Believe Me by J. P. Delaney
Released: July 24, 2018 | Genre: Psychological Thriller
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In this twisty psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before, an actress plays both sides of a murder investigation.
A struggling actor, a Brit in America without a green card, Claire needs work and money to survive. Then she gets both. But nothing like she expected.
Claire agrees to become a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers. Hired to entrap straying husbands, she must catch them on tape with their seductive propositions. The rules? Never hit on the mark directly. Make it clear you’re available, but he has to proposition you, not the other way around. The firm is after evidence, not coercion. The innocent have nothing to hide.
Then the game changes.
When the wife of one of Claire’s targets is violently murdered, the cops are sure the husband is to blame. Desperate to catch him before he kills again, they enlist Claire to lure him into a confession.
Claire can do this. She’s brilliant at assuming a voice and an identity. For a woman who’s mastered the art of manipulation, how difficult could it be to tempt a killer into a trap? But who is the decoy . . . and who is the prey?
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J. P. Delaney had the idea for Believe Me for roughly 15 years before publishing it. The original version was a police procedural told in third person; he later threw that approach out and rewrote the entire story in first person. The inspiration was a real-life British undercover operation involving a female decoy and a suspected serial killer.
REVIEW
⭐ ⭐ ☆ ☆ ☆
All filler, no thriller.
I know that “J. P. Delaney” is a pseudonym for an author behind several bestsellers, and that this book is a rewrite of an older novel that failed to gain traction. But even with that context, it’s clear that not every book can be a hit.
An interesting, but cliche, premise slapped on top of a non-suspenseful psychological thriller, is not a recipe for success.
One of the biggest issues is pacing. Roughly 60% of the book feels like filler, with entire sections dedicated to scenes that contribute little to plot or character development. These interstitial moments were clearly intended to stretch the story to a more conventional length, but instead, they slow the momentum and make the book feel disjointed. Even with all this padding, the novel remains short, which further emphasizes how little actually happens.
While some readers might be drawn in by Delaney’s previous success with The Girl Before, I suspect this book will be grossly overpriced for what it delivers.
