Since Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn proved such a big hit with readers and cinema-goers there's been a whole slew of domestic noir thrillers - think chick-lit with a dark side, a twist and usually a grisly murder or two.
Some have stretched credulity too far, others have had a big reveal you could spot before the end of chapter one. But among the tsunami of psychological thriller/romances have been some gems.
One was I Let Go by Clare Mackintosh, founder of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival, and now another Oxfordshire author has come up with a goodie.
The Girl Before by JP Delaney – the pen name of Beckley writer Tony Strong – offers a fascinating premise.
An architect has built a stark but beautiful home in London which he rents out at a very reasonable rent.
However, prospective tenants must go through a strict vetting procedure and agree to a set of exacting rules.
The story follows, and is split between, what happens to Jane and Emma, a girl who lived there before her: the catchline to the title being "Everything that's yours was once hers".
As well as being a gripping read, it throws up some thought-provoking questions: What couldn't you live without? being the first thing asked by the house's enigmatic creator.
It builds tension nicely as Jane finds herself wondering just what happened to Emma at One Folgate Street.
A film version is being made by Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard making it the third Girl book adaptation to hit the big screen after the excellent Gone Girl and the less impressive (in celluloid, the book was better) The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins.
Delaney says he'd decided on the title long before those books were published but the novel does fit in well with them as a clever thriller that's a real page-turner.

I was intrigued by the preview I was sent and wrote a rave review of that. I wanted to find out what happened to the two women involved. The solution turned out to be less weird than i'd hoped!

An excellent book. Had me guessing all the way through.

Thanks for the chance to read this.

A well written and twisty story with a fascinating concept at it's core I enjoyed this book but didn't love as much as I hoped largely due to unlikeable characters. Something I often find a problem in psychological thrillers.

I did love the idea of One Folgate Street with its list of rules and requirements for living there. I'm too much of a hoarder to ever be able to do it but I could understand the attraction of the simple life in a statement house with all the latest mod cons. However what originally seems to be a dream house soon turns threatening and oppressive particularly when we discover that Emma, the girl before, died in the property in mysterious circumstances.

It’s quite a twisty and dark story as you can probably guess and nothing is as it seems. The narrative flips back and forth between Jane in the current day and Emma in the past. Seeing the parallels in their stories makes for some chilling reading particularly knowing the final outcome for Emma (although not the reason).

Where I struggled however was with the characters of Emma and Jane. For me to become invested in a story I have to care about the main character and that just didn’t happen for some reason. There was nothing I could relate to and a lot of the time I really didn’t understand their actions. I also felt like it was a little bit slow in places and there wasn’t enough made of certain elements that could have brought a more interesting twist to the story, particularly towards the end.

These are probably niggles very much unique to me however as I think a lot of people will really enjoy this story. It did remind me in a lot of ways of The Girl on the Train (which unfortunately was another story I didn’t enjoy because of unlikeable characters) so please don’t let my review put you off.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC

Who in their right mind would want to live in a house like this?

That’s the question I kept asking myself as I was reading The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney. Though lured by a strong synopsis that promised a solid mystery, I knew I was in trouble with this book early on, simply because I didn’t buy the main premise of the story. Even bearing in mind the crazy cost of London rentals, I just don’t believe that anyone would want to live at cut-price One Folgate Street, no matter how futuristically ground-breaking its design might be. Why? Because to live here pretty much means signing your whole life, including all of your possessions, away. It also means signing a contract that contains more than two-hundred clauses (I’m not exaggerating), thanks to a landlord who is, to put it mildly, a complete control freak.

The landlord in question is Edward Monkford, the renowned architect who designed One Folgate Street, and now rents it out to a very select few tenants. Jane is one of these tenants, as was Emma, the ‘girl before’ of the title. The Girl Before employs a dual timeline, and it soon becomes clear that both Jane and Emma’s time at One Folgate Street follows eerily similar patterns, including the fact that both women inexplicably start to fall for the utterly charmless Monkford. The catch? Monkford has a dark side. He also has a past. The other catch? Emma didn’t leave One Folgate Street alive – she left in a body bag. Will Jane escape the clutches of One Folgate Street before it’s too late? Will she say ‘screw it’ to all those clauses in her contract, and run? She really should.

