Exclusive: Best-selling Author Karen McManus on One of Us is Back, the final book in the Bayview tri

Karen McManus is easily one of the best YA writers around her books have just the right mix of romance, murder and intrigue that keep you guessing until the very end. None more so than her hugely popular Bayview High series. Of which she has just released the final and hugely anticipated third book, One of Us is Back.

“The new book takes place pretty much right after the ending of One of Us is next, which readers will remember ended on a bit of a cliff-hanger. I mean, we know this“.” Karen tells us a couple of weeks before the release of One of Us is Back.

“We know the mystery. The mystery is solved, but we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen to, shall we say one of the antagonistic forces. So this picks up from that and I don’t want to give away too much but essentially, we learn that’s made us not quite done with our characters yet. Somebody else is playing what might be a new game might be an old game, we’re not so sure. And the characters once again have to figure out what’s going on and keep themselves and the people they love safe.“

One of Us is Back sees all our favourite characters and the infamous Bayview Murder club from previous books reunite.

Ever since that day in detention, life hasn’t been easy for the Bayview Crew.

Now Nate is trying to maintain a long-distance relationship with Bronwyn, who is struggling to balance her new life at Yale with her memories of Bayview.

Addy’s about to leave Bayview behind and take a leap into the unknown and Phoebe’s tired of keeping secrets. Everybody’s ready to move on.
Until a mysterious billboard arrives.

Time for a new game, Bayview.

And when a member of the crew disappears, it’s clear this ‘game’ just got serious – and no-one understands the rules.

Everyone’s a target. And now that someone unexpected has returned to Bayview, things are starting to get deadly.

Simon was right about secrets – they all come out in the end.

“It started with Simon. There is nothing more to say about that once this story is done, and I don’t have any current plans to revisit the characters, but I never say never if the right story comes to me, I could envision down the road maybe some sort of standalone book with them, you know, sort of similar to what Maureen Johnson did with with the truly devious trilogy, which I love. That was a complete story, but she’s also revisited the characters and new stories like the box in the woods, so maybe I definitely am not ruling it out. But Simon’s story, and everything that flowed from that is done with this book.

We first met the Bayview crew in the first book ‘One of Us is Lying’ a book that the readers all over the world fell in love with, taking characters like Nate, Bronwyn and Addy in to their hearts. And with the books being written with multiple point of views, reading the books you really get to know and love the characters and see them develop,

“I love writing different point of view is actually my favourite part really of the process. I think I spent a lot of time on characters upfront, doing little worksheets. For them, and trying to figure out the big things about them like what they want and what they’re scared of and what they’re hiding. But also the little things like what kind of clothes they wear and what kind of car they drive“.

“With One of Us is Back. It was great because I already knew them. They [readers] knew them very, very well. So there was less of that and more about what’s left for them to learn, you know, because you always have to, at least for my books, I always want to have some kind of character arc that moves alongside the mystery and sort of like you can’t solve the mystery unless you solve yourself at a very basic level. So figuring out what more do these characters what paces do they have to go through to get where I need them to be at the end. So that was where I spent most of my time with this particular round. And then there’s just a question of trying to make sure their voices feel distinct. They feel like real personalities, and that the ensemble as a whole works together.”

These characters have lived with Karen for years as has the overall story. The plot for One of Us is Back came from a plot thread in the first book in the series One of Us is Lying, that she ended cutting from it. But it stayed with her and helped to shape One of Us is Back. But saying goodbye to the characters and the story was tough.

“This particular story was interesting because it grew out of a plot thread that I had to edit out of the first book, which explains the motivations for one of the antagonists. And when I got my agent way back in 2016, she didn’t want to make big changes to the book. She felt like the right editor, you know, was gonna have a vision for it, which was true, but she did feel like that plot thread was distracting. And it was she was 100%. Right! I took it out.”

” But I always thought, you know, for me, there’s like a little bit more to the story. That’s built into the Bayview DNA. And so, readers are always asking me, Is there going to be another book? And I never really know until something hits me. But it did hit me that that could be a book. And I started thinking about what if I plucked that put it in the present day and you know, kind of built a story around that? Would that work? So it always started from knowing kind of who the antagonist of the story was and why they did what they did. But then there was the question of how do you make it current? How do you make it present? How do you make it relevant to these characters right in the here and now so that was the big focus of this book.”

“I got really emotional and I don’t usually get emotional. When I finished a book. I’m usually like, Thank God that’s done. But I actually cried which I don’t usually do like big sobs. It just was, you know, the end of an era is something that meant so much to me, means so much to me, and to readers. So it was emotional, and I definitely I felt that.”

Because she’s spent so long on these stories, characters crafting them and developing them in to the stories we’ve all come to love. Like every reader, Karen also has characters who she gravitates to more.

“It’s kind of a tie between two of the point of view characters and one of us is back and one of them is Addy. Addy, for me personally, I think is one of the most meaningful characters I’ve ever written. She means a lot to me. And so being back in her head was, you know, it felt like hanging out with no friends. And I really love to write Nate because Nate writes himself. I feel like I’m not doing anything. I just sit down. Say okay, go Nate. And off he goes. And it’s his sections. Always. I write them fast. They don’t need a lot of editing. I always know what he’s gonna do or say in any given situation. It’s just it’s really smooth writing him and it’s a lot of fun. And I know my readers enjoy reading him too. So that’s that’s fun, too. I kind of like the journey he’s been on throughout the book.
Definitely a a big, I think group of readers who wanted a wedding in this book, and I’m sorry, but they’re 19. Yeah, yeah, they’re not ready for that. But I see them as being in this for the long haul, you know, so So my readers can take that away.“

To help promote One of Us is Back, Karen has embarked on a huge book tour which will see her visit bookshops in the US before coming over to England for a week of events in Waterstone stores across the country.

“I like meeting readers. It’s usually a lot of fun. You know, it was less fun during COVID When we all had to keep feet apart and wear masks but for the most part, it’s just one of the more enjoyable parts of my job. They[readers] asked me a lot about the characters. You know, they kind of want to know almost behind the scenes, things I haven’t written. They want to know things like the characters astrological signs, or they you know, they want to know where they’re gonna be 10 years down the road. Or the way they went? Did they really mean X when you wrote x? Or did they maybe mean y so there’s lots of which I love, you know, lots of real, being really invested in these characters and really wanting to understand them..”

Karen is also currently working on her next book which should be released in summer 2024.”Another standalone novel similar to Two can Keep a Secret, Cousins, Nothing More to Tell and You’ll Be the Death of Me. So this will be along those lines dual point of view is very fun. For me because it’s got a heist element, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. And that’s new for me. There is also a murder mystery. So it’s like a murder mystery slash heist book.

“I think this was by far my hardest book. There was just so much going on plot wise. I have a lot of subject expert matters on call, you know, friends who are lawyers who are in law enforcement. You know, teachers certainly because I write a lot of things that are set in school. So I always try to stress test, you know, my ideas, but there’s also this element of, well, I know this probably isn’t exactly how it would happen. But how it would happen is maybe a little boring. So can I get away with this? You know, how far can I push against reality and not take the reader out of the experience, but make sure it’s as dramatic and as interesting as I can make it”

“When I am in the midst of a book and it’s going well then I will just write all day and half the night and you know, nobody has to tell me to do that. I just am driven to do it. And so I can write pretty quickly when that’s working. When it’s not I have to take a step back and figure out what’s wrong. So it’s like putting the brakes on the writing, going back to brainstorming, outlining to talking with my agent to just doing stuff that helps move my brain in different directions. You know, maybe take a walk, go to a museum, do something to get me out of the story. I find that a lot of times things will percolate behind the scenes when I’m not thinking directly about a plot problem and then it will come to the forefront when it’s ready.”

One Of Us is Back is out NOW, you can get a copy here and you can find out about Karen’s upcoming appearances here!

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