This is the next book from the author of the girl before, which immediately had me requesting and Advance Copy based on that fact alone.  I know I skimmed the description but I dont think I really took it in.
Having finished it this morning I feel like I've been on a dramatic whirlwind adventure.
The story is about Claire, a young woman trying to make it as an actress; she’s got into a school in New York, and is trying to find a way to make ends meet, without a green card.
Her previous life choices have given her a reputation, her roommate needs her share of the rent,  and she soon find that the only work she can do is helping to catch cheating husbands.  When one of the women ends up dead Claire finds herself a suspect, before helping the police with their investigation by going undercover.   The story has a real world tie, to a book called Les Fleurs du Mal and its writer, Charles Baudelaire. Patrick is obsessed with the writer, what we would probably describe as a superfan; he has translated the poems and lectures about the writings and meanings,  How Baudelaire felt, worked and lived  and how it influenced others. I'm aware J P Delaney has edited the poems from their  original  to make them fit the narrative but I find it so intriguing, On the surface this is a book about a young girl just trying to make it in the world, despite not having the best start in life, but theres a dark and sinister subtext reminding us how easily people can be influenced, and although both history and art teach us plenty, sometimes we have to be responsible for the media that is available.  I wonder if this at one point graced the banned books list for more than one country.

As we delve into a world of trust games we wonder who can trust who, and who is really the ‘mark’. Is Patrick really under suspicion or is it Claire? Are the police on her side? Are they even real?  Has the game ended or is it just more elaborate to make her think that its over?  In the end the story is about sharing the good and bad parts of yourself, and knowing who you can trust.

If I had to sum up the story in one word it would have to be “creepy”. I know that probably doesn’t come across from the above, but believe me the more you read of the book the more it will become obvious why I chose that word.  (and just to clarify that’s good creepy not bad creepy)

I didn't love the book. Previous novel 'The Girl Before' really hooked me in, but somehow I struggled here. I did quite enjoy the story, but not the characters. I found it hard to get into a flow and found myself reading more because I felt I had to than because I wanted to. Still, it's a very unique concept that I'm sure some people will love.

**I have received an ARC from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review**

I was waiting so anxiously for the author's new book after i have read "The Girl Before"" and i was not disappointed at all!! i deliberately dived into this book with knowing as little as possible, as i didnt want anything to spoil the book for me! I really liked the subject of the book, as well as the plot!! I really couldnt put it down!

Dont want to give anything away, as it is better to start reading it with knowing as little as possible.., but grab yourself a copy and head to the beach! The ultimate beach/summer read!! :D

An altogether compulsive book that should be used as a descriptor for ‘psychological thriller’.

Absorbing and captivating, Believe Me is a fast-paced thriller that I read quickly, barely able to acknowledge time was passing me by. Part of this is because the protagonist, Claire, is so well written and intriguing, and part of it is that the structure is very linear, with few flashbacks to break the pacing.

I agree with other reviewers that the use of staging quotes (particularly at the beginning) was incredibly distracting and a little tedious. At first I actually thought the book simply had numerous formatting errors. But the plot itself was fast, engaging and incredibly compelling.

The book is narrated by Claire, a broke British actress desperate for a green card, who works to honey-trap men, tempting them to see if they’ll cheat on their wives. During one of these incidents, she meets Stella, but the following day Stella is found brutally murdered and Claire becomes caught up in the ensuing police investigation.

Claire was a very likeable character, despite being notoriously unreliable and erratic. I constantly wondered where the acting ended and the real character began, as well as questioned if she was telling us the whole truth about incidents that happened,.

Not a lot of descriptors here, although they’re not needed because you’re just swept along with the pace of the story and the epic twists that make you go ‘holy cow!’ A fast, easy read that definitely had me gripped until the last page.

Thank you to Netgalley for letting me read Believe Me by JP Delaney in exchange for my honest review.

Believe Me by J P Delany was thriller about Claire an actress who tries to catch out cheating husbands.
I found this book annoying because of the staging language and I did not like the main character.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Quercus Books for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a well-written, fast-paced thriller with a fascinatingly drawn main chraracter. Claire is a British actor studying in New York and hoping for her big break. She is highly strung, impulsive, and desperately wants a green card. To support herself, she takes on work as a sort of honey trap, tempting married men to see if they’ll cheat and then reporting back to their wives. During one of these operations, she meets the charming Patrick, a reknowned translator of Baudelaire, and his wife Stella. The following day, Stella is found brutally murdered, and Claire is swept up in the police investigation that follows.