An instant bestseller with a movie in the works, The Girl Before was also recently named ‘Thriller of the Month’ by The Sunday Times. Alas, this cliché-ridden thriller simply did not work for me. A miss.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I liked the story and although Emma wasn't the most likeable character it didn't affect my enjoyment. I would definitely recommend this book.

Certainly a novel plot line and one that very much appealed to me. The characters perhaps less so on the whole but nevertheless a great read. I was completely surprised by the conclusion and the tense style stayed right through the story.

1 Folgate Street is a unique property. The property is a unique modern construction, minimalist, full of electronic gizmos. To become a tenant you have to fill in a lengthy questionnaire and agree to numerous tenancy agreements, however if you pass these hurdles you get to live in a unique property for a very reasonable rent.

The story is told from the perspective of two tenants who passed these tests. Emma (the girl before of the title) and Jane- the present tenant..

I must confess that 1 Folgate Street is not somewhere I would ever want to live- I prefer to live surrounded by things I like. A minimalist I am not! However this does appeal to many and I suppose there are those who would want to live in such a place even if the house takes over. It certainly took over the lives of out two narrators & the author really drew me in and made me jump through hoops.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for giving me the chance to read this I think this is one of my top reads of the year so far.- I couldn't put it down!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for this review copy.

I was originally approved for the sampler of this book but this was only the first few chapters. I read it and was intrigued, so was pleased when I was approved for the full book. Emma and Jane both come across the opportunity to live at One Folgate Street, an ultra-minimalistic, ultra-high-tech house, Emma a couple of years before Jane. The house is stunning and has been designed and built by architect Edward Monkton. There are a lot of stipulations and rules within the tenancy contract and any potential applicant has to be approved by Monkton alone. Not many people have been approved or have managed to stay for any length of time. Can Emma and Jane make this their home?

I was initially confused with this book. I hadn’t been reading the ‘Then’ and ‘Now’ before each chapter so found it difficult to understand how two women were applying for the same house. After I’d worked out it was different times, it was more understandable! It caught my attention from the beginning, the house sounded amazing, everything controlled by a wristband from the keyless front door to the shower automatically detecting the person and altering the temperature and water flow to suit. The stipulations in the contract weren’t so amazing – no books, no cushions, no personal items, nothing left on the floor – the list went on. Any breach of the contract and you were told to leave.

The storylines for the two women were initially interesting. Emma and her fiancée Simon, after being broken into at their flat, decided to look for somewhere else. Simon was not keen on the One Folgate Street but went along with it for Emma. Emma’s character throughout the book swapped and changed. One minute, you feel sorry for her, the next you think it’s all her own fault. Without giving too much away, but is Emma really a person you can trust or believe? Jane, on the other hand, is looking for a new place to live following the stillbirth of her daughter. This place seemed perfect to be able to try and move on. She finds though that One Folgate Street holds a lot of secrets and, again without letting out the plot too much, Jane finds herself becoming obsessed with Emma, one of the previous occupants. What actually happened to Emma?

I had heard a lot of hype about this book before I read it. I did enjoy it, but didn’t think it lived up to this hype. The first part of the book was great with the storyline building up well and the description of the house. By half way through, I found the pace and slowed and, to be honest, I was getting bored with the story. I also found the writing hard work – there were no speech marks on the dialogue so it was hard to keep track if someone was speaking or not (I don’t know if this is because it was a review copy or if it was intentionally like this). The story seemed to drag through this part, but then as it started to get towards the end, the pace picked up again and I found myself being interested again! By the end I was hooked, and I loved the twists and turns at the end of the story.

Overall, I think I was hoping for more. Whilst I enjoyed it, it could have been better! Still, I gave it 4 stars, but only because the house just sounded so amazing and I loved reading all the bits about it. I would love to live there – just without all the rules!

Great read! Raced through to discover what really happened and it wasn't obvious, would recommend...

Good book, well written with an intriguing story. I was shocked at the twist in the tale, and hadn't guessed before hand. I enjoyed The Girl Before although did find it repeated it's self quite a lot.

I would like to thank Net Galley and the publishers for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

On reading the initial chapter of this book, I was hooked. It opened into a totally original story with a range of colourful characters and the reader has literally no idea what is around the corner. The premise was interesting and it could have gone so many ways.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the ending. What started as a fantastic on-the-edge-of-your-seat ride turned into a bland whodunnit. I found myself becoming frustrated by the continual switching between the two female occupants and the several background stories, upon which vital plots relied on but ended up reading like they had been afterthoughts.

It could have been so much better but nonetheless, an interesting read.

I love a bit of romance, blended nicely with romance, relationships and a bit of twisting and turning; I really wanted to like 'The Girl Before' by JP Delaney as it seemed to have it all, but in the end I found it was...okay. What I did like about it was the downright weirdness of the characters; the female leads, Emma first and then Jane, both damaged by circumstances, needing to be controlled, and the male lead, Edward being so thoroughly controlling and manipulative that he succeed in brainwashing them both, one after the other. I imagine that by his list of requirements before letting his precious house at One Folgate Street, he is not just advertising for tenants, but for a particular type of person who can be controlled - a type of underhand grooming if you like. The people who agree to his preposterous terms and conditions have been vetted and scored by Edward himself to fit a particular mould before they even take up residence - and then he makes his next moves on them.
One review I read described it as having no atmosphere; I disagree. There was an air of psychological creepiness that permeates throughout the story, by the very nature of the one-of-a-kind house, the questionnaires, the minimalism, the control - and yet the suggestion that the sex between the characters by comparison was completely out of control, possibly violent and bordering on activities that might be considered taboo by others.
I did enjoy the book, just not as much as some of the others I have read of a similar genre.

This book is currently being raved about everywhere it seems, and whilst part of me can appreciate why, on the whole I wasn't really a fan sadly. The one-of-a-kind house is really quite bizarre and doesn't sound at all like a place a choose to call home. I think this prevented me from identifying either of the girls around whom the story focuses, and ultimately lead me to not really engage with the novel.
That being said, the plot is far from predictable, the characters are multi-faceted enough to stop me guessing how everything would work out and the pace kept me reading.
As I've said in multiple reviews, the psychological thriller is flooding the market and has been since the popularity of 'Gone Girl' and 'Girl on a Train' (evidently putting 'girl' in the title seems to help!) and whilst I personally may need a break from them, this isn't a bad one by any means. I would definitely read more from this author, because the writing is good, but the plot just wasn't my cup of tea.

A completely different psychological thriller for me, but one which has me engrossed from the beginning. It flowed really well with alternating chapters of Emma's story from the past and Jane's story in the present. A great suspenseful read. This book held my attention throughout and finished it in a day. I had no idea what was going to happen in this thrilling read.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. After reading the extract, I couldn't wait to read more! Loved that there were two stories to follow and they both ended up in the same place. Was not expecting the ending! Shows that perfect isn't necessarily the best thing.

I received an advanced chapter of this book and couldn't bear it when it ended so quickly without knowing more, so I knew I had to read the whole book. I wasn't disappointed. It's a clever and original premise - Number One Folgate Street is an minimalist dream of sheer architectural genius. It's not only beautifully designed, it's also fully equipped with the most advanced technology... and it's up for grabs for a song to the right tennent. The selection process is brutal - questions, interviews and conditions aplenty, but finally, just when she needs it, Jane is accepted as the new tennent. But all isn't as it seems, the owner keeps a tight rein on her movements, her thoughts and regularly has to answer further questions to get the house fully functioning again. Jane becomes increasingly obsessed with the girl before, Emma, who lived and died in the house in mysterious circumstances. As the chapters weave between Jane and Emma's story, so the story races towards it's inevitable climax. A thriller I really enjoyed and an easy recommendation.

Clearly a late arrival to the "girl" crime genre, this has more intelligence but less fun than my favourite of the trend, Luckiest Girl Alive. I liked the alternating viewpoints, a staple of the genre, and that it wasn't immediately clear which was "before". The final twist was predictable, perhaps the author has forgotten that women, his audience, are aware of the pangs of motherhood! What sets this apart from the masses is the focus on architecture, the passion of the characters is clear and I can still visualise the house. A reasonably fun read.

Loved the house in this but really don't think I could live there, who doesn't allow books!? A sadist that's who!!!

I liked Laura but do not like both Emma and Edward! When you read this book you will see why.

I highly recommend this, it's different and there's a lot of information given to help with the mystery. Read it, It's a fun ride!!