Cover Image: Believe Me

Believe Me

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Member Reviews

I have now read and loved all three of J P Delaney's books. Believe me had me questioning every thought, instinct and theory I had. Even in the last 90% I still had no idea what was going to happen, or who was trustworthy, or who was really behind it all. Twist after twist after twist, each got me more and more hooked, captivated and intrigued. I'm pretty sure Delaney's thrillers have ruined all other thrillers for me as his books are just that good with mind blowing powers. Simply amazing.

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Fantastic book!
Had me gripped from start to finish!!
I will be hugely recommending this book to friends !

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25-year-old Claire is a struggling actress in New York, trying to get by without a green card. One source of income she has, and a job she's good at, is using her acting abilities for a divorce attorney to catch out cheating husbands. When Claire is hired for a different type of role, somebody ends up dead the next day and a murder mystery/hunt for a serial killer begins..

I'm a bit conflicted about this book, I have to say. There were some parts I truly liked and others that didn't gel with me at all. Yet, I could not put this book down and I started to really not have a clue what would happen in it.

I do find the entire plot of this book to be slightly unbelievable.

The character Claire herself I found extremely unlikable. All her bad decisions all seemed to stem straight from her childhood in foster care (this book definitely doesn't have anything good to say about the foster care system either - if I was a foster parent reading this, it would probably be a bit insulting). She never really seemed to actually help herself and some of the things she was apparently 'running away' from in England were not actually big deals.

I did really enjoy the serial killer parts of this story, and I think the way the author used the poetry of Charles Baudelaire in such a dark, twisty way was kind of genius. There were so many ways I would have liked the story to go, and I think that's because now again I enjoy a really f***ed up story. So ultimately I was left a bit disappointed.

I just have really mixed feelings about this book and there are some points in the story that the plot line feels really weak. But as I said, I was hooked and I think that has to be a good thing!

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Personally this book grabbed me straight away. Having been sucked in, I was gripped by the violent roller coaster ride it takes you on, just when you think there can’t be any more twists, you find yourself upside down again!
Four solid stars from me, another great offering by Delaney.

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A psychological thriller in three parts, this is quite the page turner…for two of those parts. Just when you think it's got nowhere to twist, it twists again in the last section.

Claire is British, in the USA, working as an actress, or rather, struggling to find work as an actress, and badly needs a green card. To provide herself with an income while she's 'resting', she takes a job with a divorce-law firm as a decoy to catch out errant husbands: easy money for a couple of hours' work. She's then offered a biggie: to entrap the husband of a wife who has been brutally murdered. This time not to catch him out for infidelity but to nail him for her murder. But then, when she starts falling for him, the operation goes sideways.

The second part is a thrilling twist to the first, but then the third just loses sight of the plot and is rather over the top and devoid of any credibility.

According to the author, this was a manuscript he'd tucked away for nearly twenty years after it got poor ratings on its first release. Undeterred, he revamped it, hoping for better success. I wouldn't say he should have left it in the drawer. On the contrary, it's certainly got legs, but I think he tried too hard second time round. I'm wondering whether a few tweaks might have been adequate rather than the overhaul he apparently gave it. Moreover, this was a male author first-person-narrating a female character. He didn't quite nail it…Claire's character was rather soulless, bland, sexless almost.

A decent writer, nevertheless and you'll enjoy this psychological thriller if you're prepared to suspend disbelief.

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This was such a confusing book, but in a good way. Just when you think you've sussed the plot and predicted what's going on, boom another twist. Huge fan of JP Delaney and this was brilliant.

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This is an interesting book in the way that you don't really know what to expect next, and that keeps you on your toes throughout. It was a good and solid read, will read more by this author in future.

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This was such brilliant silly fun! Proper noir trash. I thoroughly enjoyed it, with all its ridiculous twists and turns. The setup was a big draw for me: aspiring actress turned honey trapper turned undercover forensic psychologist – utterly ludicrous and so much fun. This was exactly the escapism I needed this week.

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If you want a thriller that will shock you with practically every turn of the page - you've found it. Be prepared to cancel all of your social events

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This book had me hooked from the very first page. The twist was so surprising and I didn't expect it, like watching a play play out, knowing that the character you've been reading is sucked into her own little world. Great read!

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I loved, loved, loved this book. Such an interesting storyline and so believable. What out of work a tor wouldn’t be tempted. It fair races along and is the type of book that has you saying just one more chapter. A real winner.

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The title of this immediately brought to mind the Simon Armitage poem ‘I am very bothered’ since we’re never 100% certain of the narrator’s honest thoughts.
Our story focuses on a young English actress, Claire Wright, who’s trying to earn her living in America by trying to entrap men whose wives think they’re being unfaithful. She cannot ever proposition them, and she doesn’t have sex with them but she promises it and films the men so that their wives have evidence of infidelity. She has a great success rate, until she’s asked to proposition Patrick Fogler.
Later that evening we learn that Patrick’s wife, Stella, has been found murdered. There’s a definite suspicion that a serial killer is on the loose, but Claire is also under suspicion. And so begins a very strange sequence of events.
Claire is asked to work with the police to try and gather evidence to ascertain the likelihood of Fogler being their killer. She enters a dark and potentially dangerous place as she throws herself into her latest role.
While I enjoyed this thoroughly, the artifice surrounding Claire made it hard for me to really engage with her situation. I wasn’t sure how reliable her interactions were, so I felt quite removed from things as I looked for loopholes or things that cropped up unexpectedly.
I’m grateful to NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication in exchange for my thoughts.

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Thank you for the advance review copy, took me long enough but enjoyed reading it and would recommend!

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Found it slightly slow to start with but once I got into the book I throughly enjoyed it. Great ending too.

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This is a difficult book to review. On the good side, it is reasonably well written and clever, showing a lot of research. On the other side, it didn't have any characters that I cared about, so it was difficult to feel any concern about what happened to any of the characters, Claire particularly.
If you love books about the darkness of Baudelaire and BDSM, then this may be the book for you.
It felt very misogynistic, and rather sad, and it was not a good book for me.

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A whirlwind of a book. Who knows what is truth and what is lies. I whizzed through this as I had no idea how it was going to end and I couldn't wait to find out.

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Having read The Girl Before I had high expectations, and I was not disappointed.
At points I utterly loathed the characters (and they deserved that) but that just made me want to see them get what they deserved.

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Not sure what to make of this book. I found it confusing but wanted to finish it to find out what it was all about! Not the easiest to read but a clever tangled plot!

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Love this author and love this latest book, amazing storyline, kept me hooked, can't wait for the next one!

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Was scared this novel wouldn't compete with the first; how glad I am to be wrong?! Lots of turns and twists with characters who get under your skin. Looking forward to seeing what's next.

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