Fans of Paula Hawkins and Tana French are sure to love The Lying Game, the latest suspense novel from Ruth Ware (In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10). As The Lying Game opens, a dog discovers a bone on the beach near Salten, a small town at the edge of a tidal estuary known as the Reach. When the bone turns out to be human, police begin to investigate, and three London women--Isa, Fatima and Thea--get the text they've dreaded for years from their friend Kate, who lives at the edge of the Reach: "I need you." And the three women come running. They know that Kate, the fourth member of their clique from Salten House, the boarding school they attended, would use those words only in an emergency.
Isa has a new baby; Fatima, a family and a busy medical practice; and Thea, a job she loves. But Kate has never fully moved on from their school days, trapped by haunting memories. As the four friends reunite, events begin to unfold that will send them spiraling into the past, with consequences none of them could have foretold.
Ware unfolds the drama slowly, building the suspense about what exactly is troubling the women, and accurately capturing the angst they feel as their inseparable foursome begins to fray around the edges. As the tension ratchets toward the shocking ending, readers will be unable to put The Lying Game down. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans