The Girl Before – JP Delaney
Enter the world of One Folgate Street and discover perfection . . . but can you pay the price?
Jane stumbles on the rental opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to live in a beautiful ultra-minimalist house designed by an enigmatic architect, on condition she abides by a long list of exacting rules. After moving in, she discovers that a previous tenant, Emma, met a mysterious death there – and starts to wonder if her own story will be a re-run of the girl before. As twist after twist catches the reader off guard, Emma’s past and Jane’s present become inexorably entwined in this tense, page-turning portrayal of psychological obsession.
My thanks to Quercus for my review copy which was received through Netgalley
At the tail end of last year I did a preview of The Girl Before as I had been given the opportunity to read a sample of the opening chapters. I was really excited by how the book opened, it had developed a sinister twin timeline narrative, two characters were introduced both keen to rent the same property and both very similar in nature and appearance.
The property in question was One Folgate Street. An unique house designed by an award winning minimalist architect who placed many stipulations and caveats on the property rental agreement which made the house very hard for prospective tenants to display their suitability. Jane is keen to take on the lease and bends over backwards to meet the rental caveats but once she moves into the property she learns that the house has a dark history and that her suitability may not just have depended upon the answers she provided on the pre-rental agreement questionnaire.
As I indicated above, this book had a cracking opening and a fabulous premise but I found that half-way through the story it lost me a tad. Events took a turn away from sinister and embraced an unexpected “50 Shades” feel. By the time I reached the end of the book I was able to appreciate why it all got a bit hot and heavy in places but it didn’t sit comfortably with me at the time.
The mystery of One Folgate Street was enough to keep me reading and I was quite pleased with the endgame (and a couple of the surprises which JP Delaney worked in to the final third of the story). Having seen mixed reactions from other readers over the last few days I suspect that this will be a story which you will either fully embrace or one which will leave you slightly underwhelmed. It is being turned into a motion picture with uber director Ron Howard taking control so you can expect to hear a good bit about The Girl Before in the coming months.
I am glad I had the chance to read it before I heard any spoilers and I think it has enough of a thrill factor to do well…but not for me this one.
The Girl Before releases on 26 January in hardback and digital format. It is published by Quercus Books. You can pre-order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Before-JP-Delaney/dp/1786480298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483919870&sr=8-1&keywords=The+girl+before