AT THE SPEED OF LIES: Twists and thrills for teen readers with Cindy L. Otis & Sheila M. Averbuch

FREE Event

This is a live, in-person event.

Location: Christ Church Centre, 6a Morningside Road, EH10 4DD

Ever wanted to go viral? Come join us for the UK launch of AT THE SPEED OF LIES, the tense YA thriller by former CIA analyst Cindy L. Otis. When a small-town teen influencer becomes swept up in an online conspiracy after two kids disappear, she races to sort out what's true before the lies can turn deadly. Meet Cindy in conversation with Sheila M. Averbuch, author of middle-grade thriller FRIEND ME, in a special event hosted by The Edinburgh Bookshop.

About the Book:

The truth might be more terrifying and deadly than anyone knows...Quinn Calvet is supposed to have an epic junior year. That is until nobody can stop talking about two kids who were kidnapped near her small town in upstate New York. When her older sister, Ava, joins a new school club run by Quinn's now reformed school-tormentor, dedicated to find the missing kids, Quinn knows she needs to act.

Her luck looks like it might be changing when her posts about the missing kids and the school club go viral. At first Quinn is excited by the mass of new followers and attention her Insta is getting, but rumours, conspiracies and claims run rampant online and before she knows it, Quinn and her Instagram are at the centre of it all. Quinn must race to find out what happened to the missing kids amid the chaos before it can happen again.

A thriller like no other and perfect for fans of Karen McManus, Kathryn Foxfield and Cynthia Murphy, At The Speed of Lies shows that what we say and share online can have very real consequences offline, maybe even in other parts of the country or world.

About the Authors:

Cindy L. Otis is the author of the forthcoming novel At the Speed of Lies and the critically acclaimed non-fiction YA book True or False. In addition to writing, she is an internationally recognized expert in information threat analysis and previously worked for a decade as an intelligence analyst at the CIA.

Sheila M. Averbuch is a former journalist who's interviewed billionaires, hackers and would-be Mars colonists. She holds a 2019 New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust and lives with her family near Edinburgh.

The middle-grade thriller Friend Me is her first novel. With twists, turns, and lightning-fast pacing, this is a middle-grade thriller about bullying, revenge, and tech that young readers won't be able to put down. 

Praise for Friend Me: "Friend Me is a heart-racing escalation from toxic teen power play and the dangers of social media to a darkly searing near-future thriller."