Ponder Post: The Lying Game

Excellent! I give The Lying Game ©2017 by Ruth Ware five stars! It featured four meticulously defined female main characters deeply loyal to each other. There are two time periods. The first when the four girls are at a boarding school in their mid-teens, which made me reminiscent of my high school days at an all girl school and my rooming days at college. The second time period, some seventeen years later, demonstrates the strong bonding that still existed among the women. Both time periods evoked vivid memories and emotions for me.

The setting conjured up so many images in my mind, as well. The seaside English landscape repeatedly referred to the broad expanses of "the Reach". I was unfamiliar with that term and looked it up. Per Meriam Webster, the noun in this context means: a continuous stretch or expanse; especially a straight portion of a stream or river. The intensity of the landscape played a huge role in the tenor of the novel. There was a dilapidated mill that immediately made me picture that classic Disney film clip of a windmill during a storm titled The Old Mill. For those unfamiliar with the reference, the eight minute short can be viewed on YouTube. The storm starts about halfway through.

One passage alluded to the remains of broken paddle wheel on the side of the mill. The paddle wheel had functioned with tidal ebbs and flows. A picture like this came to me. 

One of the female characters wheels her six month old daughter, Freya, in a baby carriage across a decaying wooden walkway and a picture similar to the following crept into my senses.

But more than its vividly portrayed ambience, The Lying Game had suspense and also had multiple plot twists. The main characters who play out this drama were the four women, Isa a young mother and a lawyer, Fatima a Muslim doctor, Thea an extremely slender job hopper, and Kate an artist who lived at the mill and was somewhat the master mind of the quartet. Back in their teen years they had played a lying game that was often thoughtless in a juvenile manner, intended only for fun, scoring points for how big and how well executed the untruth was; but on occasion the game was perhaps neither innocent nor harmless. The rules were straightforward

      Rule 1 – Tell a Lie
      Rule 2 – Stick to Your Story

      Rule 3 – Don't Get Caught
      Rule 4 – Never Lie to Each Other
      Rule 5 – Know When to Stop Lying

One day, after having not seen each other for seventeen years, Isa, Fatima, and Thea each get a brief text message from Kate, "I need you". Despite the passage of time, they immediately, unquestioningly, and unhesitatingly come to her aid by convening at the old mill. Why? For what does she need them? How can they help? These and a slew of other questions barrage the reader as the plot unfolds. The queries continue even until the very last pages this book are turned. Curious? Read The Lying Game and enjoy ferreting out the answers. This crime thriller is well worth the time and emotional investment.