The Lying Game is a story of four friends who are bound over by their teenage schooldays, a game and one moment in time that changed everything.

Isa, Thea, Fatima and Kate all went to school at Salten together and although they were boarders, they spent any time they could at Kate’s house – her Dad Ambrose owned the Tide Mill down at the Reach, and worked as an art teacher at Salten House (school). The girls are tied together by their past, and so one day 17 years after leaving Salten House school, when the others all receive the same message from Kate … “I need you”, they go to her at the Mill. Now adults, careers and children their past times, they re-discover their friendship and the changes that have occurred over time. But why has Kate reached out to them? What is the secret from their youth? And why are there hostilities from some locals and warm welcomes from others?

This is another human observation story from Ruth Ware, detailed with the human endeavours to form connections and bonds, to have life experiences, and to bear witness to each other – with even the lifting of an eyebrow, and the ripple of the water.

As a reader, the first half of the story is swathed with conflicting emotions; warmth, anxiety, nostalgia, no character or circumstances induced fear, more of concern. You feel that there is something you’re missing, you’re searching to find between the lines, to be able to appreciate the true gravity of their history.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story – I couldn’t put it down, at various points speculating, guessing, wondering what on earth had happened to them all. Ruth has cleverly written the characters so that the reader gets to know them as adults with the growth of opinions and life experiences, whilst still enjoying them as the 15 year olds friends are introduced to. She gives them flaws and scars, and every day doubts that bring Isa, Thea, Fatima and Kate to life, in particular when they are ‘standing’ within the quagmire of Mary Wren, Luc, and Owen. Lies and lying is central to this tale, and Ruth shows us the rules of the game, whilst subtly revealing the consequences of weaving a web of deceit.

Themes: friendship, family, ghosts, love, memory, time, trust, abuse, parenting, secrets, nostalgia, addiction, art, gossip, boarding school, lies

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publishers Random House UK, Vintage for my free copy.

Published 15 June 2017 by Vintage Digital

There aren't many book that we give five starts to but this is one of them. Wow what a read, a real keep you on the edge of your seat read. This is the third of Ruth's books I have read and have loved them all, but they keep getting better and better.... an exception read.

The Lying game has simple rules - 1) Tell a lie, 2) Stick to the story, 3) Do not get caught. Isa and friends played the lying game during their school days, only the lies always went a little too far.... They have been sitting on one lie for almost two decades and suddenly, as they always expected it rears its ugly head. Although they have all got on with their lives - lawyers, Doctors included in their professions - one text "I need you" brings them all back together and the lie they all told to hide the truth is about to surface. Or is it....? was the lie they told to cover things up accurate. The truth always finds a way out.

This book makes for easy, but suspenseful reading... I could not put it down and read it in less than 24 hours. I was even reading as I ate! It really is one of the best books I have read in the psychological thriller genre. One that comes highly recommended.

This book follows a group of girls who met at school, who bonded over a game called The Lying Game. A game where the girls compete to tell the biggest lie they can. However what we soon find out is that maybe some of the girls are better at lying than it seemed. This is a fantastic thrilling book, that will keep you guessing until the last page. It's so gripping, i devoured this in a night! Highly recommend

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started The Lying Game, and actually looking back, that's probably a good thing. For this book to have maximum impact I do think it's best to go in to it blind.

If I'm totally honest, I'm not sure I enjoyed the first couple of chapters, this story is quite slow to get started in terms of things actually happening. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but here I feel like it takes a long time to get to the point maybe?

But that's where my discontent with this novel ends, because as soon as I got to that point, I was genuinely hooked. The Lying Game revolves around four friends, Isa, Kate, Thea and Fatima, who were together as teenagers at a boarding school in Salten.

The four were inseparable in boarding school, all took part in the lying game, a silly school girl game designed to make anyone in the school believe the most outrageous lies for the purposes of scoring points against one another.

