Plus, receive recommendations and exclusive offers on all of your favorite books and authors from Simon & Schuster.
Table of Contents
About The Book
From the New York Times and #1 Globe and Mail bestselling author of blockbuster thrillers The Woman in Cabin 10 and In a Dark, Dark Wood comes a chilling new novel of friendship, secrets, and the dangerous games teenaged girls play.
“I need you.” Three small words that change everything.
Isa Wilde knows something terrible has happened when she receives this text from an old friend. Why else would Kate summon her and their two friends Thea and Fatima to the seaside town where they briefly attended school together seventeen years ago?
The four friends first met at Salten House boarding school, where they quickly bonded over The Lying Game, a risky contest that involved tricking fellow boarders and faculty with their lies. But the game had consequences, and the girls were eventually expelled after Kate’s dad, their beloved art teacher, mysteriously disappeared. Forever bound by their lies but needing to forget their past, they went their separate ways—Kate remaining in Salten while the other three left to start new lives in and around London.
Now reunited, Isa, Kate, Thea, and Fatima discover that their past lies had far-reaching effects and criminal implications that threaten them all. In order to protect their reputations, and their friendship, they must uncover the truth about what really happened all those years ago.
Atmospheric, twisty, with just the right amount of chill, The Lying Game will have readers at the edge of their seats, not knowing who can be trusted in this tangled web of lies.
Excerpt
The Reach is wide and quiet this morning, the pale blue sky streaked with pink mackerel-belly clouds, the shallow sea barely rippling in the slight breeze, and so the sound of the dog barking breaks into the calm like gunshots, setting flocks of gulls crying and wheeling in the air.
Plovers and terns explode up as the dog bounds joyously down the river bank, scampering down the runnelled side, where the earth turns from spiky grassy dunes to reed-specked mud, where the water wavers between salt and fresh.
In the distance the Tide Mill stands sentinel, black and battered against the cool calm of the morning sky, the only man-made structure in a landscape slowly crumbling back into the sea.
“Bob!” The woman’s voice rings out above the volley of barks as she pants to catch up. “Bob, you rascal. Drop it. Drop it, I say. What’ve you found?”
As she draws closer, the dog tugs again at the object protruding from the mud, trying to pull it free.
“Bob, you filthy brute, you’re covered. Let it go. Oh God, it’s not another dead sheep, is it?”
It’s the last heroic yank that sends the dog staggering back along the shore, something in its jaw. Triumphant, he scrambles up the bank to lay the object at the feet of his owner.
And as she stands, looking dumbstruck, the dog panting at her feet, the silence returns to the bay like a tide coming in.
The Lying Game
The sound is just an ordinary text alert, a quiet beep beep in the night that does not wake Owen, and would not have woken me except that I was already awake, lying there, staring into the darkness, the baby at my breast snuffling, not quite feeding, not quite unlatching.
I lie there for a moment thinking about the text, wondering who it could be. Who’d be texting at this hour? None of my friends would be awake . . . unless it’s Milly gone into labor already . . . God, it can’t be Milly, can it? I’d promised to take Noah if Milly’s parents couldn’t get up from Devon in time to look after him, but I never really thought . . .
I can’t quite reach the phone from where I’m lying, and at last I unlatch Freya with a finger in the corner of her mouth, and rock her gently onto her back, milk-sated, her eyes rolling back in her head like someone stoned. I watch her for a moment, my palm resting lightly on her firm little body, feeling the thrum of her heart in the birdcage of her chest as she settles, and then I turn to check my phone, my own heart quickening slightly like a faint echo of my daughter’s.
As I tap in my PIN, squinting slightly at the brightness of the screen, I tell myself to stop being silly—it’s four weeks until Milly’s due, it’s probably just a spam text, Have you considered claiming a refund for your payment protection insurance?
But, when I get the phone unlocked, it’s not Milly. And the text is only three words.
I need you.
• • •
IT IS 3:30 A.M., AND I am very, very awake, pacing the cold kitchen floor, biting at my fingernails to try to quell the longing for a cigarette. I haven’t touched one for nearly ten years, but the need for one ambushes me at odd moments of stress and fear.
I need you.
I don’t need to ask what it means—because I know, just as I know who sent it, even though it’s from a number I don’t recognize.
Kate.
Kate Atagon.
Just the sound of her name brings her back to me, like a vivid rush—the smell of her soap, the freckles across the bridge of her nose, cinnamon against olive. Kate. Fatima. Thea. And me.