It’s hard to say much more than that without giving things away, but what follows is a tightly woven thriller full of twists and questions. It feels like the author has really thought about every angle, so even seemingly trivial things come back to play a significant role later on. Gripping stuff.

How do you trust someone who you know is an expert liar???!
This book is very cleverly constructed with twists and turns that leave you in a spin. Who is guilty, who is innocent? Who is genuine, who is false? Just when you think you know what is happening, you spiral off in another direction. A great read.
Many thanks to Netgalley/ J.P. Delaney/Quercus for a digital copy of this riveting novel. All opinions expressed are my own.

I absolutely loved JP Delaney’s previous novel, The Girl Before, so Believe Me was one of my most anticipated books of the year and I was ecstatic when I received an ARC from Netgalley. The premise was very intriguing: a young actress illegally working for a private detective agency in NY without a green card finds herself entangled in a murder investigation – to get herself out of trouble she agrees to work for the police as an undercover decoy to help catch the killer. It sounds very original, and dangerous, just what I like. Remembering the tension and claustrophobic atmosphere that immediately captured my attention in The Girl Before, I was looking forward to see how Delaney would tackle this plot!

Anyone who reads my reviews will know that I love a mystery that messes with my mind – and this book surely managed to do that! In fact, at one point I was so confused that I had no idea of what was really going on. The author takes the theme of unreliable narrator to an extreme, because each and every character of the book tells lies – you can’t take anything for granted! I really liked the premise of Claire taking on different personalities as character studies for her acting career, who makes her a bit of a slippery fish. Is she telling the truth, or is she acting? I could never be sure, but I really enjoyed the parts of the book that describe her acting classes, which opened up a whole different world to me. Parts of the book are written like scenes from a play, with a location and a dialogue between the different players, which was a very original idea. As they are seen through Claire’s eyes, who often lets her imagination play out pretend scenarios in her mind, I was never sure if those conversations really took place or if they were solely her own construction. Clever, I thought, even whilst feeling like a blind man tapping around in the murky darkness trying to find out the truth. To be honest, I am still not quite sure about some things ....

Whilst the novel immediately drew me in and got my attention, I found myself floundering a bit around the half-way mark, as I was trying to untangle the lies from the truth, coming up short. At times I felt like the author was trying to pack too much into the story, going off on different tangents that didn’t add much to the overall plot for me. I also admit I didn’t care at all for the BDSM theme, and the excerpts from Baudelaire’s twisted S & M poetry, a subject I found disturbing, seedy and sickening and which detracted from the main story. In hindsight, looking at how the overall plot played out, I think that Delaney had a great, original idea, with a clever, multi-layered plot that unfortunately got drowned in convoluted detail and dwelling on the dark subject matter of the BDSM scene. For me, the strength in The Girl Before lay in its claustrophobic setting and a relatively small cast of characters, which created tension. Here, we have a multitude of unreliable characters, all of whom are untrustworthy, and many different settings, to a point where it all got a bit too confusing for me – instead of tension, I felt frustration on the many different directions this story was taking, and felt it could have used a bit of editing to bring it back on track. Delaney states in his postscript that Believe Me is the re-write of an earlier novel he thought he had not done justice to – maybe this explains why it felt a bit disjointed to me, as if different aspects of the book didn’t quite gel.

Whilst I never fully warmed to Claire, I found her background intriguing and I thought she made a perfect protagonist for a psychological thriller. It was soon obvious that she could take on any personality at will, as part of her aspirations to become a great actress, and her foster-child background, which meant that she had very few personal ties and was a bit of a wild child. I really enjoyed the parts where Claire described her acting methods, and the way she could lose herself in her many different roles – and the way she used these skills to ensnare her subjects. However, I felt that parts of Claire did not quite ring true, and she always kept me at arms’ length, denying me a deeper connection that would have invested me more in the story.

All in all, this was a mixed bag for me, and the subject matter not really my cup of tea. However, lovers of twisty thrillers with unreliable characters will undoubtedly be as intrigued by the premise of this story as I was, even if they may find themselves floundering in this maelstrom of lies and thoroughly unlikeable people they encounter along the way. Whilst the final denouement was a bit farfetched, I found the overall unravelling of the plot clever and original, redeeming those parts of the story that didn’t work so well for me.

