Staff Pick
Four teenage girls, boarding at the mediocre Salten School in southern England, become fast and tight friends, forming an exclusive clique. They play the "Lying Game" against the other students and staff, which serves to strengthen the impenetrable wall around them. But events begin to go wrong — frighteningly wrong — and they have only each other to turn to. Stoking the already explosive adolescent fires with lies, promises, secret loves, alcohol, jealousy, fear, rage, and revenge, Ware constructs an intricate story, a mesmerizing plot, and authentic characters; absolutely every page is electric with tension and dread. Utterly intoxicating! Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Praise for Ruth Ware's instant
New York Times,
USA TODAY, and
Los Angeles Times bestseller:
"So many questions....Until the very last page Needless to say, I could not put this book down " Reese Witherspoon
"Once again the author of The Woman in Cabin 10 delivers mega-chills." People
"Missing Big Little Lies? Dig into this psychological thriller about whether you can really trust your nearest and dearest." Cosmopolitan
From the instant New York Times bestselling author of blockbuster thrillers In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10 comes a chilling new novel of friendship, secrets, and the dangerous games teenaged girls play.
On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten, along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister...
The next morning, three women in and around London — Fatima, Thea, and Isa — receive the text they had always hoped would never come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, "I need you."
The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second-rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty. But their little game had consequences, and as the four converge in present-day Salten, they realize their shared past was not as safely buried as they had once hoped...
Atmospheric, twisty, and with just the right amount of chill to keep you wrong-footed, The Lying Game is told in Ruth Ware's signature suspenseful style, lending itself to becoming another unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.
Review
"A single cryptic text, ‘I need you,’ reunites four friends in the stippled light of an English seaside village just as surely as it signals readers that they’re in the hands of a pro…The Lying Game makes good on its premise that tall tales have consequences, especially when they’re exposed to the glare of truth." New York Times Book Review
Review
"Missing Big Little Lies? Dig into this psychological thriller about whether you can really trust your nearest and dearest." Cosmopolitan
Review
"The author of The Woman in Cabin 10 delivers a thoughtful thriller about four friends whose shared childhood secret threatens them now. A gripping whodunnit." Good Housekeeping
Review
"Fans of the mystery author who just won't quit will recognize Ware's singular ability to bait and switch in this wholly original story about four friends who conceive, innocently at first, a game of lies with dire repercussions." Marie Claire
About the Author
Ruth Ware grew up in Sussex, on the south coast of England. After graduating from Manchester University she moved to Paris, before settling in North London. She has worked as a waitress, a bookseller, a teacher of English as a foreign language and a press officer, and is The New York Times bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, and The Lying Game. Her latest book is The Death of Mrs. Westaway. She is married with two small children.