I close my eyes and picture them all, the phone still warm in my pocket, waiting for the texts to come through.
Fatima will be lying asleep beside Ali, curled into his spine. Her reply will come around 6:00 a.m., when she gets up to make breakfast for Nadia and Samir and get them ready for school.
Thea—Thea is harder to picture. If she’s working nights she’ll be in the casino, where phones are forbidden to staff and shut up in lockers until their shifts are finished. She’ll roll off shift at eight in the morning, perhaps? Then she’ll have a drink with the other girls, and then she’ll reply, wired up with a successful night dealing with punters, collating chips, watching for cardsharps and professional gamblers.
And Kate. Kate must be awake—she sent the text, after all. She’ll be sitting at her dad’s worktable—hers now, I suppose—in the window overlooking the Reach, with the waters turning pale gray in the predawn light, reflecting the clouds and the dark hulk of the Tide Mill. She will be smoking, as she always did. Her eyes will be on the tides, the endlessly shifting, eddying tides, on the view that never changes and yet is never the same from one moment to the next—just like Kate herself.
Her long hair will be drawn back from her face, showing her fine bones, and the lines that thirty-two years of wind and sea have etched at the corners of her eyes. Her fingers will be stained with oil paint, ground into the cuticles, deep beneath the nails, and her eyes will be at their darkest slate blue, deep and unfathomable. She will be waiting for our replies. But she knows what we’ll say—what we’ve always said, whenever we got that text, those three words.
I’m coming.
I’m coming.
I’m coming.
The Lying Game
I’m coming!” I shout it up the stairs, as Owen calls something down above Freya’s sleepy squawking cries.
When I get up to the bedroom he’s holding her, pacing back and forth, his face still pink and crumpled from the pillow.
“Sorry,” he says, stifling a yawn. “I tried to calm her down but she wasn’t having any of it. You know what she’s like when she’s hungry.”
I crawl onto the bed and scoot backwards into the pillows until I’m sitting against the headboard, and Owen hands me a red-faced, indignant Freya who takes one affronted look up at me and then lunges for my breast with a little grunt of satisfaction.
All is quiet, except for her greedy suckling. Owen yawns again, ruffles his hair, and looks at the clock, and then begins pulling on his underwear.
“Are you getting up?” I ask in surprise. He nods.
“I might as well. No point in going back to sleep when I’ve got to get up at seven anyway. Bloody Mondays.”
I look at the clock. Six a.m. It’s later than I thought. I must have been pacing the kitchen for longer than I realized.
“What were you doing up, anyway?” he asks. “Did the bin lorry wake you?”
I shake my head.
“No, I just couldn’t sleep.”
A lie. I’d almost forgotten how they feel on my tongue, slick and sickening. I feel the hard, warm bump of my phone in my dressing gown pocket. I’m waiting for it to vibrate.
“Fair enough.” He suppresses another yawn and buttons up his shirt. “Want a coffee, if I put one on?”
“Yeah, sure,” I say. Then, just as he’s leaving the room, “Owen—”
But he’s already gone and he doesn’t hear me.
Ten minutes later he comes back with the coffee, and this time I’ve had time to practice my lines, work out what I’m going to say, and the semi-casual way I’m going to say it. Still I swallow and lick my lips, dry-mouthed with nerves.
“Owen, I got a text from Kate yesterday.”
“Kate from work?” He puts the coffee down with a little bump, it slops slightly, and I use the sleeve of my dressing gown to mop the puddle, protecting my book, giving me time to reply.
“No, Kate Atagon. You know, I went to school with her?”
“Oh, that Kate. The one who brought her dog to that wedding we went to?”
“That’s right. Shadow.”
I think of him. Shadow—a white German shepherd with a black muzzle and soot-speckled back. I think of the way he stands in the doorway, growls at strangers, rolls his snowy belly up to those he loves.
“So . . . ?” Owen prods, and I realize I’ve stopped talking, lost my thread.
“Oh, right. So she’s invited me to come and stay, and I thought I might go.”
“Sounds like a nice idea. When would you go?”
“Like . . . now. She’s invited me now.”
“And Freya?”
“I’d take her.”
Of course, I nearly add, but I don’t. Freya has never taken a bottle, in spite of a lot of trying on my part, and Owen’s. The one night I went out for a party, she screamed solidly from 7:30 p.m. to 11:58, when I burst through the doors of the flat to snatch her out of Owen’s limp, exhausted arms.
