Really enjoyed this book. It is so intense and twisted at points. Definitely kept me enthralled throughout as I tried to guess what would happen next - and failed every time! Perfectly created characters full of self obsession and paranoia. Excellent.

Okay, so I was torn with this book - whilst I was reading it, i found the twists a bit annoying, in the sense of - oh really? - but at the end, I thought - yes - great ending. I was worried that we were going into another "Fifty Shades of Gray" to begin with but thankfully it didn't go that way and overall, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it - clever writing, I think.

An intriguing read and just as enjoyable as The Girl Before. Quite a few twists in the tale and very creepy in parts but an easy read.

My word, what a book. Ive never read this genre before and boy i was not disappointed. Its a totally engrossing story. Just as you think you have got the measure of the story, you are thrown a twist or two or even three. You are certainly kept on the edge with this book. There are some quite descriptive and graphic scenes within the story but being a thriller, its to be expected. As a first time reader of this style of book, i was hooked from the start. Its an absolute compulsive read. Its a must read.

J P Delaney follows up her bestselling The Girl Before with this dark, and twisted psychological thriller set in New York with the starring role played by British actress, Claire Wright. Claire is attending a prestigious acting course that she came to NYC for. She is perennially short of money, behind in her rent money to Jess, whom she shares a Manhattan apartment with. Claire is forbidden to take up legitimate work as she lacks the green card to do so. She ends up working off the books, cash only for the law firm, Kerr and Adler, with their ex-cop investigator, Henry, filming married men coming on to her for their wives who have become suspicious of them. Every man falls for Claire until she meets Patrick Fogler, whose wife, Stella, she had met earlier. Academic Patrick Fogler is an expert on and obsessed with Charles Baudelaire, more specifically the poems within Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) with content that touches on the dark and unseemly side of sexual relationships. Patrick refuses Claire's open advances but later that night, Stella is found brutally murdered in her hotel room.

Claire loses her job, but is offered an opportunity to entrap Patrick by NYPD cop Frank Durban and Forensic Psychologist, Dr Kathryn Latham who believe Patrick is guilty of murdering his wife and 8 prostitutes that they know of in his life. Scenes of Claire in her acting classes demonstrate just how good an actress she is. She sees this as a role that offers her the opportunity to get the much desired green card, and besides she can do this. It's a job with different rules from the usual of being an actress, but it requires the same skills and the same process. However, nothing is as it seems, is Patrick the real target? For the reader it is like falling into a dark rabbit hole with Claire, the unreliable narrator, can she be trusted on anything? And what are the Baudelaire connections to Necropolis.com, an extreme BDSM site? Claire is falling in love with Patrick, willing to go wherever he leads, uncaring of how dark that territory may turn out to be, in fact, the darker and more dangerous, the better, all the time approaching all that she encounters with the line, what can I use from that?

Delaney writes a story with the kind of twists that make it difficult to predict where the novel will end up. It is beautifully written story, with Claire, a central character who is hard to get a grip on as we wonder if there is anything we can trust about her at all? At the same time, I find myself unable to trust Patrick at all. I can see this providing the requisitely compelling material for a film! This is an entertaining and thrilling read, albeit you do have to suspend your sense of disbelief at times. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.

I found this book fascinating and read it over a few days.
Claire an aspiring actress is battling to stay in the US by any means when she unwittingly becomes involved in a murder investigation. I won’t say anymore as it’ll spoil the story, but the twists and turns kept me hooked and wanting more.
The stage directions, although annoying at times, really gave the story some life. (However you may want to review them for the final version ebook as they were all over the place!)
Loved this book, something completely different from my usual book choice.

I loved the twists and not being able to guess who was being deceived and who was telling the truth. Well worth a read for anybody who enjoys a psychological novel.

Claire, an English acting student living in New York, has a sideline working for a divorce law firm entrapping married men to proposition her in bars. When one of her clients ends up murdered shortly after meeting with Claire she becomes a suspect, then part of an undercover operation to find the true killer.
I haven't read JP Delaney's previous novel, but the story sounded interesting and I usually enjoy the books published by Quercus, so was really intrigued to read this and couldn't wait to pick it up. I'm so sorry to say I didn't like it. The plot had lots of twists and turns, and there were some really good ideas generally, but I just found the whole thing so implausible and the characters a tad clichéd which made it very hard to really care who did what or why. Delaney also throws in small passages in a script style, I can understand why she chose to do this, but for me personally it just served to remove me from the story by periodically showing me the writer.
I was tempted to stop reading a quarter of the way in, but i'm happy I persevered. The second half still had me rolling my eyes in places, but the story definitely felt a bit more engaging.
Fast-paced, with a twisty-turny plot and some good ideas, I can see why plenty of people enjoyed this book, but unfortunately it wasn't for me.
Thanks to Quercus Books and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.

Put simply, this was a very enjoyable read.
The psychological aspect to it was absorbing and frankly Claire scared the crap out of me (whilst making me adore her in some aspects at the same time).

Personally I loved the narrative and the way the story was written.
Great book!