Is it Salten where they are all summoned to meet again, in the middle of the night via a text message from Kate 'I need you'. None of them question dropping everything in their new adult lives, the fact that they are needed is their only concern.

Something bad must have happened for Kate to summon them all back there. Something that could ruin their lives forever. For all four women are harbouring a secret, the final devastating lie in their lying game, and now they are terrified that the truth is about to come out.

Thank you netgalley..
'I need you' is all it takes for Isa to drop everything and take her baby to Salten. Where she meets with her 3 friends.
A bone has been found, dredging up the girls past. Full of lies and deceit.

I enjoyed this book but not as much as I hoped I would.
Well worth a read!!

A favourite author, this book didn't disappoint. Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed this book.
It's about four friends who used to play 'The Lying Game' at school and the story starts off with one of the girls texting the others saying 'I need you'
It's clear something happened when they were teenagers but the truth doesn't come out until the end.
This book really made me think about the way even a small lie can spiral out of control and I really felt for all the girls in the story.
There's lots to think about as you read this book and as I said it doesn't all become clear until right st the end... and what an ending!
I would recommend this book if you like crime thrillers.
Thanks to NetGalley and Vintage Digital publishers for sending me a copy to read.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I really like this author and this did not disappoint at all but was not as good as her previous books

Isa is a new mum, besotted with her small daughter and in love with her partner. Life is going well- until a text from an old friend makes her drop everything & set off with her daughter to the area she has not been to since she was a schoolgirl.

As a shy fifteen year old, struggling with her mother's failing health she was sent to a boarding school where she became part of a foursome who took great delight in telling outrageous lies, keeping score. Now lies told so many years ago are catching up with them. The close friendship forged between the four girls on the windswept coastal location endures so that when three of them receive the text, "I need you" from Kate- the only one who lived near the school, they all head for the dilapidated Mill that is gradually being claimed back by the sea and where a body has been found nearby. The girls realise they have been waiting for their lies to catch up with them.

Told by Isa, this book totally draws you into that windswept coast. Ruth Ware gradually builds up the feeling of menace so the reader, like Isa, is looking over their shoulder. I really loved this book and couldn't put it down. The characters & events have also lived on in my thoughts after the last page- the mark of a great book. Definitely five stars! Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read this super book.

The Lying Game is literally a game played by four schoolgirls. There are rules, but the rules are broken and those lies won't always remain undetected. The repurcussions that follow the truth could destroy their lives.

Isa, Thea, Kate and Fatima are fifteen years old and they are brought together at a boarding school in Salten. They play the lying game, where they try to outdo one another as long as they don't lie about or to each other.

They don't play by the rules and escape to the Mill, Kate's home, where they indulge in various forbidden activities. One of them sends a distress call to the others and what they face is surprising and heartbreaking. They make a decision and swear to stick together. Then, they are given no option but to go their separate ways.

Seventeen years later, they receive another distress call and they drop everything to return to Salten. Their past deeds are catching up with them.

This story is told in Isa's POV and through her reflections, the things they did all those years ago are recounted while the present situation unfolds.

Isa's loyalty to the her friends is applaudable. She puts her own relationship on the line without a second thought, and her six months old daughter is pushed from pillar to post. Her actions are irresponsible for someone so mature. More lies and deceit come to the surface. More tragedy follows.

The narration of the story is fluid despite the going back and forth in time. There is suspense, but predictable in places. This psychological thriller builds up at a steady pace. It captured and held my attention.

I was kindly issued with an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley and the views expressed are my personal opinion.

When I'm promised a 'twisting new mystery' I'm straight away intrigued and ready to read that book. The premise of 'The Lying Game' was good, with four friends from secondary school bound together by a lie. 17 years on from that initial lie, four former school friends are called back together to address the repercussions of such a lie. The first few chapters promised a plot full of intrigue and mystery, but sadly that was where it ended. I found the storyline took a very long to get anywhere of interest, with a lot of additional details that didn't seem necessary. One of the characters had a young baby who was often written into the scenes, but this didn't seem to add anything to the story and we could have done without these details. You could tell quite early on where the plot was leading, but even as I got to about 80% of the way through I expected there was going to be an explosive plot twist. Sadly, the ending was so anti-climactic and didn't really amount too much. I finished this book thinking: 'Was that IT?!'. It was the book equivalent of asking someone a straight-forward question and getting a 20-minute long round the houses answer. As a short story this might have been nice and punchy with thrills aplenty, but for a full-length novel this really didn't do much for me I'm afraid.