There’s another silence. Freya leans her head back, watching me with a small frown, and then gives a quiet belch and returns to the serious business of getting fed. I can see thoughts flitting across Owen’s face . . . That he’ll miss us . . . That he’ll have the bed all to himself . . . Lie-ins . . .
“I could get on with decorating the nursery,” he says at last. I nod, although this is the continuation of a long discussion between the two of us—Owen would like the bedroom, and me, back to himself and thinks that Freya will be going into her own room imminently, when she turns six months. I . . . don’t. Which is partly why I’ve not found the time to clear the guest room of all our clutter and repaint it in baby-friendly colors.
“Sure,” I say.
“Well, go for it, I reckon,” Owen says at last. He turns away and begins sorting through his ties. “Do you want the car?” he asks over his shoulder.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll take the train. Kate will pick me up from the station.”
“Are you sure? You won’t want to be lugging all Freya’s stuff on the train, will you? Is this straight?”
“What?” For a minute I’m not sure what he’s on about, and then I realize—the tie. “Oh, yes, it’s straight. No, honestly, I’m happy to take the train. It’ll be easier; I can feed Freya if she wakes up. I’ll just put all her stuff in the bottom of the pram.” He doesn’t respond, and I realize he’s already running through the day ahead, ticking things off a mental checklist just as I used to do a few months ago—only it feels like a different life. “Okay, well, look, I might leave today if that’s all right with you.”
“Today?” He scoops his change off the chest of drawers and puts it in his pocket, and then comes over to kiss me good-bye on the top of my head. “What’s the hurry?”
“No hurry,” I lie. I feel my cheeks flush. I hate lying. It used to be fun—until I didn’t have a choice. I don’t think about it much now, perhaps because I’ve been doing it for so long, but it’s always there, in the background, like a tooth that always aches and suddenly twinges with pain.
Most of all, though, I hate lying to Owen. Somehow I always managed to keep him out of the web, and now he’s being drawn in. I think of Kate’s text, sitting there on my phone, and it feels as if poison is leaching out of it, into the room—threatening to spoil everything.
“It’s just Kate’s between projects, so it’s a good time for her and . . . well, I’ll be back at work in a few months, so it just feels like now’s as good a time as any.”
“Okay,” he says, bemused but not suspicious. “Well, I guess I’d better give you a proper good-bye kiss, then.”
He kisses me, properly, deeply, making me remember why I love him, why I hate deceiving him. Then he pulls away and kisses Freya. She swivels her eyes sideways to regard him suspiciously, pausing in her feed for a moment, and then she resumes sucking with the single-minded determination that I love about her.
“Love you, too, little vampire,” Owen says affectionately. Then, to me, “How long is the journey?”
“Four hours, maybe? Depends how the connections go.”
“Okay, well, have a great time, and text me when you get there. How long do you think you’ll stay?”
“A few days?” I hazard. “I’ll be back before the weekend.” Another lie. I don’t know. I have no idea. As long as Kate needs me. “I’ll see when I get there.”
“Okay,” he says again. “Love you.”
“I love you, too.” And at last, that’s something I can tell the truth about.
Reading Group Guide
Get a FREE ebook by joining our mailing list today! Plus, receive recommendations for your next Book Club read.
Introduction
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 a human bone.
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. It 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. The rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other—ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. 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 thought.
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 become another unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.
Topics and Questions for Discussion
1. Describe the Lying Game and its rules. What inspired Thea originally to come up with the idea for the game? Why do she and Kate decide to include Fatima and Isa in the Lying Game? What about the game is appealing to the girls?
2. Isa says that Kate “knows what we’ll say—what we’ve always said, whenever we got that text” (p. 5). Were you surprised by how quickly Isa, Fatima, and Thea rushed down to Salten upon receiving Kate’s text? Why do they rush to her aid so quickly? Do you have any friends whom you would do the same for?
3. Describe the Tide Mill. What role has it played in the adolescence of the girls in the clique, and why is it so important to Kate, in particular? Isa is convinced that Kate will never leave the Tide Mill or Salten. Did you think she was correct in her assessment as the novel progressed? Why might Kate be unwilling or unable to leave?
