When I saw that the author of Believe Me had written a new book, I was very excited to read it. Fortunately, this book also did not disappoint. Claire is a struggling actress from the UK who will do whatever it takes to stay in the US, even if it means she has to take questionable jobs. In this case, the job is acting as a decoy for a private investigator to see if men will cheat on their wives with her. While she doesn't love handling those kind of cases, she does what she has to do to get by. While acting as a decoy, she gets caught up in a murder investigation and has to decide which side she is on- the side of law enforcement, or on the side of the possible murderer.

This book was full of twists and turns and at times, reads like a script for a play. I found the script sections to be a change of pace and fun to read. The twists will definitely keep readers guessing. I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a police procedural with a twist.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my advance reader's copy!*

First line: On the day of departure, guests are requested to vacate their rooms by noon.

Summary: When British acting student, Claire, is struggling for money to pay rent she starts work at a decoy for a law firm in order to entrap straying husbands. However, on her last job the wife ended up dead the next day. In order to find out who the killer is they ask Claire to try to get a confession out of the husband. As she immerses herself into her character, the lines between the act and reality begin to blur.

Highlights: In the second novel by J.P. Delaney we get a twisty psychological thriller. I was certain I had the story figured out. I was wrong. There were so many decoys and little tidbits that make the reader believe one thing when it can mean something completely different. The story was FAST! I could not believe how quickly I read this and how hard it was to put down. I loved being inside Claire’s head even though it got a little troublesome at times. The way she viewed everything as a production was a fun styling choice for the author.

Lowlights: I do not believe there were many lowlights other than the fact that it is not something new or astounding. It is a great read but it is not groundbreaking. Enjoy it but do not look for the next Gone Girl.

FYI: Try Delaney’s first book, The Girl Before.

What a wild ride that was! So many twists and turns I had whiplash. This was a Traveling Sisters read and it made for a fun discussion with a lot of speculation as we read.


Claire is an aspiring actress hired by the police to work as a civilian undercover in a sting to catch a suspected serial killer. Or is she? Is she an actress playing a part in her own movie where only she writes the script? Is she unhinged or is this all really happening? Is she the ultimate unreliable narrator or is she just playing a part? Is she the hunted or the hunter? I was never sure. The story kept me off balance and questioning everything.

The book also features poetry by Charles Baudelaire, a French poet known for his controversial volume of poems, Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil). The serial killer is thought to be re-enacting the perverted scenes from the poems. I didn’t enjoy the poems and skimmed most of them.

There are a few plot holes with many twists and turns, and a surprising conclusion. If you can suspend disbelief and just go where the story takes you, it will be a fantastic read. For me, less is more. I would have preferred a few less twists and turns and it needed to be a little higher on the believability scale.

*many thanks to Netgalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

OMG what an awesome awesome book. The action leaps off the page to grab you by the neck and it doesn't let go until the last page. One of the best books of this year in my opinion so rush and pick this up now and prepare to be engrossed in this fabulous story from the first page until the last. So looking forward to reading more from this amazing author. Happy reading!

Who's really acting? What happens when you start to obsess over something you love? Can you come back from "the grey"? These are essentially the questions Claire Wright has to ask herself when taking on the largest acting gig of her life. Can she help the FBI watch what they feel is a sociopathic killer after she is the last to see his wife alive? Since she's the last to see her alive did she do it or help the killer? Who's telling the truth and what happens when an obsession goes too fast?
Since reading JP Delaney's The Girl Before I've been waiting patiently for the next great thriller...and this does not disappoint.

My mind get going back and forth in this book. It was so confused on what was happening which is a good thing in this book. You start to think you know what is going on then something else happens and you are totally lost again. This really was a good psychological thriller as you really didn't know what was true, what was not and everything in between. This book is set up a little differently as the main character is an actor and she puts a lot of it in a script form but it's still fun to read.



*I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.*

A dark and twisted thriller that lured me into the story and captured my thoughts until the very last page! There is no one in the psychological thriller genre who can write such captivating, loathsome, alluring characters as J. P. Delaney. Early this year I was enthralled by his last book, The Girl Before. This one is somehow even better. I could not separate myself from this book. Everything about it was so carefully crafted, from the story to the characters to the writing techniques.

