"On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister...

The next morning, three women in and around London—Fatima, Thea, and Isabel—receive the text they had always hoped would NEVER come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.”

The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty, with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other—ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the school’s eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also happens to be Kate’s father)."

Acquired via PaperBackSwap. (Unabridged on 11 CDs; read by Imogen Church)

Isa Wilde spent one brief partial term at Salten boarding school. While there, she quickly befriended a group of three other girls. However, their time together was interrupted when some questionable behavior, as well as a mysterious death, caused the girls to be sent away. Now, 17 years later, a body is found, and the girls come together again to examine their memories of the past to determine if what they remember really was what happened.

This is my third Ruth Ware novel. So far I've read all three on audio, all narrated by the same reader, Imogen Church. As a whole, I find these novels enjoyable for the most part, but I really think it's Church's voice that pulls me in every time. Ruth Ware has a way of writing characters that are often not easy to like -- annoying in many respects, and often unreliable. But still, I find myself engrossed, and I think it's the reader that does it for me. I'll continue to hunt these out on audio, because I suspect I may not enjoy them quite as much otherwise.

Going into an audio bookbox!

Caught in the audio Book Box.

released in the audio book box.

This book came back to me in the recent round of HI77’s Audio Bookbox. Thank you for playing!

Donated to Dreambooks.