THE LYING GAME by Ruth Ware
Release Date: 25 July 2017
My Rating: 4.5/5
When a body, buried for decades, is discovered on the shore in Salten, Isa receives a text: “I need you.” She drops everything, sweeping her newborn along to the coastal town where she went to boarding school. Her three friends join her. The secret that they have repressed for so long is on the verge of exposure. The lying game, a childhood bit of mischief the girls invented, dictates: You can (and are encouraged!) to lie to anyone else…but never to one another. One of the girls has broken the rules and it will change everything.
Ruth Ware gets better with each novel and her third, this mystery thriller, is her best yet. She focuses on character development this go-round. Each of the four women are complex, unique, and their relationships with each other are deeply relatable. This does not interfere with the suspense and pace of the novel, which is still delightfully tense and twisted. A fast, fun read with depth and sympathetic protagonists–what could be better? Pick this novel up!