And what to say about those twists!?! I read this with a group of my traveling sisters and because we were always at very slightly different points in the book, our opinions and theories kept misaligning in a good way. That is how often Delaney has you rethinking everything in this book! Nearly every chapter led me in a different direction.

About the Book

Claire Wright is an actress who was blacklisted in the UK, and takes up coursework in New York City for a fresh start. Despite incredible talent, without a green card Claire isn’t much better off in the U.S. Struggling to live her dream, Claire finds some unconventional work ensnaring cheating husbands for a divorce firm. Sure, it doesn’t make Claire feel great, but it is work that uses her beauty and skills and intelligence, and allows her to continue her studies.

Claire always follows the rules...

Always appear available. Don’t approach them first. Always let them be the one to proposition you. Don’t actually sleep with them. Get the evidence, return it to the wife, and don’t speak of it to others. Claire has never struggled to seduce men. She finds this is a job she was made for.

Until one entrapment doesn’t go as planned and the game changes…

Claire finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation. The first mark who doesn’t go for Claire’s charms ends up with a dead wife by morning. The police want Claire’s help to capture a dangerous killer. Claire goes undercover, but finds herself confused as she gets to know him. At what point does the mask we put on become who we really are?

Reflection

In college I was a double major in literature and psychology. Though in my doctoral degree I chose to pursue psychology, literature has a very special place in my heart. I took a French Literature course where we read Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal in the original French. This book is heavily crafted around Baudelaire and so I was immediately drawn in.

One thing I always remember about studying Baudelaire was his passion for contrast. Highlighting the incredible beauty of the grotesque and challenging our sense of propriety. Baudelaire pushed boundaries beyond many poets and writers of his day. His poems tend to leave me breathless. They leave me mesmerized but disgusted. The beauty of his words and verse contrasted with the dark imagery are really something to behold.

“Never fall for anyone who prefers to speak someone else’s words.”

I think some readers will find themselves hating his poetry that appears in this book, and that is a completely valid reaction. But I always think of Baudelaire as testing people. Showing people that they can actually be attracted to things that horrify them. Delaney showcases this power in his book, both through Baudelaire’s life and poetry, and through the story of the novel itself. I don’t want to spoil anything about the plot, but I will say that the characters of Claire and Patrick are so perfectly crafted to mirror the feelings that Baudelaire’s evokes in readers. I am absolutely captivated by this story.

I found it interesting that Delaney actually did the translations for this book himself. They are incredibly good translations! Translations of Baudelaire’s work tend to bring some controversy, because it is incredibly difficult to capture the meaning, beauty, and horror of Baudelaire’s poems in a translation. I am in awe of Delaney for the skill it took to craft such great translations. The inspiration for this book is the work of Baudelaire, and to capture that essence of his writing for an audience that has less knowledge of him is incredible.

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

Onto some other reflections on this book. This book really plays with the line between reality and fiction. Claire is an actress and early in her career she learned the difference between pretending and acting. To act, she learns, you have to feel what the character is feeling. You have to let a part of yourself become the character. And then, as she learns throughout the book, it can be difficult to tell when you are acting and you have become the character. I loved reading about Claire, both in what she acknowledges, as well as what Delaney allows us to see as observers of her story.

And then there is a strong theme of trust and deception. Many of the characters in this book talk about trust. It becomes central to every element of the story. The most fascinating use of this theme is in the way that characters are unsure whether they are deceiving not only others, but themselves. The characters have so much introspection, despite how narcissistic they are. Like Baudelaire, the contrasts and paradoxes are the beauty in this book. A character might be both strong and fragile, honest and deceitful, alluring and repulsive. A character may both desire the spotlight but spend their life hiding. A character may be trusting and mistrusting. These contrasts kept me on my toes. I wasn’t ever sure where the narrative would spin next, and I loved every moment of it.

“Those are always the most interesting characters: the ones who deceive themselves. Because sooner or later, the deception always falls apart.”

