Ruth Ware - The Lying Game

The Lying Game is a psychological thriller about four friends who share a dark secret from their time at a secluded English boarding school. As teenagers, Isa, Kate, Thea, and Fatima played the "Lying Game," a harmless pastime until a dark event led to their expulsion and a pact of secrecy. Seventeen years later, a cryptic text message from Kate summons the other women back to the coastal village of Salten after human remains are found on the beach near their old school. The discovery threatens to expose the past they desperately tried to bury, forcing the friends to confront the consequences of their actions and the secrets they've held for years. The novel explores the corrosive nature of deceit and the complex loyalties of female friendship, all set against an atmospheric coastal backdrop.