4. When Isa and her friends reunite at Salten seventeen years after they have been dismissed from school there, Thea gives the same toast that she gave when they were students: “To us . . . May we never grow old” (p. 56). What is Isa’s reaction to Thea’s toast? Were you surprised by it? Why do you think Isa reacts the way she does? How has she changed since leaving Salten as a student?
5. Each section of The Lying Game begins with a rule from the game. What’s the effect of having the rules as chapter headings? How do they inform your reading of the story?
6. Isa says, “I once tried to describe Ambrose to an old boyfriend . . . but I found it almost impossible” (p. 73). How would you describe Ambrose? What kind of a teacher and parent was he? Mary Wren says that Ambrose would have done anything for his children whereas Fatima describes him as “an irresponsible fool” (p. 243). Why do each of the women feel so differently about Ambrose? What did you think of him?
7. Isa’s housemistress tells her, “I’m very glad you’ve found friends. But remember, part of being a well-rounded young woman is having a wide variety of friends” (p. 99). Do you agree with the housemistress? What were some of the benefits of having such close friends? Mary describes Isa and her friends as a “little clique” (p. 105). Is that an accurate description? How does Isa feel about Mary’s description and the clique itself as an adult? Were there any disadvantages to being part of it?
8. Rick praises Kate for staying in Salten, telling her, “Your dad was a good man, no matter what others in this place say, and you done well to stick it out here with the gossips” (p. 23). Do you think that Kate is brave for staying in Salten? Why or why not? Discuss some of the rumors about Kate and her father. What are they? Why might the townspeople find them plausible? Were there any rumors that you thought had merit? Which ones and why?
9. On Isa’s first morning back at the Mill, Kate discovers a dead sheep. Who or what did you think was responsible for the sheep’s death? Why? Describe the note that Isa finds in Kate’s pocket. What does it say? Although Isa’s initial impulse is to tell Fatima, “a kind of instinct takes over” (p. 88). Why doesn’t Isa tell Fatima about the note? Would you?
10. When Isa reflects upon the events that took place, she muses that she will tell Freya “a story about bravery, and selflessness, and sacrifice” (p. 366). Do you agree with Isa? Do any of the characters in The Lying Game embody the traits that Isa enumerates? If so, who? How would you characterize the events that have taken place at Salten both during Isa’s school days and at the friends’ reunion?
11. When describing the events that happened shortly before their expulsion from Salten, Thea proclaims that the girls had no choice but to take the actions that they did. Do you agree with Isa when she cries, “Of course we had a choice!” (p. 197). Why or why not? Why might the girls have felt that they had no other options in the moment? Do you think that Kate took advantage of her friends when she asked for their help? If so, how?
12. Although Isa wants to tell Owen what she and her friends did while they were students at Salten, she feels she “can’t. Because it’s not only my secret—it’s theirs, too. And I have no right to betray them” (p. 223). Do you agree with Isa’s decision to withhold this information from Owen? Explain your answer. Do you think that there are any instances when it is permissible to betray a shared secret? If so, what are they?
13. Isa says that she and her friends “have spent seventeen years running and hiding, in our different ways” (p. 93). What are they hiding from? Describe the ways that each of the women has attempted to run from their shared past. Have any of their attempts been successful? Why or why not?
14. What were your initial impressions of Luc? Did you trust him? Why or why not? Describe his relationship with Ambrose and Kate. Were you surprised by his anger as an adult? Why does he harbor such resentment toward Kate? Do you think he is justified in doing so?
Enhance Your Book Club
1. When Isa is on the way to Salten, she muses, “It is heart-stoppingly familiar. London, in all the years I’ve lived there, has been constantly changing . . . But this line, this journey—it hasn’t changed at all” (p. 15). Are there any places in your life that remain unchanged? What are they? Tell your book club about them.
2. Of Kate, Fatima, and Thea, Isa says, “I can’t tell where I end and the others begin” (p. 143). Do you have friends like Isa’s? Share some details with your book club.
3. When you were in school, did you play any games like the Lying Game with your friends? If so, what did you call them? Tell your book club about the games you played, explaining the rules.
4. Owen treats Isa to a day at a spa and, although she doesn’t think it will help her relax, when she gives herself “over to the practiced hands of the spa therapist . . . somehow all the obsessive thoughts are pummeled out of me” (p. 260). Have you ever been to a spa? Did you find it similarly relaxing? Plan a spa day with your book club and unwind together.