Thanks NetGalley and Quercus Books for a review copy.

Claire, the main character is an unconventional heroine. Brought up in the UK in care, she is living in the USA, without the necessary green card she needs to stay there, working in difficult jobs to earn whatever money she can. Even though she has suffered some hard knocks in life, she is feisty, strong, yet vulnerable, with an unbelievable sense of humour. She also has a dark side to her character, which is explored as the story unfolds.
Claire becomes involved with Patrick Fogler, a university professor, who is the suspected perpetrator of several vicious crimes. However, she finds it impossible to believe that he could commit these barbaric attacks, and is determined to prove police suspicions to be wrong.
The plot follows several twists and turns as the story unfolds, and you are taken into a dark underworld where perversion is the norm. Not easy reading!
I found it difficult to get into this story and didn’t like how author emphasises certain letters in words during certain chapters of the book. It was distracting, irritating, and confusing to follow.
The book is definitely readable and – at times - difficult to put down, although there is a lengthy drawn out episode in the middle.

This is a fascinating tale of intrigue, suspense and murder told from the perspective of the lead character, Claire, an expat Brit, living in New York and struggling to find work as she doesn't possess a green card. Claire finds herself trying to snare a killer, or is he a killer? And, is Claire trying to snare him, or, is she acting?
I was totally absorbed in the strange, almost hypnotic, relationship between Claire and Patrick (the suspected killer). It's a well told cat and mouse thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Written around the writings of Charles Baudelaire (of whom I knew little) and particularly 'Les Fleurs du Mal' it makes for an unusual and interesting backdrop to the twisted, flawed characters of Claire and Patrick and as the story develops so does their multi-layered, complex relationship.

I was absolutely hooked from start to finish and was left feeling that we should forget the Parisian tours of 'DaVinci Code' as it should now be Parisian tours of 'Baudelaire' and 'Believe me'!

Thanks to netgalley, Quercus publishers and JP Delaney for the opportunity to preview this excellent read.

I mostly enjoyed this book. It was hard to know what to believe, but it all tied together in the end. The ending was great! The one thing I didn’t like was how the book was written as if it was a script. This made it difficult to follow at times.

I absolutely loved The Girl Before, so I could not wait to get stuck into this.
At first I wasn't sure how I felt about the book, however clever twists created an addictive read that I could not put down. I found myself liking Claire's character but on the other hand wondering which personality was real.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and cannot wait for the next.

If you permit the author a little bit of artistic licence in relation to the role an actress might play in a police investigation then this is an enjoyable fast paced thriller. Who you believe is very much the key question and who that is twists and turns as the novel progresses.

Set against the backdrop of Charles Baudelaire's disturbing poetry of which you learn a lot, which for me was a bonus, you follow the experiences of Claire Wright, an actress, as she tries to uncover a murderer. Claire believes she is working for the police but is she? Has she fallen in love with a murderer in the form of Patrick Fogler?

This is a cleverly written novel which I enjoyed. It was difficult to put down. Recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

A gripping psychological script that really should be made into a movie ! This is the best book I’ve read in a while and loved the twists and turns, yes it’s a little disturbing in some of the scenes but that adds to the drama. I didn’t see the ending coming and thought I had sussed whodunnit but was wrong! Thank you for a great read, already recommended to friends.

Believe Me is a very twisted story and it had me back tracking and second guessing the entire way through. Parts of the story are written like a play which made the story a little hard to follow in places. Some parts of the story kind of went on a bit and I was slowly losing interest. I loved the idea I just thought it was a bit long winded in places and I got a little confused and had to go back.
I give Believe Me four stars because the actual story is brilliant and has great potential, but the style it was written in is confusing.

I received an ecopy of this book from Netgalley. It's a psychological thriller which is usually my favourite genre but unfortunately I just could not suspend my disbelief and take the plot seriously. But that's just me and you can't please all of the people all of the time and JP Delaney has had wonderful reviews from other readers. It is well written, well paced and certainly a very interesting concept that will keep you guessing right up until the very end.

I enjoyed reading Believe Me by JP Delaney. Although the basic plot is quite simple and easy to get into, the many twists and turns keep the reader engaged. As the story progresses I found it harder to stop reading. However some readers may feel that some aspects are rather far fetched. Claires incarceration in an institution invokes a great deal of sympathy, despite the ongoing suspicion that she might still be the murderer. The climax, itself, was rather underwhelming, and the ending alittle hard to believe. Nevertheless I look forward to reading other novels by this author.

Great idea for a story. I realise that this author and in particular this book is very popular. However I found it annoying the way it is written with the 'Me', 'Him' etc dialog written out. I stuck with it but also found the material rather crude for my enjoyment. Sorry, I am sure many people will get on with it better.

Brilliantly crafted, this kept me guessing right to the end. As convoluted as a Le Carre spy novel, just as I thought I had worked out what was real and what was fake a curve ball was thrown. Certainly Claire was a drama queen but in the sense of attention seeking or a fine actress? But it hasn't inspired me to read Baudelaire.