I really enjoyed this book, it was easy to read and well written. I liked all the characters and the twists.
There is a lot of reference to Baudelaire, so if you have no interest in erotic poetry this may not be for you.
However, overall I enjoyed this book and thought it had a great ending.

Reviewed on Facebook group - Bookclub by Mowie

An original plot, something a little different. Claire wants to be an actor but he to earn some money while trying to get her break.
I don’t want to give away the plot but the book was gripping with lots of twists and turns. I didn’t guess the end.

I'm not 100 per cent sure if I hates this book to be honest. Not because the writing was bad or the story was uninteresting, but because there was not one likable character in the whole book.
The story itself was intuiging, although a little far fetched and the writing was excellent.
I don't generally like to leave a review if I have not enjoyed a book but I feel this book is going to be like marmite, you will either love it or hate it.

Writing this review will be impossible for me so I will have to take a different approach.

Let’s start with the cover which in my opinion is very eye catching. It was the main reason why I noticed it and just had to have it. It’s simple, with little information and bold writing. That’s all you really need to catch your attention and the rest you can find inside.

Ok, that wasn’t so difficult. Now to a difficult part. This book is insane! I have never ever read anything that not only kept me interested throughout but also I had absolutely no idea what the hell is going on. The truth you make up in your head gets shattered by turning another page and you are right back where you started.

Claire, very talented wannabe actress, comes to US from UK in pursuit of her dreams and new life. Life in US without a green card is not easy and just to get by and survive she has to take on job, she never imagined to do. Her acting skills help her to become a lure to compromise strayed husbands and give evidence at court during divorce. Everything changes with that one client, one wife and one death. Although police does believe husband is the killer, they have no evidence and Claire gets entangled in secrets, acting, truth and lies and I certainly got totally lost there too.

Amazing book with some weird stuff going on but definitely worth the read. I gave it 5 stars but just for the unexpected turns and all the chaos it created in my head it would deserve a lot more.

Claire was orphaned as a child and fought her way through the foster system to get to a drama school in America as all she has wanted to do is to act. At least that last bit is true, but how much of everything else the reader is fed in this psychological drama is real? a third of the way into this book I was on the point of giving up. You have to admire Claire for her ability to cope with the situations she finds herself in, and cope all by herself as she has no one else to support her. But then, once into the main storyline of acting as the bait to entrap a murder suspect into giving something away, the story twists on itself as the reader is as shocked as Claire to find the tide has turned. Claire then finds herself in a 'One flew over the Cuckoo's nest' situation which left me wondering if it was legal, let alone possible in this day and age. Extricating herself from that, Claire returns on a different basis to the murder suspect who then becomes her rescuer. Things are looking up - until another murder, at which point Claire is convinced the unknown murderer is coming for her next. Now both Claire and the reader are paranoid, and not without cause. Although by the ending I was shouting at Claire not to trust him, I was still shocked by events and finished the novel still not quite sure what was truth and what was Claire acting a part. Certainly a novel to keep you on your toes.

To say I've read a few psychological thrillers over the past few years, I haven't read any by JP Delaney. So I was intrigued to see if I would enjoy his book and writing style, as much as his sky high sales suggest I would.

Claire Wright is a British drama student living in New York who finds herself struggling to make ends meet financially.
Claire has never wanted anything more than to become an actress and pretending to be someone else. It's what she's wanted to do since she was eleven years of age. So to help pay the tuition fees her scholarship doesn't cover, she gets a job working as a honeytrap. She can't get work acting because she doesn't have a green card and so has no union membership. This eventually leads to her working for the police in the case of Patrick Fogler, a man being investigation for murder...I'm unwilling to disclose much more. This is definitely a book to read knowing as little as possible about the plot line, so as not to ruin any tension or surprises.

Wow!! What an excellent read. This novel is centred around the concept of the unreliable narrator, which isn't a new way of telling a story, but certainly a compelling one when done well, as is certainly the case here! "Believe me" when I say this book is definitely worthy of a read, a psychological thriller full of intrigue, suspicion, doubt and mystery. This may be my first JP Delaney book, but won't be my last, I'm just shocked i've not read any of his works before.

With many thanks to NetGalley and Quercus for the opportunity to read this ARC in return for an honest and unbiased review.

Interesting read. Lots of twists and turns. An original plot makes for a refreshing break from the norm

I struggled to finish this book and the method of having most of it written like a script seemed a lazy tactic.

Plot twists, suspense, romance. This story has everything. I literally could not put this book down. From start to finish I was hooked. I can't give any details as I don't want to give anything away! 100% recommend.

I would firstly like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows Claire Wright, who liked to play other people. A British drama student, in New York, Claire takes the only job she can get: working for a firm of divorce lawyers, posing as an easy pick-up in hotel bars to entrap straying husbands. When one of her targets becomes the subject of a murder investigation, the police ask Claire to use her acting skills to help lure their suspect into a confession. But right from the start, she has doubts about the part she's being asked to play. Is Patrick Fogler really a killer? ..... Or the only decent husband she's met? And is there more to this set-up than she's being told?

After enjoying this author's first book, 'The Girl Before', and seeing multiple 5 stars reviews for this one, I was excited to read it. However I was a little disappointed.
While the plot itself was intriguing and overall very cleverly-written; there were also many aspects to this book that I just didn't like at all.

