A dark secret from a long-forgotten summer gnaws at the heart of this impressive new novel from Ruth Ware, who won plaudits for her debut, In A Dark, Dark Wood – a tense read about a hen party gone wrong – and the thriller The Woman In Cabin 10.
Her style is more assured in this pacy and claustrophobic coming-of-age tale, hinging on the secrets and lies that bind four friends, Isa, Kate, Thea and Fatima, together into adult life.
Returning to their old boarding school, Isa, now a young mother, is tormented by her hazy and unreliable memories of the weeks surrounding the disappearance of Kate’s father 17 years ago, and the consequences of the so-called ‘Lying Game’ the girls had loved to play.
The dreamy narrative leaps from present to past as the horror and guilt is slowly peeled away before reaching a dramatic close.
Ware perfectly captures the overwhelming, heart-wrenching intensity of female teenage friendships, which lie at the very core of the novel, as well as the universal experience of love, betrayal and grief.
What could have been a well-trodden idea becomes gripping and urgent in Ware’s capable hands.
