This would be an amazing book for a book club. (Um, just make sure everyone is comfortable with some dirty parts.) I read it with a lovely group, and we had so much fun discussing theories and trying to figure out the characters. This is how twisted this book is: I figured things out relatively early, then the story changed so much that I convinced myself I was actually wrong. It was like every new chapter threw me for a loop. Some (okay, a lot) of suspension of disbelief is necessary here, but it's worth it. If you aren't a psychologist, get ready to play one. You'll be trying to figure out what the characters tick. I'm used to playing armchair detective, but armchair psychologist was a new one.

Infamous in her home country, Claire would give anything for success as an actress in the United States. Pretty, talented, and British seems like a winning combination... but she doesn't have a green card, so she can't actually work. At least not on paper. She needs money to pay for rent, food, and acting lessons somehow... so she has started to work under the table for a law firm. Using her feminine wiles and ability to read just what a certain man is looking for, she tempts married men and sees if they'll bite. Not to worry, their wife is totally in on it... curious to see if their significant other will pass on temptation and paying good money for that knowledge.

Claire's unusual but relatively easy job completely changes when the wife of one of her marks is found murdered. The husband immediately falls under suspicion, but they haven't the proof to charge him... even though there are people who believe she was far from his first victim. Outwardly charming and incredibly intelligent and well read, Patrick clearly has a dark side... but does it go that deep? Sensing the immediate connection between Claire and Patrick, the authorities enlist her on a long con, trying to get a confession from the professor who may be a murderer.

An incredibly juicy, outlandish, addicting story that I had a blast reading. I read this one with The Traveling Sisters, and I think every last one of us enjoyed it. It gets 4.5 stars from me, rounded up.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and Ballantine Books, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.

I really enjoyed this book. I have read The Girl Before. This story was very different. I couldn’t decide how I really felt about Claire. At times I was agreeing with her decisions and often I didn’t. It does keep the reader guessing. There were times when I wasn’t sure I would finish the book. Towards the end it picked up really fast and I was glad I stuck with it. The ending was incredible.

I was surprised by the S&M plot line of this book. From the book blurb, I thought the book was simply a mystery thriller. While the plot was definitely not a subject that I would pick up and read, based on the how well written the book was in general, I decided to finish it regardless of that portion of the plot.

The thriller and mystery are extremely well done. There were switches back and forth and one wondered about the whodunnit from beginning to end. The ending was not one that I was expecting. It was also an ending that I found complete though there were hints of something further for the main character to explore.

While I would not look for another book with the same subject, I would certainly enjoy reading more books by this author. I understand that the name JP Delaney is a pseudonym for a more well known author and I will be looking for books both under this name and under the author’s real name as well.

I was provided a digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley.

This is the first book by JP Delaney that I've read, but it won't be the last. I devoured this book in 2 days as I didn't want to put it down. The story of Claire, an actress who has resorted to using her talents in alternative employment as bait to try and catch cheating husbands for a divorce lawyer. Enter Patrick, the husband that doesn't take the bait and, in Claire's opinion, seems like a great guy with a passion for Baudelaire's poetry. When Patrick's wealthy wife is found murdered, the twists and turns begin. Did Claire do it for the money? Did Patrick do it to act out one of the dark poems he loves? Or maybe for her money? Or is there some other person also in the game? This story will take you through passion, mental illness, depravity and love, all the while leaving you questioning what is reality and what is not. If you loved Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train, you definitely need to pick up this book.

4-4.25 STARS

Hoping to jumpstart her acting career in the states, British actress, Claire Wright, is struggling to make ends meet while attending a prestigious acting course in New York City. Without a green card, Claire is hard pressed to make enough cash to cover her living expenses. Hence, she agrees to act as a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers who seek to entrap cheating spouses. But when the wife of one of her targets turns up dead, Claire suddenly finds herself entangled in the ensuing police investigation, agreeing to help lure a confession out of the guilty party before the killer can strike again. Yet nothing is exactly as it seems, prompting the reader to wonder if something more nefarious has been going on all along.

A psychological thriller boasting a unique premise and a myriad of twists and turns, author JP Delaney’s latest novel, “Believe Me,” takes the reader on quite an incredible ride. Unfortunately, by the journey’s end, I was left feeling a bit ambivalent about the story as a whole. Overall, the storyline was intriguing and enjoyable—grabbing my attention right from the very start. But guessing the killer’s identity early on, coupled with an unexpected detour that was too unrealistic for my personal liking, only served to detract from my complete enjoyment of this book. That aside, “Believe Me” is still a very compelling story—one that I personally had a hard time putting down.

Let me start this off by saying: NOTHIN' BUT NET Delaney, this redefined an unputdownable SLAM-FREAKING-DUNK of a book. This grabs the readers attention right out of the gate and doesn't let you go until literally, the last sentence. I am a marionette and Delaney was pulling my strings from the first sentence to the last.

This. THIS, is a master class in thriller writing. For all of the moving parts of this story absolutely nothing fell flat for me. The setting, the structure, the formatting, the character development - this absolutely blew me out of the water *maybe slight pun-intended since I finished this on a beach*.

It's been a hard time coming, but I've really come around to structural changes to your typical story telling (when done right). Delaney truly created something wholly unique here. We only have one POV (Claire) however, she views her life as a movie and we switch between traditional story-telling and script writing. I had originally and right away been turned off by this. For me, the goal of every book is to enter what I call the "reading zone" but what many call "deep reading" and when you really shake things up with formatting it can be hard to drop into. I'd say this took me about......a grand total of.....two chapters to drop into that zone because of the script writing.

I'm only somewhat familiar with scripts (having read a few for my dad who free-lances B-movies on the side) and so I was a bit wary of this. However, Delaney executed it in a way even someone entirely unfamiliar with this format could enjoy. It not only added to the suspense and broke up the novel a bit but it further aided to the excellent character development. I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again - thriller/suspense novels generally suffer in this area. The focus is on the development of the mystery instead of the characters. However, Delaney didn't falter here one bit. I really felt I knew Claire and Patrick - and to a lesser degree Kathryn, Henry and Frank.

The girl lies naked, sensuously sprawled,
Her limbs spread wide to curious eyes;
Her secret places shamelessly exposed

Poetry (due to the overarching theme of Baudelaire) is interspersed throughout with the scripting. I'm honestly really picky about poetry but it was utilized in a way that really created some seriously sinister undertones here. I think Delaney used so many clever techniques throughout the story and it created a very unique, anxiety and character driven psychological thriller (this is just one of many examples).

Sometimes, when you wear a mask too long, you find it sticks to the skin.

The use of red herrings here made me understand why so many authors implement these. Why they are so important and how they are properly used. I absolutely loved the implementation of psychology as well and that it was (for the most part) correctly used. I only have my bachelors in this field of study but I do have a very dear friend who has Histrionic Personality Disorder so this aspect really appealed to me, especially since it was accurately portrayed. So much of mental health is misused and misunderstood and I appreciate that Delaney clearly did the research here.

I completed this as a Traveling Sisters group read and what a true and fun joy it was! Thank you ladies for such an enjoyable read and so many fun discussions! This would easily fit well into any book club out there!

Are you looking at reading this book? BUY. IT. PUT. IT. ON. YOUR. SHELF. This was a *insert another sports analogy for some kind of goal (I don't watch sports so I only know a few)*. To say the least, it's easily a 10 out of 10 for me. I don't want to do a synopsis because Delaney does that expertly - don't try to give anything away because this was a wild (and truly fun) ride from start to finish. Pick it up. Don't question it. READ IT.

Wow- This was a fast-paced one! I was guessing until the very end. It took a crazy turn (pun intended) about half way through. I was thinking “Where could this go from here?” It continued to shock me until the end. Is the story too unbelievable at times? Yes. Let it go and just enjoy the ride.

Claire, our main character, is a British actress living in NYC trying to make a living with no green card. She takes anything for work as long as she can keep acting. She works for a law firm as the story begins, catching men trying to be unfaithful to their wives. She tries to catch the wrong man whose wife ends up being murdered. This is where all the twists and turns begin. Who is lying? Who is acting? Who did it?

