Staff Review: THE LYING GAME [The Lying Game, Bk. 1] by Sara Shepard

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Emma's mother left her in a grocery store when she was young and never came back to get her. Now, she's almost 18 and living in a bad situation with a foster family. She just needs to last through her senior year of high school. Then, hopefully, with her good grades she'll be off to college.

However, her vindictive foster brother has other plans. He plants his mother's money in Emma's purse and then shows his mom a video of a person being choked. The person has a hood over their head. Towards the end of the video the hood is removed. What Emma sees is herself! Could she have a twin sister she didn't know about?

Emma receives a text from "Sutton" asking her to come to Arizona to meet her. Emma is finished with this new foster family anyway and so heads off to meet her sister. Sutton Mercer is the Queen Bee at her private school. She has everything. She is also the originator of The Lying Game. The four members of the Lying Game are Sutton, Charlotte, Madeline and Sutton's sister, Laurel. Their mission is to play practical jokes on each other or other people at school without actually hurting anyone. 

When one of the pranks goes horribly wrong and Sutton is killed, the rest of the team sends a text to Emma telling her to come meet her long lost sister, in order to cover up their crime. Emma is drawn into the game to keep suspicion off the other girls. The entire time Sutton's ghost is hovering around Emma. Not remembering anything and really wanting to find out who killed her. 

This book is part of a series so the ending leaves a lot to the imagination for continuation purposes. I recommend this book if you like mystery novels with a little bit of supernatural thrown in for good measure. In fact, you would like this book if you like mystery books such as Pretty Little Liars  by Sara Shepard or One of Us Is Lying by E. Lockhart.