Although I really liked the style that the author used in writing, I cannot say that I enjoyed this ultra-noir novel. Within the clever use of style and poetry, I found the story of the struggling, desperate actress, Claire, too violent and painful for my taste.

I found the characters, including the heroine, unrelatable and unsympathetic. It was hard to separate the bizarre assignment that Claire took on with the truth about her own life.

The topics of bondage and S & M practices are simply too foreign for me or my readers to enjoy.

Wow!! I'm not sure how I feel after this one! I read it really fast - almost in a day. Those short chapters made the story fly right by.
The first two parts were great - I was hooked, I was intrigued, I was confused. I didn't trust anybody!
The third part almost seemed like a different book. It focused on the play and the actress and the love between Claire and Patrick. Then the ending! Wow! It's not over until it's really over. I wasn't satisfied with the story at the end of the play, but once they moved on and it really ended.... It definitely blew me away.
It's absolutely one of the better thrillers/psychological thrillers I've read in a while. And this one is definitely a psychological thriller!

I am extremely torn on how to rate this book honestly. It wasn't very good until about half way through and the best part of the book was the end. It wasn't particularly poorly written it just seemed to drag on and wasn't exactly one of those books that kept you at night because you couldn't stop reading. In some parts it didn't seem detailed enough where maybe it should have been. I really wanted to love this book more.

I loved this book. It was very fast reading, with an intriguing plot and characters. It was written in a different style than the traditional thriller, and that made it very engaging. Highly recommend.

The book begins in a busy New York hotel. It then jumps to five days earlier taking off like a rocket. Just when you think you know what is happening, everything changes and off it goes again. I really like the book. The plot was well written and held my interest from beginning to end. The characters, even minor ones, were developed in such a way that they seem to come alive. Delaney makes you feel for the characters--sometimes sorry for them, sometimes happy, and sometimes 'oh my, how could she/he be so stupid'. It was an exciting book. I received this ebook free from NetGalley for an honest review.

Definitely a psychological thriller with many twists and turns, I found I could not put this book down until I kept reading and reading it all the way to the end!!! Filled with a great leading character, an unusual story line, this book had me captured from word one! A definite enjoyable and most entertaining read. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to have read this title prior to publication--it is a definite winner!

As with the Girl Before, I was a bit underwhelmed. The premise is really intriguing, a Brit actress with a sketchy past working as a decoy catching husbands with a wandering eye. Then she gets caught up in a murder. Patrick's infatuation with everything Beaudelaire was brought in an erotic and dark element. This book had my head spinning at times, it is so filled with twists, turns, lies and deceptions. I can't say I was surprised at the way it all turned out, but it was definitely a well written story about the dark side of obsession.

Loved the book, read it in 3 days after work. Thriller, twists, interesting characters and some literary history---everything I look for in a good read.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me an advance copy of this book. I was excited to find out that JP Delaney is coming out with a new book. I enjoyed The Girl Before very much and was looking forward to reading more books by this author.
Believe me is full of unexpected twists and turns. Murder solving, psychological profiler, struggling actress, Baudelaire obsessed love interest, and a intelligent cop.
The book kept me on the edge of my seat through most of it. I was anticipating the end because I couldn't wait to found out "whodunit"? I was very intrigued by the story. I thought it was well written , fast paced and easy to read.
My least favorite part was the last one. I felt like it was out of place and perhaps the author could have developed the cop/actress/psychologist dynamics rather than adding the play production. I wasn't a fan of that part and to be honest it was a bit boring. The first few parts were a lot more thrilling and interesting.
Overall I really enjoyed the book and it will be reading the next book by this author.

Clare Wright is a talented, young actress from England. She currently lives in New York City, attending the prestigious Actor’s Studio at Pace University.

Clare also works for a law firm, attempting to lure married men into seducing her to prove wives’ claims of infidelity.

After her last assignment for the firm, the client, Stella Folger, is found brutally murdered.

What follows is a journey through human psychology, the art and science of what acting truly is, the narrow distinction between the pleasure and pain of indulging in kinks and desiring true power through humiliating and mutilating others, and the hunt for a serial killer that likes to use Baudelaire’s poems as inspiration for his methods of murder.

If you like theatre, are a student of psychology, or enjoy psychological suspense this novel is for you. The authors adeptly interweaves the intersections of psychology and acting and takes the reader on a wild ride through the performance of Clare Wright’s life.

Is it a performance though? Or is Clare not all she appears to be. Narrated by Clare, an undeniably unreliable narrator, the reader is constantly questioning if they can trust Clare’s version of events.

The twists come quickly in this novel and there are many of them. The ending is a bit abrupt, but with the whirlwind that comes before it, too much debriefing would take away from the ride the reader just went on.

This book is easily readable. I couldn’t put it down and read it in one sitting. Clare and her tale stayed with me long after the book had ended. I found myself wanting more, craving more of Clare’s story, of her future. If that isn’t the sign of an addicting, well-crafted, well-written, devourable book, I don’t know what is!