The text message arrives in the small hours of the night. It’s just three words: I need you.
Isa drops everything, takes her baby daughter and heads straight to Salten. She spent the most significant days of her life at boarding school on the marshes there, days which still cast their shadow over her.

At school Isa and her three best friends used to play the Lying Game. They competed to convince people of the most outrageous stories. Now, after seventeen years of secrets, something terrible has been found on the beach. Something which will force Isa to confront her past, together with the three women she hasn't seen for years, but has never forgotten.

Theirs is no cosy reunion: Salten isn't a safe place for them, not after what they did. It’s time for the women to get their story straight…

Ruth Ware’s third novel revolves around four girls, friends from boarding school, with a terrible secret they’ve held for 17 years. We soon learn that their days in Salten aren’t exactly a sequel to Malory Towers. When a bone is discovered in the Reach in Salten, a message is sent from Kate to the other three saying “I Need You”. Knowing what this means, they come running, leaving their lives behind. We soon see that this is not a happy reunion, and there are deep dark secrets held back in their day to day lives. Told through the viewpoint of Isa, a new mother and one of the four who have held back this secret all these years, The Lying Game is full of twists and turns until the last minute. I was genuinely left guessing until the very end, although I definitely had a lot of conspiracy theories along the way. I’d definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a gripping thriller.

An atmospheric thriller with tales of friendship, lies and deceit. A game invented as children follows them into adulthood and the results are deadly. Fantastic read.

This story is so believable with clearly described characters. It is based upon the friendship of 4 girls who go to the same boarding school and form a very tight friendship, excluding others. The story begins with a single text message that gathers the girls together again after an elongated period of 17 years separation . All the way through the book the lives of these four girls, the half brother, the artist father and the school are pitched against the secret that binds them all together. It has many twists and turns and I found that I had just decided what really happened when the ground is swept away and new information appears. I loved the descriptions of the Salton marshes, the tides and the collapsing Mill House as a reader I felt the danger of the seas clearly.
I did not find it an all absorbing thriller, more a mystery but an excellent read nevertheless. It was slow to start but gradually I found that I could not put the book down as I wanted to solve the’ who done what and why’.

This is a story of four friends; Kate, Isa, Thea and Fatima, who many years ago went to the same boarding school together. They all hold the same secret – a secret that if revealed will supposedly destroy them all.


Ruth Ware has created a very mysterious atmosphere. Four old friends are reunited, but why?! Why has Isa, of whom the majority of the tale is told from the point of view of, received a text in the middle of the night summoning her back to her old stomping ground?! Isa even has her baby daughter in tow when she returns.

Kate, who still lives in the small town of Salten, is the sender of the message which results in all three friends going back to their old home. Why has Kate text them all?! And why do all three women drop everything to run back to their old friend?! What is it that they are hiding?!

So many questions I was dying to get answered.

Something strange must have happened in the past for them all to act in this way… and I sure as heck couldn’t wait to find out what.

The Lying Game isn’t a fast-paced, edge of your seat kind of read but it is one that will suck you in with its cleverly crafted storyline. The descriptions will mesmerise you and as the story develops, there is so much tension that I could feel my pulse throbbing as I reached the finishing line.

This is a good, solid read if you want something that you don’t have to think too much about but will surprise you with where it leads.

Thank you to Random House UK, Vintage Publishing and Netgalley for supplying me with an e-copy of this book in return for my honest opinion. For those interested, The Lying Game is already available to buy.

