05/22/2017
When Isa Wilde, the narrator of this engrossing psychological thriller from bestseller Ware (The Woman in Cabin 10), gets a text—“I need you”—from old friend Kate Atagon, she knows she must drop everything in London and go to Salten, a town on England’s south coast, where the two attended Salten House, a cut-rate boarding school. Doctor Fatima Qureshy and casino dealer Thea West, who also attended Salten House, receive the same message. At school, the four girls perfected what they called the Lying Game, with myriad rules and intricate scoring. An incident that caused the girls to leave before their senior year looms large as Isa, Fatima, and Thea gather at the house where Kate has always lived with her father, Salten’s art master. Kate informs the group about a riverbank discovery—a human bone—that could unravel the foursome’s 17-year pact of silence. Alternating between the past and present, Ware builds up a rock-solid cast of intriguing characters and spins a mystery that will keep readers turning pages to the end. Agent: Eve White, Eve White Literary Agency (U.K.). (July)

"The Lying Game is tense, addictive, and not to be missed."

Ware masterfully combines gothic atmosphere with a chilling contemporary story of psychological suspense.

"The author of The Woman in Cabin 10 delivers a thoughtful thriller about four friends whose shared childhood secret threatens them now. A gripping whodunnit."

"Perhaps one of the most twisty and suspenseful titles of 2017."

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.

"So many questions... Until the very last page! Needless to say, I could not put this book down!"

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.”

"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."

"Missing Big Little Lies? Dig into this psychological thriller about whether you can really trust your nearest and dearest."

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.

"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."

"I was eager for Ruth Ware's The Lying Game to come out this year and it did not disappoint. As the eerie and atmospheric story cleverly unfolds, the suspense builds. This intriguing thriller is so much more than a whodunit. Ware reveals the characters’ stories and has the reader wondering why 'it' happened. Excellent read."

"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."

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

"Missing Big Little Lies? Dig into this psychological thriller about whether you can really trust your nearest and dearest."

Ware masterfully combines gothic atmosphere with a chilling contemporary story of psychological suspense.

"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."

12/01/2017
Imogen Church's convincing range of accents, modulations, and control allow her to voice multiple viewpoints adroitly, proving to be more effective than many full-cast recordings. Ware's newest features an ensemble, this time four friends whose boarding school bonds have frayed since becoming adults with separate lives. Isa is a new mother on leave from civil service lawyer-ing. When she receives an abrupt "I need you" text from Kate, an artist who never left the coastal village where the girls met, Isa immediately heads to remote Salten. Isa knows Fatima, a doctor whose headscarf declares her rededication to her Muslim faith, and Thea, a casino worker who's perhaps as troubled now as she was then, will also be there. Reunited at the Mill house, once the quartet's home-away-from-home, Kate divulges that a corpse was discovered in the nearby marshes. The "lying game," which kept the girls' secrets buried for almost 20 years, is finally up. These four frightened, threatened women must figure out which confessions might save the rest of their lives. VERDICT For Ware fans, this is Game on. ["Though not as chill-inducing as her previous titles, Ware's latest offers nuanced characters, an atmospheric small-town British setting, and a satisfying mystery": LJ 6/15/17 review of the Scout: S. & S. hc.]—Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

06/15/2017
Four women, friends since their teen years spent at a boarding school on the English Channel, are thrown together again after nearly 20 years when a body surfaces in the marsh, threatening to destroy all of their carefully constructed lives—and lies. Narrator Isa, a new mom on maternity leave, joins Fatima, a no-nonsense physician who recently reconnected with her Muslim faith; Thea, a beauty who struggles with addiction; and Kate, a troubled artist who never left the small coastal town and lives in a rickety old mill house that's slowly sinking into the surrounding lands. As adolescents, the girls spent many long weekends at the mill house with Ambrose, Kate's artist father, and Luc, her stepbrother. At school, they smoked, drank, snuck out of the dorms at night, and played "the lying game," an ongoing competition to see who could convince their peers and teachers to believe the most outlandish tales. Unlike In a Dark, Dark Wood or The Woman in Cabin 10, Ware's third novel has a more leisurely pacing and values character development over nail-biting suspense. The mystery unfolds slowly and the "big reveal" is likely to be guessed at by observant readers. VERDICT Though not as chill-inducing as her previous titles, Ware's latest offers nuanced characters, an atmospheric small-town British setting, and a satisfying mystery. [See Prepub Alert, 1/23/17.]—Kiera Parrott, School Library Journal.

Imogen Church meets the challenge of narrating Ware’s slow-burning psychological thriller. Church’s smooth, even-paced voice takes the listener back and forth between the present and 17 years ago, when a group of four teenage girlfriends at an English boarding school collude in “the lying game.” Church succeeds in projecting the personalities of all the female characters. However, she struggles to deliver on the male characters. Exploring the impact of lies, Ware describes nearly every action and scene in great detail, providing the listener with deep insights but frequently slowing the story to a crawl. But the patient listener will find the truths slowly revealed and, like the characters in the story, find relief in the end. E.Q. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

★ 2017-05-02
Suspense queen Ware's (The Woman in Cabin 10, 2016, etc.) third novel in three years introduces four women who have been carrying a terrible secret since their boarding school days, a secret that is about to be literally unearthed.Isa Wilde, happy in her life as a new mother, receives a text one morning that simply reads, I need you, and hours later, she boards a train bound for the coastal village of Salten with her infant daughter in tow. She has come at her friend Kate's summons, and soon they are joined by two other women who received the same text, Thea and Fatima. Fifteen years earlier, all four were best friends at Salten House, sneaking off campus on the weekends to spend time with Kate's father, an art teacher, and her handsome, mysterious brother, Luc. Their school days ended in tragedy and scandal, however, and the four haven't been back to Salten since they were expelled. Now, a bone has been found in the marshes, and Kate has called the others back in a panic. They know more about the body than they should, but even they don't know the truth. 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. Though there's still a fair dash of drama, it doesn't veer into the realm of melodrama, developing consistently with the characters and with their personalities and pasts. Isa is a sympathetic narrative voice though her obsession with the concerns of new parenthood may put some readers off. Cancel your plans for the weekend when you sit down with this book, because you won't want to move until it's over.