When Erin arrives for class at Oshawa Secondary, she learns that her friend Marcel has been badly beaten up. She immediately wonders whether it was a gay-bashing, or whether he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Marcel is in a coma, so she has no clues to help her. As far as she knows he doesn't have any enemies, but there are plenty of guys at school who don't hide their hateful feelings for gay people. When the police investigation of Marcel's attack comes up against a brick wall, Erin decides she'll have to track down the guilty parties herself. Her search takes her on a dark journey through throbbing dance clubs and back alleys in a desperate effort to discover the truth. Truth and Lies is a gritty, suspenseful story that examines the prejudice and hatred faced by gay people in our society, both within school walls and beyond them. [Fry Reading Level - 4.7