5. To learn more about Ruth Ware, read excerpts from her books, and find out if she will be in a city near you, visit her official site at ruthware.com. You can also follow Ruth Ware on twitter at @ruthwarewriter for regular updates on her writing.
A Conversation with Ruth Ware
Both of your previous novels have been New York Times bestsellers. Given the success of your earlier books, did you feel any added pressure when writing The Lying Game? If so, how did you deal with it while you were writing?
I found the success of In a Dark, Dark Wood really distracting when I was writing The Woman in Cabin 10, but in a way the fact that Cabin 10 was doing well felt quite freeing while I was writing The Lying Game. I suppose my biggest worry was proving a “one-hit wonder.” The fact that Cabin 10 was giving Wood a run for its money made me feel like I was (hopefully) not just going to be a flash in the pan as a writer.
As a New York Times bestselling novelist, do you have any advice for aspiring writers? Is there anything that you wish you had known when you first began your career as a professional writer?
Oh, I wish there was a magic fix or some piece of advice that would smooth everything out—I’d bottle it and make a fortune! The only advice I can give to aspiring writers is to write the book that you would want to read, and hope other people agree. As for the publishing side . . . I guess one can do worse than follow the advice Rudyard Kipling gave in his poem “If,” particularly meeting with triumph and disaster just the same (which I interpret as good and bad reviews!).
You describe Salten and the girls’ experiences there so vividly. Was Salten based on a real place? How did you come up with it?
The landscape around Salten is sort of loosely based on Romney Marsh on the south coast, which is eerily beautiful and very isolated. But the Tide Mill is based on one I drove past one misty morning in northern France, in Brittany. It’s near a place called Saint-Suliac. The place I saw is definitely not habitable—it was quite clearly dilapidated beyond repair—but I was completely entranced by the landscape—the bleak, wide salt marshes, the bleached blue skies, and this black crumbling hulk slowly disappearing into the sea. I knew there and then I would end up putting it into a book.
The Lying Game is intricately plotted and filled with unexpected twists. When you began writing, did you know how the story would end?
I had the bones of the story in place from the outset, and the final cataclysmic scene at the Mill was in my mind from the beginning. But the exact twists and turns (including who was responsible for some of the creepier happenings) only revealed themselves in the writing.
There are so many memorable scenes in The Lying Game, from Isa’s train ride down to Salten where she meets Kate and Thea to the girls’ weekends at the Tide Mill. What were your favorite scenes to write? Why?
Ooh . . . hard question! Possibly my favorite was the scene where Isa meets Mary Wren at the post office for the first time. I love writing a scene with a good measure of conflict. But I also love the scenes where all the women are together, figuring stuff out. I really enjoy writing about female friendship. It’s an endlessly interesting dynamic for me.
In The Lying Game, the action alternates between the past when the girls were in school at Salten and present day. Was it difficult to switch between time periods while you were writing? Can you tell us about your writing process?
I write as if I’m someone reading the book—often people ask if I write one strand first, and then go back and seed in the other, but I don’t think I could keep track of who knows what, and the tension would come out wrong, so the answer is no—I write it more or less in the order you read it. (The more or less part being because sometimes my editors will ask me to go back and add an extra scene here or there.) I didn’t find it hard at all to switch back and forth; it felt very natural because the present strand is in the present tense, and the past strand is all linked to Isa’s memories. It did make it hard to edit, however. Normally you can move scenes around if you need to, to preserve a reveal for later in the book, or prolong the tension for some reason. But because all the past scenes are triggered by Isa’s memories—often by specific things that happen in the present-day narrative—it meant that it was really hard to change things.
Kirkus Reviews, Bustle, and Metro have all compared your writing to Agatha Christie’s. Were you influenced by Christie’s novels? Are there any other authors who have inspired you? Who are they?
I love Christie. I read her a huge amount as a teen and I still think there’s little more satisfying than curling up in front of the fire with a sumptuous Christie adaptation on the TV! But for this book, I think I was maybe more influenced by all the boarding school stories I read as a child. There’s maybe a bit of The Secret History in there, too.
Is there anything that has been particularly rewarding about publishing The Lying Game? If so, what?
Well, as I’m writing this, it hasn’t yet come out—so I’m still waiting for the most rewarding part, which is talking to readers and finding out what they made of my characters.
What would you like your readers to take away from The Lying Game? What compelled you to write it?
