The Lying Game

Finished January 31
The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

This suspense novel is centered around 4 women. Part of the story is told in flashback of the time they met at boarding school and the few months that they spent together there that bonded them for life. The story is told by one of the girls, Isa Wilde. Isa was sent to boarding school then for the first time in her life. Her mother was in bad health and her father decided that sending both her and her younger brother away would be easier for them and him. But it wasn't. On the train on the way to the school, Isa met first the two girls Kate and Thea, who already were going to the school, and then on the platform, Fatima. Kate boarded only during the week, living nearby on the weekends with her father and stepbrother, the art teacher for the school, and a famous painter. Thea's home life is vague but obviously an unhappy one. Fatima's parents are both doctors, who went to Pakistan for the year to work for an NGO. It is her first time at boarding school as well.
Fatima and Isa are put together in a room, near the room that the other two girls share. Thea and Kate already have a sort of game they play where they see how far they can take a lie, and without even trying the other two fit in to this game.
With the girls going to Kate's house most weekends, they grow even closer, and more separate from the other students. But when something terrible happens, and they agree to keep the secret together, they create the bond that lasts.
Now, years later, when Isa gets a text that says merely "I need you" she knows that it is Kate, and she knows that she must go. Isa is living with her boyfriend and infant daughter, and is on maternity leave from her government job. She knows that Thea and Fatima will also have received a text, and will make their way back to Kate as well. She hasn't seen any of them in years, some for longer than others. With the trip back to Kate's home, the village, and the school, come old memories, both good and bad.
This is a story filled with foreboding, where you feel constantly on edge, wondering what will be revealed next. A great read.