I read that Delaney had actually written a book like this nearly seventeen years ago, under a different title. The book was published but didn’t take flight. When Delaney went to republish it following his recent success with The Girl Before (which you should really go read), he felt that there were flaws in the original work. He rewrote it from scratch and says it is “completely different in plot, characterization, and structure.” Well, Mr. Delaney, I did not read the original version of this book, but I would like to go on record saying that this recreation of your original idea is a true masterpiece.

This book is pure chaos and terror and love and torture and poetry. I loved it!

Thank you to Random House and J. P. Delaney for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Oooh! Such a great, twisty story. I loved how the story makes you question everyone. Who is the killer? Is Claire sane, or is there more going on with her? Can we trust Patrick? Henry? Frank? So many questions. What is the truth and who can be trusted?

This story has an addictive plot based around erotic poems of death. They’re depraved and add an element to the story that captivates you. The relationship between Claire and Patrick keeps you guessing and it was fascinating to watch the games they played with each other. What was real? Where is the truth? I loved the feeling of uncertainty the story fills you with. Do I want Claire to perform a certain act or not? I had so many mixed feelings, I mean, this is a thriller, it could end in any manner, whether the acts are ethical or not. The story did end up going how I thought it would. It’s written beautifully and in great detail. I loved that the twists keep you guessing to the very end.

4.5 Mind Blowing Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟.5



WOW! What a crazy ride this book was! This book sucked me in from the very first page... and after it tossed me around and turned me on my head it spit me back out and left me spinning.... Claire I might need to crown you the most unreliable narrator of them all! Bravo! J P Delaney for writing such a unique and twisted thriller!

Claire is a struggling British actress living in New York without a green card... so what’s a girl to do? Claire being resourceful and an actress begins working for a divorce lawyer and becomes a decoy... trapping cheating husbands and making enough money to pay the bills, all seemeds good until... One of the wives she was working for ends up murdered... don’t even want to say anything else about the plot, because this is a journey best gone into blind...

This was an enthralling story that left me not trusting anybody! I thought it was so uniquely told I loved the script aspects... I loved all the psychology and the criminal profiling... The poetry discussed in this book will probably resonate with others more than me... poetry not my thing, to be honest I didn’t even know this was a real poet... color me ignorant! This was a group read and fortunately my fellow sisters were kind enough not to make me feel stupid when I excitedly told them that Baudelaire was a real live poet!🤦‍♀️


You do need to suspend belief for parts of this book and just go with it... but BELIEVE ME it is so worth it! The twists in this book they keep coming... this was a wild ride I was sad to have to get off of!

Strongly recommend to all fans of a well-done unique psychological thriller that will blow your mind🤯

*** many thanks to Valentine Books for my copy of this book ***

I received a free copy of Believe Me by J.P. Delaney from NetGalley for my honest review.

I was very excited to receive a copy of this book as I loved Delaney's other book The Girl Before. I couldn't put the book down and ended up finishing it in one day.

Claire, a struggling actress attempting to make it in New York. She moved there after her acting career in Europe didn't work out. Claire does not have a green card so she can't act. She ends up taking a job with an attorney's office. She is supposed to entrap cheating husbands for their wives during divorces.

Claire is hired by Stella to entrap her husband, Patrick. Thing quickly go wrong for Claire after a series of tragic events. Reality and acting become entwined in this twisty thriller.

You know what I love about Lennon and McCartney? Their ability to write three entirely different songs, then slap them together and pass it off as one song. See: Helter Skelter, Man on the Run.

This is not an easy thing to do. The differences in style can be jarring, and it takes a certain kind of magic to make that work.

This book is, at minimum, four separate stories slapped into one. And it is most definitely lacking the magic to make that combination work in even the smallest way.

The author states in his notes that this was a book he wrote previously, which did well but then disappeared into the ether. Once his previous book under the name Delaney had success, he decided to revive it, while editing it to make it fresh and new.

That would explain two of the separate stories. But not the absolute Charlie Foxtrot that is happening here.