Part of the story is written like a regular novel and then there are areas mixed in written like a play script as Claire becomes her character and is acting out a scene in her head. I was a little confused by this at first but caught on fairly quick. It makes it for an even quicker read.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC!

Claire has a problem. Well, several problems, actually. She's a Brit in America and she needs a green card. She's behind on her rent and she needs to get caught up. And she has to convince the police that she didn't kill a woman brutally in her hotel room. 

To make enough money for her rent and acting classes, Claire sometimes works under the table for a former cop, testing married men on their faithfulness. As a beautiful young woman and a talented actress, she is very successful. But when she tries to get incriminating tape on Patrick, he smiles and walks away, leaving her with nothing more than a book of poetry by Baudelaire and a lingering memory of a genuine moment of connection. 

It was Patrick's wife who was brutally murdered, and in order to prove her innocence, Claire goes to work with the police and a forensics psychologist to try to bring him down. But as a dedicated actress, as a former foster child, as an outsider in America, can Claire find the strength she needs to find the truth, or will the experience of trying to catch a killer finally break her fragile ego? 

JP Delaney, author of last year's popular The Girl Before, is back with a new take on a twisty tale. Believe Me is a fast-moving story of trust and vulnerability, of strength and fragility. It goes deep into the dark side of humanity to find out what's true and what's real. 

Believe Me is a quick read but not an easy one. It is a deep dive into some of the seedier edges of love and sexuality. Based on some of the more disturbing poems of Baudelaire, the crimes described in this novel are difficult to read about. There is some mild BDSM and talk of images on the darknet, a suicide attempt and some time in a psychiatric institution, and none of that is easy to take. But if you can make it to the end, the payoff is well worth it. This story twists and turns, back and forth, until you can no longer tell for sure what is real. It's a crazy ride, but one I thoroughly enjoyed! 



Galleys for Believe Me were provided by Random House's Ballentine Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Believe Me is an excellent whodunit. The story is unique, creative and full of unusual characters. JP Delaney has written a suspenseful mystery full of twists, making it impossible to know what is real and what is not. I questioned my understanding and predictions repeatedly. While the story has several dark elements, I didn't find them any more offensive than a Stephen King novel. I guess I like shocking thrillers. If you do as well, then I highly recommend Believe Me

“Believe Me” opens with a prologue that both entices and frightens readers, a foreboding hint of what is to come. Lexington Hotel service workers just hate it when a luxury suite is left a mess. What were these people thinking? Employees have to clean up this mess they left behind, and it is even more annoying when there is a body.
With that, the story rewinds to five days earlier. In a first person narrative, readers meet Claire Wright, just another young professional waiting for her date. This is her story, her chronicle; things are seen through her eyes, a young actor desperate for money, needing a green card, and willing to take any role. She talks to herself, and readers listen in, “No big deal. You do this all the time… Why else would you become an actor, if not to edit reality?” She talks directly to readers; “So now you’re wondering who I actually am, and what I’m doing here in New York… This isn’t lying. This is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances. Which, as you’ll discover, is very different.”
Claire lives and breathes the theater. Her conversations are written as a script dialogue. She is, above all, always, and every minute, an actor, playing unusual roles in Theaterland.
When the police come knocking on her door, she is unprepared for what they report. Something is wrong, very wrong, and she then begins a darker, more desperate acting gig. “I know my job. And, it’s called acting. That’s my area of expertise.”
Delaney perfectly sets up the tension, slowly at first and then growing at a frantic pace. Readers watch Claire as if in the theater. It is a cat mouse drama, almost a classic Agatha Christy play. Everyone has a part to play, and everyone is a very good actor. When the final curtain falls, readers contemplate who will be coming back onstage for the final bows.
I was given a review copy of “Believe Me” by JP Delaney, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley. This thrill ride started with a real book of poems written by a real person in 1857, and it keeps readers dreading what might be next. The past is reflected in the present, and nothing is as frightening as history. It is a creepy book, about creepy people doing creepy things, and I could not read it fast enough. And always, if in doubt, it’s Constantinople.

