As the title of this post suggests, we have everything you need to know about The Lying Game series by Sara Shepard before you read the sixth and final book – Seven Minutes in Heaven.
****WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!**** If you haven’t read The Lying Game series yet, stop reading this post right now! This post is meant as a refresher for those who are caught up on the series!
Browse the top moments of each book by clicking their jackets below:
Character Recap
Sutton Mercer: Queen Bee Sutton had the perfect life. As the leader of The Lying Game—a clique of girls who pull outrageous pranks on one another and anyone who gets in their way—she had the love, fear and respect of her friends and classmates. But she pushed someone too far and wound up dead. Now she can only hover above her twin sister, Emma, as Emma steps into her shoes and tries to solve her murder.
Emma Paxton: Sutton’s twin sister, Emma, has been in more foster homes than she can count. Sutton’s killer tricked her into coming to Tucson to reunite with her long-lost sister. But once she was in town, the killer forced her to pretend to be Sutton…or else. Now Emma has to quickly become the sister she never met, and try to unravel the mystery of Sutton’s death—while the murderer watches her every move.
Laurel Mercer: Sutton’s adoptive little sister, she is only a recent member of The Lying Game. For the most part, Sutton thought of her as a hanger-on, and she and Sutton shared a fierce rivalry over Thayer Vega…but like all things, Sutton came out on top.
Mr. and Mrs. Mercer: Sutton’s adoptive parents. They are hiding a huge secret—they are really her grandparents. Sutton and Emma’s birth mother Becky was their daughter. The Mercers don’t like to talk about Becky, and don’t even know Emma exists.
Charlotte Chamberlain: One of Sutton’s best friends, and a founding member of The Lying Game. Charlotte might still be irked at Sutton for stealing her ex, Garrett….
Madeline Vega: Beautiful with a ballerina’s poise and lanky body, Madeline is Sutton’s other best friend, and another founding member of The Lying Game. Mads is Thayer’s sister and fiercely protective of him.
Thayer Vega: Super-hot, Thayer is also tormented and brooding. Star of the soccer team, his athletic future has been up in the air since he disappeared last June. Everyone thinks he ran away—and that Sutton had something to do with it.
Lilianna and Gabriella Fiorello: The Twitter Twins…if you don’t tweet it, it didn’t happen. They have been vying for a spot in The Lying Game forever, and it’s not until Emma comes along that they get their shot.
Nisha Banerjee: Sutton’s rival and co-captain of the tennis team. She and Sutton have always been at each other’s throats.
Ethan Landry: The cute, mysterious, if slightly nerdy boy who lives next door to Nisha. Though Sutton would never think about dating him, Emma falls for him almost immediately, and he becomes her only ally in the hunt for Sutton’s killer. Emma worries this puts him in danger too, but Ethan is determined to help her.
Becky Mercer: The dark secret of the Mercer household—Becky is Laurel’s older sister, Mr. and Mrs. Mercer’s first child, and the mother of Sutton and Emma. She is a tormented young woman, and abandoned Sutton and Emma because she didn’t think she could take care of them.
Garrett Austin: Sutton’s boyfriend at the time of her death. He has a not-so-secret fiery temper, but Sutton did have some nice times with him.
Alex Stokes: Emma’s best friend from her old life. Emma tries to stay in contact with her, the only link to the girl she used to be. But Emma is lying to Alex—she never told her that Sutton is dead and Emma is pretending to be her.
TOP FIVE LYING GAME MOMENTS (Book 1)
1. Emma Paxton discovers that she might have a long-lost twin sister when her foster brother shows her a video of a girl who looks exactly like her, being choked. Emma does an online search and reaches out to Sutton. They plan to meet up in Tucson, but when Emma gets to Arizona, Sutton’s friends mistake her for Sutton. And then Emma gets a note that Sutton is dead and she, Emma, has to keep impersonating her or she’s next.
2. At a sleepover at Char’s, Emma slips into the kitchen in the middle of the night, only to be attacked by Sutton’s killer, who chokes her with Sutton’s old locket.
3. Garrett strips naked for Emma, his birthday present to “Sutton.” Emma balks and flees the scene.
4. While snooping in Laurel’s room, Emma discovers a video that shows it was Laurel, Charlotte, and Madeline who filmed Sutton being choked. Emma panics and ditches out on her own 18th birthday party, trying to hide from the Lying Game clique.