I can't honestly say that I enjoyed reading this book. I would have given it up as a DNF but for the fact that I've recently ditched several others.

It has a very clever plot with many twists and turns, but I didn't like any of the characters, well-written as they were. I didn't like the Baudelaire references - sounds perfectly vile to me, but just the sort of thing that one can imagine cult-hungry followers latching onto and revering.

So all in all, it's a no from me.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in return for my honest review.

I loved The Girl Before, it was a great read that sped by as time does when you are enjoying yourself.

Unfortunately I just didn't feel the same with this book. I really didn't like the sexually deviant bits and found the storyline disturbing and a little offensive. The main character might seem to be down in her luck, but also seemed overly confident and self assured. It was just too contrived and didn't flow well to me.

However, I still wanted to know what happened so did get to the end eventually, but I didn't relish going back to it. It is an interesting premise, but it sometimes felt like a screenplay rather than a novel. I'm very disappointed that I didn't enjoy it more, but I gave it a good try!

I have read books previously written by the author and enjoyed the twists and turns of the plots. This was not one of her best. Whilst the ending was very clever, I thought the book lacked the flow and intracesies of her other books. It wasn’t believable and was if possible to detailed and so, given the title means that the book wasn’t one to believe in.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book on holiday and and whilst a lot of people find they read avidly whilst sitting by the pool I normally find there are too many distractions to concentrate. Not so with this book it’s so addictive and has so many twists and turns that you are glued from the start. A great psychological thriller which has a dark content which is both scary but fascinating that evil can be so hard to spot. I loved the drama and literature content and the characters, whilst not necessarily likeable were easy to picture in your head. My favourite genre is thrillers and I always expect to guess the end but this book keeps you on your toes. As I was reading this prior to its release I was unsure whether parts of it were written as a play to match the subject or whether this will be changed prior to publication but whatever it’s a good read.

This book is the story of a murder, for which there are two prime suspects, and the investigation into and aftermath of that murder. It has a great start and iis addictive in a slightly uncomfortable way. It deals with some adult themes which not everyone may enjoy (my 78 year old mum loved The Girl Before but I don't think I would recommend this book to her!) However it is not overly graphic, a lot is left to the imagination, the plot moves quickly, it has a number of interesting twists and turns and once I had reached about a third of the way through, it kept me engaged to the end. On a negative note, I didn't really care very much about the main characters, who were somewhat unlikable and/or under-developed. I would have liked to have understood far more about Claire, the would-be actress, honey-trap and potential murderer but found her a bit one-dimensional and it was easy to understand why her therapists thought she was a bit flaky! Patrick, the husband, academic, translator of poetry and also potential murderer was similarly one dimensional but with him there was less suggestion of an interesting back story which I wanted to explore.

If I could I would have awarded 3.5 stars.

Cleverly written in script form, this book will draw you in and leave you wondering where the acting end's and the real people begin. Fantastic twists.

I was excited to read and review J.P. Delaney's novel Believe Me after reading the description and enjoying The Girl Before, Delaney's first thriller. Believe Me is narrated by Claire, a British acting student living in NYC (with no green card), working under the table for cash for a divorce firm -- catching out cheating husbands by entrapping them and recording them. She finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation when one of her sting operations results in Stella's body being found hours after she hires Claire to catch Patrick cheating. What follows is a very twisty novel when you're not so sure what's real....and what's "staged."

I found Claire and Patrick both interesting individually and intrigued by their interactions. Patrick is a professor and a translator of the French Poet, Charles Baudelaire, whose poems about sex, infatuation, brutality, love fuel much of the plot. Between the Baudelaire facts and the in-depth look at the actor's processes weaved in throughout the novel, Delaney gives the reader something fresh and interesting to learn.

I did deduct a few stars due to the lack of cohesion, and a lot of extra scenes thrown in that distracted from the central story. The frequent twists and turns became a bit more than I could handle - some major questions / crimes got lost in the shuffle. Claire is purposefully an unreliable narrator -- the flighty, neurotic actress who gets very immersed in her roles. All in all, an interesting, informative read that will definitely keep you turning the pages.

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

you meet her, you trust her, well you shouldn't! meet Claire an actress who plays both sides of a real life murder investigation.