INT (describing the location of a shot in a film or script) A Bar in New York City

And....Action....

Claire , an out of work British actress with no green card, has been hired by Henry, a divorce lawyer, and she is now wearing a hidden camera, hoping to entrap another cheating husband for his suspicious wife.

She is not proud of what she does but she is proud of how well she does it....and she does have rent to pay...

But then, just hours after she and Henry have presented their evidence to Stella, a wife who seemed more than a little afraid of her husband Patrick, Stella is found dead...brutally murdered in her hotel room.

And, Cut!

The murder scene resembles a poem found in the controversial poetry book Fleurs Du Mal ( Flowers of Evil) by the French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) .

It’s the book Patrick was reading when he met Claire.

The police want Claire to lure a confession out of Patrick, using the skills she learned while working for the law firm.

But can Claire be relied on?

This is the second book that this author has released under the pseudonym JP Delaney ( The Girl Before, being the first)

I I personally found this story (and the use of writing several scenes as if they were part of a screenplay), to be the more creative of the two books and the more satisfying (though I did want to skim through some of the poetry parts)

4.5 Stars

As you get ready to read this book, be prepared for a wild ride! As a struggling actress, Claire really needs work. She is British and without a green card. As a result, work is very difficult to find, and she is barely without a lifeline. Claire has gone beyond acting in bit parts, although she is still enrolled in a prestigious acting school. At first she does the odd job for Henry, an in-house investigator at a law firm. However, she is almost without a place to live. But then, the timing couldn't be better as she is morphed into a role that will require more from her than any acting class could ever teach her. Her decoy work for Henry has now evolved to decoy work for the police.

Working for Henry, her job was to try and entrap cheating married men. One job fails, but it suddenly leads her to the police, or actually, leads the police to her. One of her women that hired Claire has been found murdered. The police suspect the husband, Patrick Fogler, of the murder. Claire is enlisted to try and entrap him, to lure him to a confession. A game of cat and mouse ensues, because - who is the decoy and who is the prey? Do the police actually think that Claire killed the woman?

What a different story. Parts of it are written as a script. How ingenious. This style of writing went a long way in keeping me guessing, literally right until the very end, especially because we were always in Claire's mind. This amazing book kept me bouncing my suspicion back and forth between Claire and Patrick. As far as I was concerned, either of them could have done it. Patrick had a few predilections that could easily make him guilty. Claire fit the profile perfectly too, as she carried a lot of secrets and rather peculiar behavior.

I could barely tear my eyes away from this book. Full of breakneck twists and turns, it was a dark, truly exciting page-turner, captivating from page one, all the way to an incredibly riveting conclusion. I literally held my breath as I read the final few pages. No way would I have ever in a million years suspected the conclusion. Part of me held a little bit of glee when I shut my Kindle off, and then next time I turned it back on this very book was being advertised. Good thing, because readers will want to grab this immediately and read it as soon as possible. JP Delaney is most certainly an author to watch.

Thank you to Ballantine Books and to NetGalley for this ARC to review in exchange for my honest opinion.

5 STARS

What. Did. I. Just. Read. My mind is totally blown right now. I devoured this book in a matter of hours and I just could not get enough of it! This was my first J.P. Delaney (yes i know, I need to read the Girl Before) but wow this did not let me down!

The opening scene of this book is a big BOOM. Claire is an aspiring actor, an also an immigrant from London without a Green card, that is just trying to make rent. In order to make rent she may have to do some questionable things.

"And Where are you from Claire? I'm trying to place that accent.
I'm from...wherever you want me to be from.
I never met a girl there before.
What's the most you've ever paid a woman, Rick?
Five hundred but that was --
Double it.
What's your Room Number?
I'll knock on the door in five minutes. Don't make eye contact with the concierge."

I know what you're thinking, Claire's method's come off a certain way but I'll tell you that what you're thinking is not AT ALL what happens. You'll have to read to find out more.

Through Claire's "profession" and best way to make money, she gets herself into some trouble. She literally puts her life on the line in order to get the job done. One day, Claire is asked to work on a recent murder case and try to have the husband of the wife confess that he was the one who killed her. Claire does this in exchange for money and a green card. They make a completely new identity for Claire and she quite literally has been given the role of a lifetime...