5. Ethan follows Emma and reveals that he knows she isn’t Sutton, but after hearing her side of the story, he agrees to help her figure out who could have killed Sutton. He does know that it didn’t happen the night of the choking video—that was weeks ago and Ethan himself was there and interceded, stopping what was a messed-up prank on Sutton by Laurel and the others.
TOP FIVE LYING GAME MOMENTS (Book 2)
1. Emma’s channeling Sutton when she shoplifts a Tori Burch clutch. But she’s got her reasons—when she’s hauled off to the police station, she seizes her chance to snoop in Sutton’s police file, only to find details of a prank Sutton played on the Twitter Twins that went a little too far.
2. Emma discovers there was a tennis team sleepover at Nisha’s the night of Sutton’s death—now she has an alibi for Laurel that night and can clear her little sis.
3. Things are heating up with Ethan, but Garrett’s not ready to let Sutton go, even though he’s dating Nisha now. He corners Emma in the storage closet during the Halloween party and begs her to take him back.
4. The Twitter Twins stage a triumphant prank that almost kills Emma. Could they still be angry from Sutton’s prank that triggered a seizure in Gabby? Nope, turns out they were just gunning for two spots in the Lying Game.
5. Emma sneaks up to her bedroom during a sleepover party, only to find the window open and a surprise guest in her room: Thayer.
TOP FIVE LYING GAME MOMENTS (Book 3)
1. Thayer’s back, and he has a limp. Could it be from a struggle with Sutton the night she died? Turns out they were secretly dating. Maybe it was a lover’s quarrel? Thankfully, he’s thrown in jail for trespassing, so Emma has some time to figure it out.
2. Sutton’s car, which has been missing since the night she died, turns up abandoned in Sabino Canyon…and there’s blood on it.
3. Laurel and the Lying Game girls decide to prank Ethan—to stop it, Emma and Ethan go public that they’re dating (even if it would be an odd choice for Sutton).
4. Emma’s suspicions about Mr. Vega are confirmed—he’s abusive to both Thayer and Mads. It’s why Thayer ran away.
5. Someone hit Thayer with Sutton’s car the night she was killed. Laurel came and took him to the hospital, but who could have been trying to hurt Thayer? And did that person stick around and kill Sutton?
TOP FIVE LYING GAME MOMENTS (Book 4)
1. Garrett and Thayer get into a fight because Thayer can’t stand him bad-mouthing Sutton. There’s some jealousy between Thayer and Ethan, and while Emma is happy with Ethan, she can’t completely ignore the way Thayer makes her feel.
2. A prank at school pulled by four freshmen gets blamed on the Lying Game girls AND gets the Harvest dance cancelled. But Emma and her friends throw their own party to make it up to everyone—except the freshmen wannabes.
3. Thayer thinks it was Mr. Mercer who ran him down that night in Sabino—Thayer saw him with another woman before Mr. Mercer spotted them and chased after them.
4. Emma sneaks into Mr. Mercer’s office at the hospital and finds he’s been making big payments to a Raven Jannings. Whoever she is, she appears to be staying at a nearby motel.
5. Emma tries to meet up with Raven, but all she gets is a letter from her and a photo. It turns out that “Raven” is Becky, her birth mom! And in the letter Becky reveals that Mr. Mercer is her father, making him Emma and Sutton’s biological grandfather. Mr. Mercer had explained the whole thing to Sutton the night she died, but he got called into surgery after that—he’s not the murderer OR the one who ran Thayer down.
TOP FIVE LYING GAME MOMENTS (Book 5)
1. Becky gets picked up for nearly stabbing a stranger—turns out she has some serious mental health issues. When Emma visits her in the hospital, Becky keeps calling her Emma, not Sutton.
2. Nisha joins forces with the Lying Game clique to prank Garrett’s latest girlfriend, Celeste, who has been giving Emma a hard time.
3. Emma convinces Nisha to help her access the hospital’s psychiatric files, hoping to find out more about her mom’s troubles. She spots a folder for Ethan, too. When she asks him about it, Ethan explains that he tried to protect his mom from his dad and she called the cops on him. Guess there’s more than one messed-up family in this town.
4. Emma and Ethan take their relationship to the next level.
5. Nisha winds up dead—is it an accident, or did Sutton’s killer strike again?