Claire Wright is an actress. Or, she would be if she had a green card. She's good at what she does but can't get work, so she moonlights for a private investigator, setting up cheating married men. The work pays decent, but Claire has a bit of a temper and isn't always the most reliable. Also she might be crazy.

Someone dies. In a truly awful way. For some reason that makes no sense, Claire is a suspect. So is the woman's husband, who Claire failed to seduce properly. Because the police so heavily believe Claire is a suspect, they decide it would be a great idea for her to go undercover, seduce the guy who so clearly wasn't interested in her, and get him to confess to murdering his wife.

Well, sure. Happens all the time.

That's all I really feel like explaining, because the "twists" here are so convoluted, they are painful. They aren't twists, they're entirely separate books cut and pasted into this one. There is so much lack of cohesion here, it takes you entirely out of the story, and ruins any element of thrill we could've had.

I would be interested in reading the original version of this story, to see just how much of a hack job this really was. Because I genuinely enjoyed The Girl Before, and that makes this disappointment all the more painful.

Summary:

Claire Wright wants to act. It’s all she ever wanted- the thrill of stepping into character, the spotlight, the applause…. magic. When she blew her shot back home she comes to America, ostensibly to study acting. She has no green card, she needs money and there’s only one thing she wants to do- act. So what’s a girl to do?

Henry and his law firm seem like a good fit. She pretends to be available to be picked up or hired by the client’s husband- if they take the bait, there’s filmed proof of them either propositioning a prostitute or trying to cheat depending on the job. Claire can do this- it’s just acting, right? One client, though, seems very different. Stella is agitated…. scared. She almost seems afraid her husband Patrick won’t take the bait. The job doesn’t work out- Patrick, the handsome intellectual, doesn’t go for the bait. Instead, Claire leaves with a book of poetry he translated.

The next day, her life comes crashing down. Stella is dead and she and Patrick both seem to be suspects. As she tries to acquit herself, the detective on the case has an idea. She has to be a decoy again- for Patrick. Get close, become intimate. Find something, anything, that links him to this murder and maybe others.

The game is afoot- but as it moves along one must wonder- who’s the real decoy?

My thoughts:

What a ride! I loved this book so much! The characters, the premise, writing style, plot….. it was perfection. Seriously, excuse me while I fangirl all over this review.

Claire was in interesting character. I loved her, I hated her, I believed her, I distrusted her, I judged her. I think I liked her so much because she forced all these emotions from me. It’s fairly obvious that she’s an untrustworthy narrative from the start. She’s an actress that isn’t allowed to act; and so the world- life- is her stage.

The author plays this well by allowing scenes in Claire’s mind to play much like… well…. a play. I hadn’t seen this before, and I felt like it was both intriguing and helped move the story along. It helped to highlight Claire’s narcissism, her need to be the center of attention and claim the limelight. It also helped to suggest that her mind might be…. a tad “off” perhaps.

The plot itself is really interesting- the “decoy” that might actually be the target. It was hard for me to know where the story was going, and I really liked that. Every time I thought I had a bead on things, they moved. The other characters- Henry, Frank and especially Patrick were interesting and well developed. It should be noted that a lot of the things I adore about this book seem to have left a bad taste in other readers’ mouths. They, in fact, preferred the less erratic beginning of the book whereas I wasn’t sold until the second half. I was just such a crazy, wild ride for me. I seriously cannot recommend this book enough- five stars!!

On the adult content scale, there’s a lot. Violence, sexual content, drug and alcohol use and language. I give it an eight. Not for young teens by any means.

I was lucky enough to receive an eARC of this book from Netgalley and Random House Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

All actors must embody their character. Sarah, especially, is willing to do anything for her craft. Her wish is that her audience “Believe Me”.

Sarah attends a method acting school in New York City. She had blown her chance at fame at home in London. Lack of resources and no green card forces her down some mean streets. First, she works with a private detective to entrap married men on video for $400 a date. Then the police invite her to role play as a victim to someone they suspect of being a sadist serial killer. Sarah agrees for the chance of getting her green card. That’s where the fun begins in Believe Me, the latest book by the author of the Girl Before.

This book is an invigorating and compelling ride through Dante’s Inferno. I intended to read just a chapter or two before dinner. When I next glanced up from the book, it was two hours later and I was already a third into the book. The plot holds the reader by the throat and won’t let up. The abrupt twists and turns are fair—though I only saw the clues in retrospect.

Believe Me is definitely only for adults who thought Fifty Shades of Gray was too tame. There is some serious BDSM action in here. However, if you want to read about a world that you would never have the nerve to join, read this book. It has a great plot and setting that you won’t soon forget. 5 stars!

Thanks to the publisher, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true". —Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

This book was a masterpiece of a dark & twisted tale of love & madness! This book pulls you in from the prologue! Our protagonist, Claire, is the definition of a character actor. After a ill-fated affair on a movie set in the UK. She moves to New York (without a green card) and struggles to find work as an actor. Claire is lured-in out of desperation, to work for a PI to set unsuspecting husbands up by showing proof (audio) of them agreeing to meet with Clair for sex and the shenanigans begins from there!

Believe Me had me trying to figure out the ending and I was sort of right but the twist & turns in the plot made this a wonderfully dark read!! If you like the Netflix show, The Fall, than you will absolutely draw similarities from both stories!!! Please please please, check this book out at your local library or buy online, or at your favorite bookstore!!! The offical release day is Tuesday, July 24th!

I've been in a MAJOR reading slump! As in nothing was working for me and unfortunately, it is books like this one that put me into this slump. I read the premise and think “this sounds like a great thriller” and then…blech!
This book starts out dark and twisty, which usually does not bother me, but it got to the point where it just didn’t make sense to me anymore and I loathed all of the characters. I enjoy an unreliable narrator but only when done well and this was not. I skimmed through until the end just to see how this was all pulled together but honestly, I did not really care and just wanted it over with. 1/5 stars

From my blog: Always With a Book:

Last year, I read and really enjoyed The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney and knew that I would be reading everything and anything this author wrote. Well, here is the latest book and once again, I found myself completely engaged by this psychological thriller - a book with such a unique plot that I devoured it in just one day!

What's interesting to note about this book is that J.P. Delaney actually wrote a story about an actress given a role in an undercover operation years ago. It had a different title and was published under a different name, but it didn't do as well as he had hoped. After the success of The Girl Before, he decided to revisit this earlier book, but not just republish it as it was...he gave it a whole new life...and that is what we have here.

Let me just tell you...this author is quite a genius when it comes to spinning a tale. And this new title - the old title, by the way was The Decoy - is just brilliant, because at the end of the day, you will find yourself doing just the opposite and believing no one! I think that's the best part of this book - not knowing who you could trust or believe.

The characters in this book, while not necessarily likeable, are still compelling and hard to walk away from. They are complex, interesting and mysterious. You just need to know what it is that they are going to do next.

This is a dark, thrilling read, no doubt about that. The cat and mouse game that is going on will keep you reading until you reach the final conclusion. And the short chapters just add to the frantic page flipping...as do all the questions that keep popping up the further you get into the story. J.P. Delaney sure knows how to rope you in to keep you hooked, there is no doubt about that!

If you are looking for a good page-turning thriller with an unreliable narrator, a murder and deception, than look no further than here.

I was a bit disappointed by this book after reading The Girl Before.
The main character, Claire is a citizen of England in the US broke and looking for work. She ends up doing work for a divorce lawyer in which she tries to lure cheating husbands to pay her for sex. Once she gets the deal on video, she shares the evidence with the wife and gets paid. However, one evening, the wife of a man she propositioned is murdered. Claire is pulled into the murder investigation as a suspect and then as a decoy working for the police to prove that the husband is indeed the murderer. Or, is he? Claire begins to have her doubts. She begins to fall in love with him. She ends up in a home for unstable people on medication. Things begin to become unbelievable for me by this point. I begin to have a hard time staying interested in the plot. I find I don't really care for Claire or the husband. I feel things are somewhat disjointed. (Perhaps this is because the premise of this book was used by the author before. Then, later the author used the idea to rewrite this new book.) Sorry, this was not my favorite.