I’m quite resistant to telling people what they are supposed to find in a book—I don't like it as a reader, and so I try not to tell people how they should react, although I’m always interested in the different things people pick up on. But I suppose what compelled me to write it was thinking about the priorities in our lives and how our loyalties shift throughout our lifetimes—how we go from being small children, completely focused on our parents, to teens wrapped up in our friends, to love affairs, and then finally we become parents ourselves and that focus moves to our own children, and we would sacrifice almost anything to keep them safe. I’m not sure if I realized that that’s what I was writing about until I’d finished, though!
Are you working on anything now? Can you tell us about it?
I’m about to start my fourth book! It’s way too early to say very much about it, because I’m not sure if I’ve figured it out myself yet, but I think it might feature a bequest. . . .
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (July 25, 2017)
- Length: 384 pages
- ISBN13: 9781501151828
Browse Related Books
Raves and Reviews
“This is the sort of territory where Ruth Ware is most at home. She’s strongest when she’s writing about embattled women, best when characters have a slight sense of privilege about themselves, most effective when events creep along the edges of disaster. Ware’s new book has all of this plus an air of foreboding that won’t go away.”
— TORONTO STAR
“An addictive mystery that reminds us how lies can come back to haunt us, even when we think they’re long buried. An absorbing summer read perfect for a stormy night out at the lake, The Lying Game will capture your attention and hold it until the very end.”
— WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
"So many questions... Until the very last page! Needless to say, I could not put this book down!"
— REESE WITHERSPOON
"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
"Ware's third outing is just as full of psychological suspense as her earlier books, but there is a quietness about this one, a slower unraveling of tension and fear, that elevates it above her others...Cancel your plans for the weekend when you sit down with this book, because you won't want to move until it's over."
— KIRKUS REVIEWS, STARRED REVIEW
“Ware masterfully harnesses the millhouse’s decrepit menace to create a slow-rising sense of foreboding, darkening Isa’s recollections of the weeks leading to Ambrose’s disappearance… with arguably her most complex, fully realized characters yet, this one may become her biggest hit yet.”
— BOOKLIST, STARRED REVIEW
"[An] engrossing psychological thriller... Ware builds up a rock-solid cast of intriguing characters and spins a mystery that will keep readers turning pages to the end.”
— PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware and her new thriller The Lying Game will have you full of anticipation."
— LIBRARY JOURNAL
"From the author of the hit novel, The Woman in Cabin 10, comes another edge-of-your-seat thriller you don't want to miss."
— BUSTLE
“Ware has become a household name in psychological suspense, and her third release is highly anticipated…[The Lying Game is] sure to be her next summer hit.”
— ELITE DAILY
“Readers who've devoured Ware's bestsellers The Woman in Cabin 10 and In a Dark, Dark Wood won't need much encouragement to pick up a copy of her latest thriller. This story…is as gripping and atmospheric as Ware's previous books, with unexpected twists around every corner.”
— BOOKPAGE
"Perhaps one of the most twisty and suspenseful titles of 2017."
— MYSTERY TRIBUNE
"The Lying Game is tense, addictive, and not to be missed."
— CRIME BY THE BOOK
"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
"Missing Big Little Lies? Dig into this psychological thriller about whether you can really trust your nearest and dearest."
— COSMOPOLITAN
"The author of The Woman in Cabin 10 delivers a thoughful thriller about four friends whose shared childhood secret threatens them now. A gripping whodunnit."
— GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
Praise for The Woman in Cabin 10
“Ware plunges the reader headlong into this action-packed, vivid tale, rendering one unable to come up for air until the very last page is turned.”
— TORONTO STAR
“A fantastic read. A fog-enshrouded cruise ship, a twisty puzzle of a murder mystery reminiscent of Agatha Christie, and unrelenting suspense. Batten down the hatches and prepare to read it in one sitting!”
— SHARI LAPEÑA, author of The Couple Next Door
“A dark and gripping thriller that will enchant readers.”
— SARAH WARD, author of In Bitter Chill
“A claustrophobic page-turner that’ll have you suspecting everyone. Agatha Christie for the WhatsApp generation.”
— TAMAR COHEN, author of The Broken
“An atmospheric thriller as twisty and tension-filled as her debut.”
— THE WASHINGTON POST
“A suspenseful mystery that entangles friendship, identity and memory with a possible murder.”
— METRO
"Ruth Ware is back with her second hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck-tingling tale."
