Set in an elite private school in the Colorado mountains, Annie Ward’s THE LYING CLUB invites readers into the world of competitive moms, teen athletes, and the teachers, coaches and administrative assistants who know everything that happens between them.

Natalie Bellman, a former bartender, never planned to leave Denver for a quiet mountain town. But when her brother suffered an accident and needed her assistance (not to mention someone to help spend his lofty accident settlement), she figured, why not? Now, a year and a half later, Natalie is happily ensconced in the world of Falcon Academy, where she works as an administrative assistant in the front office.

However, the real star of Falcon Academy is Coach Nick Maguire, a chiseled, handsome middle-aged man who also happens to be incredibly well-connected and excellent at securing admissions for students in top universities. That he’s also a good, celebrated coach goes without saying, but for some background, he played college soccer at UCLA and then in the inaugural year of the Major Soccer League before an injury forced him out of playing and into coaching. The kids love him, the parents love him, and the Falcon Academy moms are definitely not complaining about him either.

"The storylines are complex, the characters even more so, and Ward is like a talented puppeteer behind it all, weaving twists and turns together and then ripping them apart."

Gorgeous heiress Brooke Elliman and “works for fun” Asha Wilson are mothers to Falcon Academy’s top soccer players, Sloane and Mia. Although the girls are only freshmen, it is obvious to anyone who has seen them play that they have what it takes to make it big. And with Coach Nick training them, their futures seem secure. But as the old saying goes, “More money, more problems.” In a world where expensive trips are a click away, new cars appear in driveways overnight, and the latest fashion is already hanging in your closet, loss can be not only embarrassing but also unbearable.

When Brooke and Asha learn that both of their daughters are interested in attending UCLA one day, the mothers’ friendship takes a hard turn as they know that no university is likely to accept two girls from the same year and with the same talents. Adding some drama to the mix are the women’s personal lives, with both of them feeling spurned by their spouses and left to either fix their marriages or look elsewhere for fun and validation. Luckily for them, Falcon is full of handsome, available men…including their daughters’ coach.

As the competition heats up (in more ways than one), quiet, depressed Natalie is drawn into Brooke and Asha’s orbit. At Falcon Academy, she is often the one who has to guide snobby Brooke through the office when she comes to complain. Outside of school, she begins attending Asha’s open houses to look at the fine art hanging in the mansions of Falcon Valley…and to steal pills left behind in coat pockets, vanity drawers and medicine cabinets.

But while Natalie is chasing down Vicodins and Adderalls, a much larger, darker controversy is playing out: Sloane and Mia have started to hang out --- and party with --- a group of older boys, one of whom was connected to the drunk-driving death of a student two years ago. In a tight-knit community like Falcon Academy, the truth about these bad boys and competitive girls is bound to come out one way or another. But as Ward warns you in her title, everyone in this book --- and I do mean everyone --- is lying.

Much like BEAUTIFUL BAD, Ward’s debut, THE LYING CLUB begins with a dead body (and lots of blood on the gym floor) and then jumps back in time to work toward the present day. Right from the start, it is obvious that nearly any character could be the victim, but even more impressive, any character could be the murderer. However, Ward certainly lays the groundwork for Natalie, who is seen to be depressed, angry and prone to blackouts resulting from mixing her pills. The classic unreliable narrator trope is used with tremendous success here, and although Natalie would make a perfect villain, Ward chronicles and exposes the many rifts, betrayals and seedy alliances between the rest of the Falcon Academy cast until no one looks innocent. The storylines are complex, the characters even more so, and Ward is like a talented puppeteer behind it all, weaving twists and turns together and then ripping them apart.

While I found the first third of the book to be somewhat slow --- Ward takes a bit too much time to set the scene, perhaps a habit from her first novel, which crossed countries and timelines --- the final third more than makes up for it with shocking (read: horrifying) twists, and a villain whose deviousness you never quite see coming, even when the major reveal has already happened. Ward likes to dig into her characters’ heads and really gets to the heart of what makes them tick, even when she is writing them into bigger and more convoluted lies. And let me stress again that everyone here is lying. In fact, if you’re anything like me, you’ll start to wonder if you’re lying too, just from getting so deep in these characters’ heads.

Written with themes of competition, revenge and the seedy side of elite communities, THE LYING CLUB is perfect for readers of Liane Moriarty’s BIG LITTLE LIES, Meg Mitchell Moore’s TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE and Kathleen West’s ARE WE THERE YET?