Classic psychological thriller, let's mess with your suspicions and try to guess who the killer is. Great for a summer read because there's still plenty of summer left! Not quite as polished as the author's later written but earlier published "The Girl Before."

A well-written and intriguing book about a murder and the actress brought in to compel a confession.
SUMMARY
Claire Wright is a struggling actress, in America without a green card. Claire needs work and money to survive. Then she gets both. But it is nothing like she expected. Claire agrees to become a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers. Hired to entrap straying husbands, she must catch them on tape with her seductive propositions. Then the game changes. When Stella, the wife of one of Clare’s targets, is violently murdered, the cops are sure the husband, Patrick is to blame. Desperate to catch him before he kills again, they enlist Clare to lure him into a confession. Claire can do this. She’s brilliant at assuming a voice and an identity. For a woman who is a master at the art of manipulation, how difficult would it be to tempt a killer into a trap? But who is the decoy and who is the prey?

REVIEW
The book sounds really interesting and starts off really strong. Claire’s character drives the narrative, and I am initially intrigued by who she is and what she does. She is a struggling actress trying to make it big, most importantly trying to get her green card, because she can’t go back to Britain. Claire’s backstory in Britain is interspersed throughout the book and her experiences there could have been a book all its own. She can get her green card and stay in the US, if she can just get this confession from Patrick.

But BELIEVE ME will turn you on your head, not just once, but quite a few times, in the quest to find the real murderer. Things and people are not always what they seem in this psychological thriller. Claire character who was strong and confident early in the book, became unreliable and insecure in the later part of the book. I was disappointed to see her turned into such a weak and needy character and my interest waned seriously in Part Three of the book.

The writing is good and flows very well. I even liked having small portions of the narrative set in a script format, it’s certainly in keeping with the theme of the book. The story is robust and includes —Claire backstory, Claires acting classes, Claire’s undercover role, Claire’s role in the Baudelaire play, her love life, and her intense need for attention—it’s all seems a little much. When I tried describing this book to a friend, well, it got complicated! A little to complicated.

J.P. Delaney is the author of The Girl Before. Believe Me is his second novel under that particular name. It was however, previously published as The Decoy, under the pseudonym of Tony Strong. After Delaney’s good luck with The Girl Before, Believe Me was reworked and rerelease under the Delaney name. I have a serious thing about male authors who feel they have to use a generic pseudonym to trick women into buying their books, when they write from a female perspective. And that in exactly what Tony Strong whose real name is Anthony Capella does. “There are some big advantages to using a pseudonym,” he wrote in an email to the NYT, “The first is that people can’t tell from the initials if I am a man or woman—and I’ve been really gratified that many readers have assumed from the way I’ve written from two female perspectives that I’m actually a woman....”. If Delaney seriously wants to write from a female perspective, he perhaps should try and write about strong female characters.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher Ballantine Books
Published July 24, 2018.
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

This is a totally weird and different book, in which the reader has no real cue what is acting and what is reality until almost the very end of the book. The author definitely keeps the reader guessing in this book that is almost fiction noir with its strange backfrom pf Baudelaire and his necrotic poetry. Claire is an actress from Great Britain, trying for her big role on Broadway when she encounters a man who is obsessed with Baudelaire and wants her to play a lead role in a play that he has written. Becoming involved with Patrick, Claire may be taking a big step into the unknown that could lead to her own demise. This is where the book gets really strange and the reader has difficulty telling what is part of the acting story and what is part of Claire’s real life. The lies that the main characters tell the readers are rampant, making it challenging to follow the plot. It was not until the last few chapters that I understood what had been going on all along. The ending was a surprise twist, of course, but it took a lot of side roads to get there. Knowing the ending now, I am not sure that I would have taken the time to read the whole book. I was very disappointed in the whole sexual theme thing, so this book is definitely not for everyone. It will probably find its niche and faithful readers in those who really enjoy kinky fiction with a lot of mystery and hidden clues.