By: JP Delaney
ISBN: 9780425285046
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: 1/24/2017
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 3 Stars In the tradition of The Girl on the Train, The Silent Wife, and Gone Girl comes an enthralling psychological thriller that spins one woman's seemingly good fortune, and another woman's mysterious fate, through a kaleidoscope of duplicity, death, and deception. Please make a list of every possession you consider essential to your life. The request seems odd, even intrusive—and for the two women who answer, the consequences are devastating. EMMA Reeling from a traumatic break-in, Emma wants a new place to live. But none of the apartments she sees are affordable or feel safe. Until One Folgate Street. The house is an architectural masterpiece: a minimalist design of pale stone, plate glass, and soaring ceilings. But there are rules. The enigmatic architect who designed the house retains full control: no books, no throw pillows, no photos or clutter or personal effects of any kind. The space is intended to transform its occupant—and it does. JANE After a personal tragedy, Jane needs a fresh start. When she finds One Folgate Street she is instantly drawn to the space—and to its aloof but seductive creator. Moving in, Jane soon learns about the untimely death of the home's previous tenant, a woman similar to Jane in age and appearance. As Jane tries to untangle truth from lies, she unwittingly follows the same patterns, makes the same choices, crosses paths with the same people, and experiences the same terror, as the girl before.
A special thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Review to follow.
Advance Praise for The Girl Before
“Dazzling, startling, and above all cunning—a pitch-perfect novel of psychological suspense.“—Lee Child
“Riveting! One of the most compelling page-turners I've read in years. Twisty, turny, and with an ending not to be missed!“—Lisa Gardner
“The Girl Before generates a fast pace. . . . [J. P.] Delaney intersperses ethics questions on stand-alone pages throughout the book. . . . The single most ingenious touch is that we’re not provided either woman’s answers.”—The New York Times
“J. P. Delaney builds the suspense.”—Vanity Fair
“Immediate guarantee: You will not be able to put this book down. . . . Fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train will realize that there’s not only more where that came from, but it’s also more thrilling.”—American Booksellers Association
“This is going to be the buzziest book of 2017. We may only be a few weeks into 2017, but we’re calling it early: This year, The Girl Before will be that book. The upcoming novel by author J. P. Delaney has all of the makings of a sexy murder mystery that is sure to hit the bestseller chart, and it already has the movie deal to prove it.”—InStyle
“Delaney has created a genuinely eerie, fascinating setting in One Folgate Street. . . . The novel’s structure, volleying back and forth as first Emma and then Jane begin to question their improbable luck, is beautifully handled. The pages fly.”—USA Today
“The house has a dark past and a landlord that’s anything but welcoming.”—New York Post, one of the must-read books of the week
“The Girl Before is deservedly anointed the ‘top girl’ of this season’s suspense novels.”—The Washington Post
“The Girl Before is a cat-and-mouse game that toys with our expectations and twists our sympathies. At times almost unbearably suspenseful, it keeps us guessing from the first page to the very last. Don’t miss it.”—Joseph Finder
“Get hooked on this hair-raiser about a woman who scores what seems like her dream home . . . until she finds out the mysterious fate of the previous tenant.”—Cosmopolitan
“One of the best thrillers you’ll read in 2017. . . . The Girl Before will appeal greatly to fans of psychological suspense.”—New York Journal of Books
“Riveting . . . Writing with precision and grace, Delaney strips away the characters’ secrets until the raw truth of each is revealed.”—Publishers Weekly
“Superior psychological suspense . . . a cleverly constructed thriller.”—The Bookseller
“A masterfully crafted spellbinder . . . guaranteed to astonish.”—Booklist (starred review)
About the Author
J. P. Delaney is an acclaimed crime writer who is also a creative director for the largest advertising agency in the U.K.
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Universal Lands Hot Novel ‘The Girl Before’ Ron Howard To Direct, Brian Grazer & Michael De Luca To Produce
EXCLUSIVE: In a big pre-Thanksgiving auction, Universal Pictures has acquired screen rights to The Girl Before, a thriller novel written by author J.P. Delaney that Ballantine Bantam Dell Random House will publish in fall, 2016. Ron Howard is attached to direct the film, and Michael De Luca is producing with Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, Howard and Erica Huggins. Imagine’s Tyler Mitchell will be exec producer; Elishia Holmes will exec produce for Michael De Luca Productions.
TriStar, Paramount and two indie financiers competed for the title, which is believed to have been written by bestselling author Tony Strong under a pseudonym. In The Girl Before, a traumatized woman falls in love with an extraordinary minimalist house and with the man who designed it. But when she discovers that three years earlier another damaged woman died here, she starts to wonder if her own story is just a re-run of the girl before. This becomes yet another big publishing/movie deal for a thriller book with a woman in jeopardy and with the word “girl” in the title. The others were Gone Girl and The Girl On The Train, which Tate Taylor is directing for DreamWorks.
Howard directed the whale tale In The Heart Of The Sea, an adaptation of the Nathaniel Philbrick non-fiction book.
Senior Vice President of Production Kristin Lowe will oversee the project for Universal. CAA brokered the deal and rep Grazer, Howard, De Luca and the author, the latter of whom is also repped by Caradoc King and Yasmin MacDonald at United Agents in the U.K. Read More
About the Author
The Girl Before is the first psychological thriller from JP Delaney, a pseudonym for a writer who has previously written best-selling fiction under other names.
It is being published in the US in January 2017, with subsequent editions in over 30 countries. A film version is being brought to the screen by Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard.
