Book Talk: Scottoline, ‘One Perfect Lie’

When I try to narrow the field to my favorite currently-writing authors, the list changes every couple of months. But one name that stands out year after year is Lisa Scottoline. Among other interests, like the newspaper column that she writes with her daughter, she has published dozens of crime/thrillers from contemporary to historical. 

Her 2017 New York Times bestseller, One Perfect Lie (369 pages in paperback format), is set in Central Valley, a small town in Pennsylvania, part of a broader farming community where everyone seems to know everybody else. Central Valley High School needs a mid-year replacement, and Chris Brennan applies for and gets the job teaching classes in government and coaching varsity baseball.

Chris has been “inserted” into his position because cameras picked up an indistinct image of a high-school-aged boy stealing the type of fertilizer that can be used to make explosives. It soon becomes clear that Chris is working undercover for the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives), the federal agency that enforces provisions pertaining to destructive devices, like bombs.