A struggling actress a Brit in America without a green card Claire needs work and money to survive. Then she gets both. But nothing like she expected. and now she's in deeper then she expected and there is no turning back,

Claire agrees to become a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers. Hired to entrap straying husbands, she needs to catch them on tape flirting with her asking her to go to there Hotel Room and with their seductive propositions. The rules? you Never hit on the mark directly. Make it clear you’re available let them come to you let them make the move..

then the games changes takes a shocking turn

When the wife of one of Claire’s targets is violently murdered, the police are sure that the husband is to blame but they have no proof they want and need to catch him before he kills again they then enlist Claire to lure him into a confession. but can she do it? sure she can shes Beautiful a great actress who’s mastered the art of manipulation shes sure she can do it she sees it as her biggest acting to to date but to catch a killer do you have to be a killer? But who is the decoy . . . and who is the prey? who's telling the truth and who's telling lie's will they catch they catch the killer before the killer kills again?

i was really looking forward to reading J.P. Delaney's new book as i loved his first Book The Girl Before that was a book that was hard to put down that took thrillers to a new level, but even though his new book "Believe Me" has the same creepy feel to it it does not really match up to The Girl Before it is always going to hard to write 2 second book if the first one was a best seller but i did like it a lot i like the way .J.P. Delaney writes it is creepy haunting you don't really know ho to trust who's side to be on its a thriller that will keep you waiting till the very end even though there was a few things i did't get but that doesn't matter as it was a good book i think its a thriller that you will have to read a second time to really understand it and that's what i will do this is a great 2nd book but i still think his first "The Girl Before" was amazing thank you to Netgalley and The Publishers for my copy

I really enjoyed this book, It had an unusual storyline and characters and I never knew what was coming next.

Ghost train ride of a story!! It really is a must read!! I thought "The Girl Before" was a brilliant read, this one is so much better. Lots of twists and turns. Is he? Isn't he? Is she? Isn't she? Is it someone who we haven't come across? Is the author keeping something from the reader regarding the plot? You really must read this.

SPOIlERS ALERT Well ,I enjoyed the girl before and I did enjoy this too ,it was unique and it truly is an unreliable narrator ,I prob won’t find one quite like her again
Having acted before a little bit myself I can see how one can get lost caught up in the role they are playing full of intense feelings ,where do I begin and end as me. If I enjoy acting am I always acting or just being human ,A right head scramble
The character in this is exhausting an just when u think oh ok this is where we are heading there’s another concept being read and another idea thrown in ,which yes at times I did question how convulted we cd go but hey it fitted with the question mark over the characters reliability and state of mind
There were times I struggled or questioned things ,over a couple of things ,SPOILER alert .....no way a normal guy cd get a friend discharged from hospital wouldn’t have that much power really and I was a bit confused ,I got he went to see her and why but not how he cd get her released as even police at that stage were not behind her and agreeing to this admission an though they may have been colluding allalong as Patrick I’d question how easy it was to get her out of there .
However overall enjoyable ,not brilliant as so convulted but I did love the character and she herself was full of quick fire ideas as to what was going on ,is she para ?and I truly can say she lives on the stage all the time
Well drawn scenes I cd picture the play ,the scenes and felt darkly erotic at times but I don’t think ,though aware some disagree it was pornographic in tone at any time or overly sexual just descriptive of that kinda work
What I I think was also good was the use of distraction as I forgot about the beginning of the plot and her being recruited for a job and is she still conning him ,I mean sometimes I’d think of it then think mmmmm maybe not or she’s doing all nthis ,but it didn’t preoccupy me as u are thrown another thread u focus on till the end then bam it is what it was
Thanks netgalley and publishers for letting me read another of this authors ,I look for ward to their next one !

Claire, a young British actress living in New York makes a living by entrapping men into disclosing their tendency for infidelity. One evening she meets Patrick, a highly intelligent and cultured academic, fails to entrap him but is nevertheless intrigued by him. Later that evening his wife is murdered and she is drawn into the case. With the French poet Baudelaire's poems from his scandalous collection Les Fleurs du Mal forming a background for the story, this is a dark and unnerving tale which is difficult to put down. It is also very original and would make a terrific film. My only criticism is the unwieldy stage directions that appear throughout but I can understand why they're there. I found them a bit irritating but that's just my taste. Overall, i enjoyed this. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.