Firstly I didn't like that most of the dialogue in this book was written as a script. I don't know if it would of looked better in a physical copy of this book, but reading it on a kindle and as a ARC, it looked so untidy, with hardly any punctuation, and it just bugged me so much.
Secondly, while Claire was a brilliantly-written character and I enjoyed the plot; the parts that referenced the french play honestly just bored me. While I appreciated the part it played in the story, the paragraphs that were solely telling the story of the play just didn't interest me at all.

However I still think this book is worth a read - purely just for the excellent writing of Claire and that ending!?!?

This book had me hooked straight away. I loved that the narrator was so unreliable and it kept me guessing until the end. I thought it was interesting the way Claire narrated much of the dialogue as a play script to reflect her acting experience. My thought of who was the killer flipped from chapter to chapter and it was only in the last couple of chapters that I finally made up my mind!
I’ll certainly be seeking out more by this author

Last year I enjoyed JP Delaney’s debut: The Girl Before. It was creepy, well-paced and entertaining, and Believe Me is even better. This is a smooth, quick read which is so engrossing you won’t want to put it down.

And if you’ve been searching for a book with a complex main character who has more layers than an onion, this is the one for you. Claire has so many levels to her personality there are times even she doesn’t seem to know or understand herself!

As you would expect, there are plenty of twists and turns throughout the story, although for me it was the shock half way through the book which had most impact. That said, the final reveal was good, it just wasn’t quite on a par with the “what the heck?!?!” moment earlier on.

Claire is an actress and likes to imagine herself living in a film so often parts of the story are written as if they’re a film or theatre script. This worked well for me because I love reading dialogue and all the chat keeps the narrative moving forward.

The Bauldelaire theme was well-handled and provided a nice through-line for the reader to follow as the plot became increasingly convoluted.

Overall: if you enjoyed The Girl Before prepare yourself for a treat. Believe Me provides plenty more twists, turns and suspense. I look forward to seeing what JP Delaney comes up with next

Claire Wright is an aspiring actor, broke and living in New York without a green card. She has to resort to working for a firm of divorce lawyers helping to entrap straying spouses but it all goes wrong. She finds herself a suspect in a murder of a wronged wife only to be asked by the police to use her acting talents to help snare the very clever and dangerous suspect who they all think is responsible for more deaths. Claire finds it difficult to believe that Patrick could be involved in murder and questions whether the sting is right. The plot twists and turns with some very dark subject matter. It’s difficult to know who is responsible right up to the end.

I would like to thank Quercus and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Believe Me ‘ in exchange for my honest unbiased review.

Not what I was expecting from it. Found that the story was a little weak in places.

It’s based around Claire and one of her clients wife’s who’s has been murdered. Claire wants to play detective.

Had so much expectation of this novel.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, took me less than 24 hours to get through!
Keeps you guessing, keeps you gripped with lots of twists and turns. You're never quite sure who you can trust.
Great book and would highly recommend.
My only negative point is there's a lot of the poetry stuff and I found myself skimming it.
My first J.P Delaney book but certainly not my last.

I kept changing my mind about this book and couldn't decide whether I enjoyed it or not. The basis of the book is the fact the characters are lying to each other and it got hard to work out what was supposed to be real which I guess is the point.
I'm left with an unfinished feeling about it.

This book was really cleverly written with a lot of twists and turns. I found myself thinking about it when I wasn't reading - just trying to get it straight in my head. I really enjoyed it and would recommend!

Believe Me, like The Girl Before is impossible to put down, I’ve raced through it in less than a day. Claire, an actress employed by a law firm to honey trap unsuspecting unfaithful husbands finds herself drawn to a mark, whose wife is later found murdered. The premise, although fascinating is about truth, lies and darkness. Believe Me is about the beauty that can be found in the darkness and the darkness that may well live in all of us. The storyline is extremely clever and I look forward to the next novel from JP Delaney.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House and JP Delaney for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Having read and enjoyed JP Delaney's previous book I was really looking forward to this psychological thriller and it did not disappoint; for the most part. Although it was gripping and I genuinely could not put it down I did feel it was a little too long and needed more ruthless editing. If you enjoy a good psychological thriller which has a few too many twists and turns then this is definitely the book for you!!

Unfortunately the plot didn't work for me.
Although having read and enjoyed The Girl Before, I found the plot of this book a bit ridiculous. There are too many actions in this story that won't happen in real life, and there is too much drama.
This review contains spoilers, please be aware if you're going to read the rest!

Claire is a broke drama student, her acting career in the UK is messed up by a scandal she caused, and she had a collapse. She moves to USA for a fresh start. I think we have to assume that people in the USA do not use google to find out what Claire done in the UK. Anyway, Claire gets involved in a business where she is paid by a legal office to find out if the customers' (mostly wives) partners are faithful or not. One day she gets unexpectedly involved in a murder investigation and emotionally gets involved with the victim's husband as well...
The biggest mystery in the book wasn't who the killer is, but who paid a broke drama student's medical bills. Also how could New York police department can employ an emotionally unstable person? Hire her a flat, refurbish it twice? And the ending- a complete ridicule for me.
I am really sorry but this book has a very untidy plot, with a lot of holes and illogical events. The writing is good, but the plot need re-thinking.
Thanks for Netgalley and Quercus books for a copy of the book, in exchange for an honest review.