and wraps up the unfinished story from the second book. The characters who were heavily involved with the plot of the first two books form a super group called the Bayview Murder Club. One of Us Is Back happens 3 months after the events of One of Us is Next. We get 3 main characters Nate, Addy, and Phoebe who we follow and we get flashbacks from Simon. The book does a good job of giving almost every character a moment but there are now too many to really give everyone justice. The book does give a good overview of the first two plots of the first books, which I enjoyed because I could not remember everything that happened. This book had one of the better endings of the series but the mystery takes too long to get started and get compelling. The pace of the story was good only because I liked the characters but it took almost 100 pages until the real new mystery started. I was moderately satisfied with who the killer was I thought it was someone closer to the group than who it turned out to be. I thought this book was the weakest in an excellent series but I still gave it the same rating as the other books which have all been 4 stars for me. One of Us Is Back was published on July 25, 2023, by Delacorte.

Plot Summary: 3 months after the events of One of Us is Next Phoebe is still keeping the secret of an accomplice to the murder of Brandon, not telling the police or the murder club that someone she knows was involved. She also keeps a secret that she attends a press conference at the high school with Jake Riordan who got released from prison as he was found not guilty for setting up the Bayview four for murder and trying to kill some of them. His release is full of threats and keeps the whole murder club on notice, especially when one member is kidnapped and mysterious billboards and flyers go out suggesting the game is not over.

What I Liked: The characters are really great and a fun group I did hate that Mauve was kind of sidelined since she has been one of my favorites. The reveal of the murder was cool since one of the members was just seen leaving with a member when it was revealed. The ending was one of the best in the series when stuff started to go wrong you could feel the tension in everybody. The final act from the murderer was pretty memorable and justified. I loved the Mmm Bop ringtone, how it kept going off at the wrong times, and all the jokes about it. The flashback scenes were good and revealed a little more about Simon and Jake. I do like how far Nate’s dad has come from the beginning book to here.

What I Disliked: How long this book took to get going, I loved the character interaction but I wanted to see more intrigue and the new murder plot. I didn’t like that Eli was barely involved, I liked his character from the last book. I wanted to see a bigger mystery than what we got, I still think they should have gone after the person who thought he committed the original murder of the killer’s relative also.

Recommendations: This book series is a lot of fun. McManus can write a good mystery that is compelling and gets personal to the characters. The characters in this series are great since they started so far apart from each other but are now so close. I did think this book was the worst of the series but this series but I still recommend it with the entire series. I also must recommend the excellent One of Us Is Lying TV series of Peacock that starts the same but ends way differently and is a lot of fun. The two seasons follow the first two books but go in different ways.

Rating: I rated One of Us Is Back by Karen McManus 4 out of 5 stars. I rate the whole three-book series 4 stars as well.