Thank you, NetGalley for an ARC of Believe Me. I loved this book! A wannabe actress is hired to get a confession from a murder suspect but gets in way over her head. I haven’t read The Girl Before yet so this is the first piece of writing of Delaney’s I’ve ever read. I’m very impressed and look forward to reading more.

This is a truly frightening story. The characters are believable and as the story unfolds it becomes very clear that nothing is clear or what is real or fiction. Lots of suspense and a truly terrifying ending. I could not put this book down.

Another great Delaney thriller! Superb job on character development

Completely bored with this book. I couldn't even finish it. Very flat and a lot of tell-tell. The way the author wanted to innovate putting the conversations in a different format just annoyed me.

I found the MC without substance (can't even remember her name!).

Was this book trying to be a <i>La Femme Nikita</i> of cheating men (minus the blood)?

Thank you Netgalley for providing with a free copy of this title.

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

"Never fall for anyone who prefers to speak someone else's words."

JP Delaney's Believe Me is a tantalizing character-driven thriller that explores the length at which an actress would take her craft. British born orphan Claire Wright has managed to flee England in pursuit of an acting career in New York City. A few months after living in New York and taking acting classes, Claire is beyond broke; she's behind on her rent and is about to be booted out of her apartment.

Her luck changes when she finds clandestine employment as an undercover agent of sorts. Claire's job is that of a temptress. She is hired by women to lure their husbands into committing adultery, to prove they are willing to cheat on their partners. This job allows Claire to put her acting skills to the test and helps her pay the mounting bills piling up in her shared apartment.

One fateful encounter, however, changes everything for Claire.

Claire meets the oh-so-charming Professor Patrick Folger when his wife requests for Claire to get him to cheat on her. Professor Folger is not like other men Claire has easily seduced. He doesn't take her bait despite one of the best performances she puts on for him. The day after Claire's failed attempt at making Folger's hers, Folger's wife is found dead in her room, killed brutally by what police believe to be a serial killer obsessed with finding beauty in death.

Folger's academic research on poet Charles Baudelaire's darker works makes him a prime suspect. Claire is then forced by the police to continue her cat and mouse game with Folger. But as Claire pursues Folger, she finds herself drawn into his deceptively dark sexual fetishes, some that border on the obscene. Folger, however, is the first man intelligent enough to intrigue Claire, leading her to wonder who is seducing (and perhaps blackmailing) whom? Claire finds that the character she was told to inhabit to attract Folger is taking over her sense of sense, claiming her mind and body with each passing minute she spends with Folger.

Is Claire falling into Folger's trap? Is Folger truly capable of committing such heinous crimes? 

This book is sexy and absolutely lush. There are so many quotable passages and memorable scenes in Believe Me. It's clever, seductive, and everything a psychological thriller should be. I loved all the twists and turns of this book, and would love to re-read it to see the hints and clues as to where the book was taking me now that I know how it ended!

On a side note, I thought the back story to this book was very interesting. JP Delaney, which is a pen name of the author Tony Strong, rewrote Believe Me after the original version, called The Decoy, was published in 2002. I was interested in reading Believe Me because I absolutely adored JP Delaney's The Girl Before that was published last year. Both books kept me on the edge of my seat!

Thank you to the author, JP Delaney, the publisher, Penguin Random House, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of Believe Me.

I was really interested in this one starting out but it slowly became a little less exciting and little too far-fetched as it progressed, particularly after the initial twist. Although I found the psychological aspects interesting, especially as a therapist myself, the characters still managed to stay a little on the side of one-dimensional.

In the end, I think it could have used a little more depth in the writing but it was a page-turner, which makes for a successful thriller.

Believe me when I say this book was crazy I seriously didn’t know what was real and what wasn't. Overall I thought I was a great story and a very quick read for me.

While I enjoyed the story and the twist and turns,I didn't like the "movie script" part. The characters were easy to follow and Claire seemed likable. Peter was an interesting character and I never did have him figured out ,which was intersting. Overall,the book was okay. Obviously because I read the entire book. I would read another book by this author.

Phew! What a rush! Back and forth, back and forth. Who is the good guy? Who is the bad? Even when I thought I had everything figured out, it continually had me guessing. I think JP Delaney's The Girl Before is a more original story, but this one I could not put down. I guess I would have to say I like them equally? It's a tough call.

I was provided a netgalley copy of Believe Me thanks to Random House Publishing, in return for an honest review.

Believe Me is a psychological thriller by a man that writes under the pseudonym JP Delaney. The premise is that a young immigrant actress in NYC finds herself in the midst of a murder investigation, quite by accident. She thinks she is working as an informant for the police force in return for a chance at a green card but as the investigation continues, Claire, the young actress begins to reconsider what her part in the investigation, actually is.

I enjoyed some aspects of this book, but the majority of the book was too much for me. I do not feel any description I read online prepared me for the dark and gruesome sexual nature that this book took. BDSM was a large theme of this book and what the narrative was based around. I wish I would have had a warning or an indicator about that. I would not suggest this book for anyone that is a sensitive reader or someone who is easily triggered.

I found the ending to be unbelievable and hard to conceptualize. Unfortunately, I would not recommend this read for a fellow reader.