Believe Me

A Novel

By: JP Delaney

Narrated by: Sally Scott, Matt Reeves, Lorelei King, John Chancer, Eric Meyers

In this twisty psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before, an actress plays both sides of a murder investigation.

“A compelling read . . . redefines the concept of an unreliable narrator . . . [a] rich, nuanced, highly literary take on the Gone Girl theme.”—Booklist (starred review)

A struggling actor, a Brit in America without a green card, Claire needs work and money to survive. Then she gets both. But 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 their seductive propositions.

The rules? Never hit on the mark directly. Make it clear you’re available, but he has to proposition you, not the other way around. The firm is after evidence, not coercion. The innocent have nothing to hide.

Then the game changes.

When the wife of one of Claire’s targets is violently murdered, the cops are sure the husband is to blame. Desperate to catch him before he kills again, they enlist Claire to lure him into a confession.

Claire can do this. She’s brilliant at assuming a voice and an identity. For a woman who’s mastered the art of manipulation, how difficult could it be to tempt a killer into a trap?

But who is the decoy . . . and who is the prey?


Read by Sally Scott, with Matt Reeves, Lorelei King, John Chancer, and Eric Meyers

Critic reviews

“A compelling read . . . redefines the concept of an unreliable narrator . . . [a] rich, nuanced, highly literary take on the Gone Girl theme.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Fast-paced . . . A solid pick from bestselling author [JP] Delaney for readers who enjoyed the paranoia factor in A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window or the unreliable narrator of Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train. The domestic thriller trend is showing no signs of slowing. Buy accordingly.”—Library Journal

“An intense, stylish psychological thriller.”—Good Housekeeping

“A dark and haunting thriller . . . A superb evocation of conflicted emotions, this never lets you guess what’s coming next.”—Daily Mail

“The author produces a bobsled run’s worth of twists.”—Publishers Weekly

“I so enjoyed it—what a twisty, exciting read.”—Sabine Durrant, author of Lie With Me

Praise for JP Delaney’s The Girl Before

“A pitch-perfect novel of psychological suspense.”—Lee Child

“The pages fly.”—USA Today

“The Girl Before generates a fast pace.”—The New York Times

“Get hooked on this hair-raiser.”—Cosmopolitan

“[A] must-read.”—New York Post

“Almost unbearably suspenseful.”—Joseph Finder

“A masterfully crafted spellbinder.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Superior psychological suspense.”—The Bookseller

“A sexy murder mystery.”—InStyle

Wow, Wow, Wow!

I loved this book. This is a true psychological thriller. You think you know but then it turns and you’re taken in a different direction. I loved the narrator and the scenes with a movie-like quality. I haven’t heard that before in the books I’ve listened to. If you like a mystery this books for you. I couldn’t stop listening. I finished it in less than 2 days.

Definitely entertaining

And this is how it's done folks. Great literature, no, but great entertainment. This author was not lazy, we are kept engaged with one twist after another. The ending (no spoilers) is a bit of a fake crescendo, but that's OK.

Not terrible, but not great I thought.

In the beginning and for a lot of the book I was totally into this story. It was quite drawn out and I got so disgusted with the main character I was hoping it would end with her murder or something along those lines since she was supposedly fine with all that type of thing and I found her disgusting. One of those endings where the character gets what she deserves type thing. The twist in the end was good, but seemed abrupt to me and not satisfying like it should have been.

Excellent

Great performance, really well written with lots of twists and turns. Loved the style of recording.

What Just Happened!?!

I'm still not sure what is real, wow what a ride.
some of it is pretty gruesome.