Reading through this book I had no idea where it was going to go. The author did a phenomenal job at tricking me into thinking that at different points different people had killed the wife. I also doubted at times if Claire could have been dreaming or if she was hallucinating some of the things she described. There were also points that I questioned, Is she just this great at acting?

Something I loved about this story was that it intertwined Claire's real life and her love of acting. There were chapters were she was either in class or acting in a play and I could see the connections between the two. It was almost like the author wanted to foreshadow some of the upcoming events but I thought this was done in a really creative way.

The book is fast paced, like I said, I read it in under 24 hours. This is definitely a thriller and one of the best that I've picked up in a really long time. It was new and different from the stuff I've been reading and I just devoured it. 10 out of 10 would recommend picking this up for all your thriller lovers!

First of all, I was so excited to get this book. I really loved "The Girl Before" and I could not wait to get started on this one. (Also excited about the movie for the first book!)

I just read the NY Times article that talks about the author of these books. I seriously, like the majority of people, thought that these books were being written by a woman. Wrong!!! Definitely had me fooled though.

This book was driving me crazy at times trying to figure out just who was the craziest character. I love the blurb "Who is the decoy and who is the prey" That definitely sums up this book.

I was especially glad to see that not everyone, like myself, really liked that "Elf" movie. Ha!!!

Thanks to Random House/Ballantine and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

A very interesting idea turned into a thrilling novel. I read the author’s note where Delaney said this idea is an older idea born again into a new novel. I’m so glad it was redone. I loved the premise of this book. I never knew who to trust or who to believe, and that kept me very interested. I love an unreliable narrator and this book delivered that from start to finish. I feel like I still don’t know the real Claire, but that is because of the wonderful writing.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

Dark and twisty, compelling and fraught with information that will have you second guessing everyone throughout the whole story. Well developed and full of details, I was intrigued from the beginning of this story.

This is a good read, but one that I would encourage you to take your time with as there are moving characters and points that add up as important details. I did not want to put this story down, but I did have to stop at time to make sure I was following the plot line as the view does change at times. This change of direction in how the story is progressing is captivating and something I thought was developed perfectly. I loved the concept of telling it as a play and that I kept changing my view of who I thought was the villain or crazy!

Thank you NetGalley and Ballentine for providing the opportunity to read this book and share my opinions!

Reading Believe Me was like hiking up a steep mountain road, difficult at times, filled with twists and turns but it keeps you motivated to reach the top...which is quite a surprise! The writing style was a little off at times and some of the characters were not very likable, however the plot was not like many of the cookie cutter books that have come out lately. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC of this book!

This book starts out as an interesting plot about a British actress in new York unable to work in the United States for lack of a green card. So she takes a job with a private investigator testing if men are cheating on their wives. I found this part of the book very interesting with very clever dialog. But then the story morphed in to some bazaar story involving the interpretation of Baudelaires erotic poems. There is a way far out weird love story and mental problems thrown in to really muddy the story. And then the over the top, unbelievable ending. It ended with me saying " you gotta be kidding me". Nope, I wouldn't recommend this one.

I have never read anything by this author before, but I enjoyed this advance copy. The plot and characters were great and I would definitely recommend this book to others.

Believe Me is a complex, intricate thriller about Claire, an acting student, who gets involved with murder suspect, Patrick, with encouragement from the police as a sting. Patrick is suspected of killing his wife Stella, who had originally hired Claire to pick up her husband as a way of getting “dirt” on him. But along the way, Claire falls in love with Patrick, and he with her. Or does she? When she wakes in a mental hospital, she questions what was real, as no one believes her. She reaches out again to the only person who may believe her, Patrick. In the end, this novel shocks with answering the question of how far you would go to earn trust from the one that you love?

This book was quite the read. I enjoyed it immensely. Twists and turns in the story kept me reading, along with the flowing dialogue and plot. For once, there was never a point when I thought I’d figured this book out. It kept me guessing at every page turn! And the ending was beyond any expectations! Easily the best book I’ve read this year, by far!