Gripping read unveils secrets

The Lying Game

By Ruth Ware, Penguin, $37

.. .. .. .. .. ..

With New York Times bestselling credentials in Ruth Ware’s box of tricks it’s only reasonable to have high expectations of her latest novel. That’s cool because you will not be disappointed as you tuck into The Lying Game.

Kate, Fatima, Thea and Isa were a tighter than tight clique when they were school boarders at Sarten. Together they ran a tight ship with their antics on the far edge of bad behaviour in the realm of boarding school misdemeanours. So bad that they were all shown the door in the wake of the discovery of just some of their high jinks. One aspect of their modus operandi is that lying is just a game, but never to each other.

Seventeen years on Isa receives a call for help from Kate, who still lives in the ramshackle house beside the sea and down the road from their former school. Isa responds to Kate’s SOS even though it means taking her 6-month-old daughter with her on the train. Fatima and Thea have also reacted to Kate’s call.

As the past and its secrets mix darkly with the present The Lying Game is a gripping and fearsome read. Together they seem strong, but is Kate hiding a desperate secret from the others? If so how will it impact on their adult lives all these years later?