Believe Me
A Novel
-
-
4.0 • 506 Ratings
-
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
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] rich, nuanced, highly literary take on the Gone Girl theme.”—Booklist (starred review)
Claire Wright is desperate. A British drama student in New York without a green card, she takes the only job she can get: working for a firm of divorce lawyers, posing as an easy pickup in hotel bars to entrap straying husbands. But then the game changes.
When one of her targets becomes the suspect in a murder investigation, the police ask Claire to use her acting chops to lure him into a confession. From the start, she questions the part she’s being asked to play: Is Patrick Fogler a killer? Or is there more to this setup than she’s being told?
Claire will soon realize she is playing the deadliest role of her life.
Praise for Believe Me
“For readers who enjoyed the paranoia factor in A. J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window or the unreliable narrator of Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train.”—Library Journal
“Produces a bobsled run’s worth of twists.” —Publishers Weekly
“An intense, stylish psychological thriller.”—Good Housekeeping
“A dark and haunting thriller . . . A superb evocation of conflicted emotions, this never lets you guess what’s coming next.”—Daily Mail
“I so enjoyed it—what a twisty, exciting read.”—Sabine Durrant, author of Lie With Me
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Some books are meant to be devoured in one sitting. J.P. Delaney’s follow-up to The Girl Before (also highly recommended) is the sort of psychological thriller that immediately lures you into its web. At the story’s heart is Claire Wright, a British drama student employed by a New York law firm to entrap cheating husbands—and a brilliantly unpredictable narrator. Delaney had our head spinning, consistently unsure about whom we could trust: Claire? The suspect? Our own instincts? Reading Believe Me was a lot of fun.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Delaney a pseudonym for British adman Tony Strong follows his debut, 2017's bestselling The Girl Before, with a thriller undercut by a preposterous premise, cardboard characters, and arbitrary major plot reversals. For starters, readers are asked to buy the NYPD's exploiting British actress Claire Wright's lack of a green card to strong-arm her into a lengthy undercover operation designed to trap Patrick Fogler, a Columbia University English professor specializing in Baudelaire, who's suspected of sadistically murdering several women, including his wealthy wife, Stella, according to scenarios inspired by poems from Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal. Once Claire and Patrick embark on their dangerous danse macabre all the while with Det. Frank Durban and profiler Kathryn Latham listening in the kinky mind games begin in earnest. Could Claire herself, who briefly met Stella the night she was killed, actually be the investigation's target? For those willing to completely suspend disbelief, the author produces a bobsled run's worth of twists.
Customer Reviews
Mind bending
One of the best thrillers I’ve read in a long time. A journey through the catacombs of the mind, seamlessly (with a certain liberty taken) interwoven with the life and masterwork of Charles Baudelaire. A literary ghoul’s dream.
Really predictable
Don’t bother. It’s predictable & gets cheesy towards the end.
Believe me
Twists and turns until the very last page.