The Lying Game

Four women become trapped in their own web of deceit in Ruth Ware’s psychological thriller, The Lying Game (2017). A text from their old school friend, Kate, sends Thea, Fatima, and Isa to the coastal village of Salten where the body of Kate’s father, Ambrose, surfaces on the beach. The problem: The four girls hid the body 17 years ago and told no one. Now, their lies are catching up to them. Ware deftly moves the narrative between the present day and the girls’ time together at boarding school, gradually unfolding layers of the mystery. As the women maintain the story they agreed on long ago, they discover that someone knows what they did that summer—someone who has the power to expose their crime and destroy everything.

Ware ratchets up the tension in The Lying Game using classic suspense elements, including an ominous setting, a lightning pace, and an unreliable narrator. Against this taut background, Ware explores the poisonous nature of lies and the power of female friendship—both its strength-giving love and the darker side that surfaces when friendship becomes too exclusive. The Lying Game earned starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist. Page citations in this guide refer to the 2018 Scout Press trade paperback edition.

Plot Summary

When Isa Wilde, The Lying Game’s first-person narrator, receives Kate’s terse text, “I need you,” she knows something serious has happened. Isa lies to her partner Owen, packs up her infant Freya, and boards a train for Salten. She knows that her friends Fatima, a married doctor and mother of two, and Thea, a casino worker, will drop everything and go to Kate.

Seventeen years ago, the four women became inseparable during their year together at the boarding school, Salten House. The four rejected other friendships and played a “lying game,” targeting other students and teachers, earning points for successfully fooling others with their lies. Isa, Kate, Thea, and Fatima spent weekends at Kate’s old and crumbling home, Tide Mill. Ambrose, the art teacher at Salten, Kate’s father, and a former addict, let the girls do as they pleased. He asked and received their permission to draw them naked. Isa fell in love with Kate’s handsome French “stepbrother” Luc, who also lived at Tide Mill. One evening, the girls responded to Kate’s teenage “I need you” text and found Kate crying over Ambrose’s dead body. Ambrose died from a heroin overdose, with an apparent suicide note in his hand. Because she was not yet 16, Kate knew that child services would take her away and she would lose everything. Together, the four girls buried Ambrose on the shore. The school housemistress, Miss Weatherby, revealed compromising drawings of the girls that got them quickly kicked out of school. Weeks later, Kate reported Ambrose’s disappearance.

Seventeen years later, the women return to Salten village to support Kate. Each has grown and changed: Isa is a new mother, Fatima has embraced the Muslim religion, and Thea’s anorexia and alcoholism have worsened. Kate summons them because someone found a bone on the beach, meaning that an exhumation of Ambrose’s body will likely ensue. The friends agree to stick with their teenage story: They know nothing.

The following morning, the women discover a dead sheep left outside their door. Kate blames her dog, but Isa sees Kate pocket a note. The note infers that someone knows their secret. Isa encounters the unfriendly Mary Wren at the Salten post office, and meets Luc, who has grown hostile. Kate reveals that when Ambrose died, Luc returned to France against his will and was subsequently abused. Luc blames Kate. The women wonder what Luc knows. To explain their presence in Salten, the women attend an alumnae dinner. There, the friends are the object of rumors, and Isa feels haunted by memories of their cruelty. The three return to London the next day.

At home, Isa’s behavior makes Owen suspicious she is having an affair, and their relationship suffers. Isa meets with Thea and Fatima to discuss whether Ambrose’s death is actually murder. The women each receive an envelope of Ambrose’s drawings. They wonder if Kate is responsible for the pictures and for murdering Ambrose. Thea believes that Ambrose planned to send Kate away. Owen discovers the naked pictures and confronts Isa, who lies about them. Kate asks Isa to return to Salten. Isa takes Freya and walks out on Owen.

Kate admits to being blackmailed for years, but she didn’t want to tell the others. Kate retreats from Isa. Isa meets Luc again, who apologizes for his past behavior. Luc and Isa return to Tide Mill and are about to become intimate when they notice Kate observing them. When Isa leaves, Mary maliciously tells her that Ambrose died of an oral heroin overdose, and that as teens, Kate and Luc had been sleeping together. Mary thinks Kate killed Ambrose.

The friends confront Kate, who admits she killed her father because Ambrose was splitting up her and Luc. Kate apologizes to her friends, promising to confess to the police. Later, Isa hears Luc and Kate talking. Isa awakens her friends. A lamp falls over and sets the Tide Mill on fire. Thea, Kate, Fatima, and Isa run outside with Kate’s dog, Shadow. Luc rescues Freya, dropping Freya from a window into Isa’s arms. Luc stays in the burning building, and Kate runs inside after him. The fire destroys Tide Mill, and kills both Kate and Luc.

Isa realizes that Luc murdered Ambrose and sent the pictures to the school, because of his love for Kate, and his fear that Ambrose was sending him back to France. The two still loved each other. Mary is the blackmailer. The three friends tell the police a new story and vow to maintain the lie for Kate’s sake. Isa recognizes Owen’s deep love for Freya and decides that although she does not love Owen, she will try to, for Freya’s sake.