After loving Ruth Ware's previous novels, I was so excited to be approved for this novel and I wasn't disappointed. The characters were all perfectly drawn and captivating. I hate perfect characters, I love for them to have real, believable flaws and Ruth certainly delivered here. So many times, I found myself practically screaming at the decisions Isa made both in the past and the present.
I'm usually good at figuring out plots, but this kept me guessing til the end. Every time I thought I knew, something happened to make me question everything. And those last three chapters...! Wow! Incredible book that I can't recommend enough.

Thanks for providing a review copy!

Ruth Ware is always a safe bet, and I can't wait for her next book. As ever, this was a gripping and twisty read with interesting and believable characters. I finished it pretty quickly due to Ware's great storytelling, because I never really fully felt invested in the main character. It fits in with the rest of Ware's work and her themes of female friendship and hidden secrets are refreshing and exciting.

The Lying Game is a slow burning psychological thriller about four friends who are bound together by lies.

“A lie can outlast any truth.”

When 15 year old Isa Wilde is sent to coastal boarding school, Salten, she quickly befriends Kate, Thea, and Fatima. The girls participate in a game, called “The Lying Game,” which isolates their classmates and causes local townies to hate them.

There are 5 rules to the game: TELL A LIE, STICK TO YOUR STORY, DON'T GET CAUGHT, NEVER LIE TO EACH OTHER, KNOW WHEN TO STOP LYING.

After a horrible event occurs leading to the expulsion of the liars, the game ends but the girls never stop lying. They make a pact to never share what really happened, and keep the secret buried for 17 years.

Switch to the present, and Isa is a 32 year old attorney living in London with her newborn daughter, Freya, and partner, Owen. She’s lost contact with the other girls, but when she receives a text from Kate simply stating, “I need you,” she drops everything and runs to her friend’s side. Kate, Isa, Thea and Fatima reunite, desperate to keep their secret under wraps. It soon becomes apparent that one of them has broken perhaps the most pivotal rule: NEVER LIE TO EACH OTHER.

Told from Isa’s perspective, the narrative switches back and forth between the past and present. Isa shares a lot about how things used to be, and while the narrative shifts to the past we only get small glimpses of the friends time together, which hindered my ability to really get a full picture of their friendship. This is one of the reasons I had trouble with this book. I also found Isa’s voice stifling.

The Lying Game isn’t bad, it’s just not great. While it's very well-written, there was something lacking for me. Often, I was bored--but this might be because I figured out the mystery super early on. Such a shame because I have read all of Ruth's books and love her but this one was a bit dull. If it weren't for her brilliant writing style I wouldn't have finished it.

I've reviewed Ruth Ware's debut novel here and when the fabulous Reese Witherspoon recommended this for her book group I decided to check it out, after all, who is to argue with Reeese?!  The book started off grippingly enough - Isa receives a text from an old school friend reading simply 'I need you'.  This is enough for her to immediately drop everything, literally she just packs up her baby and goes and travels to Salten to stay with Kate, whilst awaiting the arrival of the other girls that made up their group at school.  The girls all met when they were 16 and sent to boarding school - Kate, Isa, Fatima and Thea were all very different and nobody would have predicted the bond that they would form with each other.   They begin a game, the lying game where they  make up a lie and get points for how well it is believed by others.  What they don't realise is the effects that this game will have on those around them.  But the girls are well practised in their lies and it is apparent from the very start that all four of them are continuing to lie to their nearest and dearest to this very day - the only people they don't lie to is each other.  Isn't it?

I did enjoy this book and it is a real page-turner but I guess I did question how quickly and easily all four were able to drop everything and meet up, despite having had no real contact with each other in about 17 years.  I also found the ending a touch disappointing.  I can't really explain it but it didn't end the way in which maybe I thought it deserved.  It is hard to explain.  If you do pick up a copy, and I'd recommend you do, please let me know what you thought when you finished it.

This would be a good read for a holiday, but I found it lacked depth. An enjoyable enough thriller though.