— MARIE CLAIRE
"A great modern whodunit!"
— NEW YORK POST
Praise for In a Dark, Dark Wood
“Prepare to be scared . . . Really scared! When I read this page-turning book about a bachelorette party gone wrong, I almost bit all my fingernails off!”
— REESE WITHERSPOON
“Who pulls a gun at a bachelorette party? The answers are unveiled with Gillian Flynn–style trickery.”
— O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE
“Reese Witherspoon’s making it into a movie, so read the book now. Before bed at your own risk.”
— THE SKIMM
“Just try to guess how sinister this plot can get (hint: VERY).”
— MARIE CLAIRE
“[It] packs a noirish punch that would make the Queen of Crime herself proud.”
— BUSTLE
“Ruth Ware has written an exciting and amazing book that never stops circling the reader and clapping its cold hands over her eyes.”
— PETER STRAUB, New York Times bestselling author
Praise for Turn of the Key:
“Irresistible from first page to final line.”
— THE GLOBE AND MAIL
"Let’s just say that if you’ve got an Echo, you’re going to unplug it as soon as you finish the book. . . . What Ware does beautifully is infuse The Turn of the Key with a creepy Gothic sensibility. For all of the novel’s contemporary touches—particularly the house’s malevolent smart technology—she has delivered an old-fashioned horror story, peopled by children with ‘eyes full of malice,’ a dour housekeeper straight out of Rebecca and an inscrutable handyman."
— THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"A superb suspense writer. . . . Ware is a master at signaling the presence of evil at the most mundane moments. . . . Rowan stays put for reasons we won’t understand until the final act of this tragedy. And that’s when Ware’s gifts for structuring an ingenious suspense narrative really come to the fore. . . . Ware pulls out a stunner on the penultimate page that radically alters how we interpret everything that’s come before. Brava, Ruth Ware. I daresay even Henry James would be impressed."
— THE WASHINGTON POST
“This appropriately twisty Turn of the Screw update finds the Woman in Cabin 10 author in her most menacing mode, unfurling a shocking saga of murder and deception.”
— ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"A ghost story for the twenty-first century, a propulsive gothic thriller with characters you’ll really care about. With this book, Ruth Ware proves she’s the true heir to Wilkie Collins. Creepy, engrossing, and oh-so-hard to put down."
— JP DELANEY, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before
"Ruth Ware has been called the Agatha Christie of our generation… The Turn of the Key is a great read. You’re going to enjoy it very much."
— DAVID BALDACCI, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Redemption and One Good Deed
"Ware cleverly puts a high-tech spin on [The Turn of the Screw’s] gothic foundations of spellbinding menace set in a remote cavernous mansion with mysterious locked doors and a spooky garden… Ware’s James-like embroidery of the strange and sinister produces a Turn of the Screw with cellphones and Teslas that will enthrall today’s readers… it will not disappoint."
— BOOKLIST, starred review
"Diabolically clever. Twisty and creepy, The Turn of the Key is Ruth Ware's best book yet. Read with a blanket nearby, because you will get shivers up your spine."
— RILEY SAGAR, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Time I Lied
"Ware hits another one out of the park. Fans of hers or anyone with a taste for the disturbing will stay up late devouring this."
— LIBRARY JOURNAL, starred review
“Ware does a good job of creating tension. . . . But above all, Ware skillfully lays the bread crumbs to the novel’s satisfying conclusion . . . [that] leaves readers with one final, haunting question, one that will stay with them long after they turn the last page.”
— PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review
"Pure suspense, from the first gripping page to the last shocking twist."
— ERIN KELLY, bestselling author of He Said/She Said
“Truly terrifying! Ware perfects her ability to craft atmosphere and sustain tension with each novel.”
— KIRKUS REVIEWS
"If you've never spent a long weekend devouring a Ruth Ware thriller on a hammock, this is the summer to start. Her fifth novel, The Turn of the Key, is set in the Scottish Highlands and is as compulsively readable as you would expect a Ware book to be."
— CBS WATCH! MAGAZINE
"Chilling."
— MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
“We hope it’s not too much to say that Ruth Ware is the future of traditional mystery in contemporary settings; each of her novels takes us into well-worn territory and reinvents for the present day. Her upcoming mystery is no exception.”
— CRIMEREADS
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): The Lying Game eBook 9781501151828
- Author Photo (jpg): Ruth Ware © Gemma Day Photography(0.1 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit