THE GLOBAL BESTSELLER • Soon to be a BBC One and HBO Max limited four-part series, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Morning Show; Misbehaviour) and multiple Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Emmy-nominated actor David Oyelowo (Selma; Les Misérables) “A pitch-perfect novel of psychological suspense” (Lee Child) that spins one woman’s seemingly good fortune, and another woman’s mysterious fate, through a … 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.
Praise for The Girl Before
“Dazzling, startling, and above all cunning—a pitch-perfect novel of psychological suspense.”—Lee Child
“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
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While I can certainly see why this book received some mixed reviews, I found it fascinating and hard to put down. The house at One Folgate Street has quite a history — the architect’s wife and child have died and are actually buried under the foundation. That architect, Edward Monkford, is also quite selective about who gets to be a tenant. Prospective tenants go through a rigorous process and have rules to follow. Jane, who has just endured a stillbirth, is selected as the newest tenant, and soon also becomes Edward’s lover. She soon discovers that her life is paralleling Emma, the house’s recent tenant who has died under mysterious circumstances. Emma also physically resembles Jane. As Jane explores Emma’s life, she becomes obsessed to find out whether her lover is also a murderer — or is it someone else? No spoilers here, and do recommend this book with some caveats. Frankly many of the characters are not all that likable, and the ending could have been better. Overall, though, an interesting read in the genre of Gone Girl.
I did not even finish this book! I started it then took a break then came back to it but still couldn’t get past much more than 100 pages. It was already slow and boring, but when they started touching each other’s privates in public is when I had to stop. If it had just been slow and boring I could have pressed through but not when they added the sexual bit.
Loved this book! Kept me reading, especially the second half!
I recently read Mr. Delaney’s latest book, The Perfect Wife, but that was based on the pleasure I derived from The Girl Before. This caught my eye during the period when every decent thriller seemed to require ‘Girl’ in the title, and I was not to be disappointed. Great twists, great premise, and I truly hope it finally makes its way onto the big screen.
When I started TGB and all the players were introduced I thought I figured out the mystery hands down. BOY! Was I wrong. Nothing is quite as it seems and when a certain someone’s secrets and lies were revealed my jaw hit the floor because I was so stunned. More things start to unfold and one thing I can say is this is not predictable at all. Every time I thought I had it figured out I was proved wrong. It didn’t even end the way I thought. If you like mind f***s, this one is for you.
I can not believe this took me ONLY a week to read. I felt like I was reading this for a month. This book did not hold my interest at all but I wanted to finish it to see if it got better. Suspense? No. This book was based on the story of two women who rented the same 1 bedroom home a few years apart. It starts out THEN: EMMA and goes to NOW: JANE, alternating each “chapter”. The Emma sections was written without any quotation marks, which I find very hard to read. I had to re-read a lot of these sections because I couldn’t tell if things were actually being said or thought about. The Jane sections were written normally. Punctuation and all. Emma and Jane were both very insecure and fell for the owner/architect. This book was filled with sex, violent sex and very unhealthy relationships. I don’t really understand the last chapter of the book either. I didn’t hate it, but I definitely didn’t like this and wouldn’t really recommend it.
I listened to the audio version of this book. The accent of the narrator was a bit difficult to understand at times and she lost my interest a few times.
The story was twisted and quite a thriller. It had me trying to think ahead at many times. I liked this book.
Some twists, not sure if I cared for ending.
The setting for this book is an interesting concept and the storyline is easy to follow whilst retaining intrigue and many surprises.
The Girl Before is a fast-paced page-turner with lots of twists. It kept me engaged from start to finish. Great read for fans of psychological thrillers.
So, I picked this book up mostly based on the cover. Apparently, it’s ‘Dazzling’ (Lee Child), ‘Deeply addictive’ (Daily Express), and ‘Really clever’ (Daily Mail). Well recommended then. The Sunday Times even goes so far as to suggest that this is ‘an outstanding debut that is more than a match for…The Girl on the Train’. I had high hopes opening this one up, especially when I saw Peter James had provided an endorsement. If it’s good enough for Mr James, it’s got to be good enough for me!
The basic story is pretty simple. There’s a house – One Folgate Street – an ultra-minimalist, technologically intricate dwelling designed by an enigmatic architect, Edward. One of the primary characters, Jane, who is in a bad place for various reasons, stumbles on the rental opportunity of a lifetime. She can rent the house, but only if she agrees to a whole bunch of exacting rules. No pets, no children, the house has to be kept tidy at all times, and so on. Despite these restrictions, she decides to rent the house anyway.
But, and this is a big but, the previous tenant is a woman called Emma, who met an untimely end in the house. Not only that, but the house has other tragedies in its past as well. Jane gradually uncovers the house’s history, and starts to become concerned that she is in danger. But from whom?
There’s nothing there that you won’t get from the back cover, so there’s no spoilers here. When I started reading the book, there were a few stylistic writing choices that initially irritated me from a reader’s perspective. The point of view of the chapters flips between various characters, and also timelines – ‘Now: Jane’, ‘Then: Emma’, and so on. At times, this gets confusing, and more than once I found myself flipping the pages back to see whose head I was in, and what part of the timeline I was in. As the book progresses, and the commonality between the threads and the protagonist’s experiences start to converge, this becomes more acute. The author uses grammatical tools to try to differentiate between the threads, such as not using ‘proper’ punctuation for the dialogue in one of the POVs – almost like Cormac McCarthy – which annoyed the hell out of me at the start but once I got used to it, this annoyance faded.
The bottom line here is that this is a very well crafted piece, intricately woven together, and with a satisfying and rewarding conclusion. There is – deliberately and necessarily so – a lot of similarities between the various protagonists. The way that the story is presented is confusing at times, or at least it was for me, but this shouldn’t distract from what is an excellent piece. Well drawn and defined characters, a compelling storyline that had me hooked until the end.
J.P. Delaney is a new-to-me author and one that I will definitely be checking out again. I saw this book and read the synopsis while standing in Barnes and Noble, and took a chance on it, as it sounded phenomenal. It was…….to a point. The switching between two characters got a little confusing but the plot line itself was outstanding.
The dark, psychological twists that Delaney implements in this story are incredible. The creepy factor of this is off the charts awesome. I found myself white knuckling the book while turning each page to find out what was happening with Jane and with Emma. I can’t imagine living in a house like they did, let alone experiencing the same thing as the girl before me. But, I felt it. I felt transported to London, felt the insane twists, and the roller coaster turns of the story.
While I would love to give this a 4 star review, I can’t. I give it 3.5 stars. The switching between Jane and Emma sometimes had me confused on whose story was whose. That’s the one and only downside to the book. But, I still highly recommend this! The actual plot line, is as I said before, outstanding! This is one book you don’t want to miss! It’s creepy, it’s twisty, it’s thrilling. I’m looking forward to reading more of Delaney’s work!
*I purchased my own copy of this book. All opinions, positive or negative, are my own.*JP Delaney
In beautiful writing about past and present, the writer tells the stories of Emma and Jane. Each, in turn, moves to a unique apartment that will change their lives forever. So far sounds like a promise to assure proper tension?
So that’s not it.
The result is surprisingly mediocre, tedious at times, frustrating at the end.
Combines all the frantic tricks that might produce tension and all the possible emotional manipulations so that the end will be unexpected and may be able to excite the reader.
Disappointing.
Alternating narration of two women who rent a high-tech home in succession from a narcissistic owner-architect. Both women are dealing with trauma in their recent pasts. Both are lured by the state-of-the-art minimalist masterpiece of the apartment. Both are elated when they pass the rigid application as tenants. But no one remains at One Folgate for very long. The book started out good with the description of the smart apartment and the strict tenant rules. From there, it delves even more deeply into control, vulnerability, and finally somewhat of a twist at the end.
Outstanding
This is a great book. It is very suspenseful and the storyline is different. It’s told from two different people but flows smoothly and easy to read. I love all of the details of the home that is described in the book, very interesting. If you are looking for an edgy, action packed page turner, this is your book! I will be looking for more books from this author.
Very well done. Psych thriller with an aura of the haunted house-in an ultra modern space. Twists and turns right up to the end.
It’s a good fast reading book, keeps you guessing until the end.
A psychological twisted thriller. Disappointed in the two woman involved in the story. I wished they were more independent. Although it was a page turner, I figured out the ending. It was a just okay book.
Reminded me of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier