J.P. Delany (Hachette Australia) 2017, 407pp, RRP $32.99

This enjoyable page-turner from Delany (a pseudonym for a fiction writer and adman who needn’t be ashamed) has a coolly tricky structure, a few sweet twists and a lightly perverse edge, even though there are times that you’ll want to murder the sometimes frustrating characters yourself.The Girl Before - JP Delany - Hachette Australia - The Clothesline

Jane, a grieving Londoner, moves into a scarily modern, controlled and computerised house (continually referred to as ‘One Folgate Street’) and becomes intrigued with both the story of a former tenant who perhaps mysteriously died there and the architect behind the place, the very cute and very uptight Edward Monkford. We then cut back and forth between her experiences in the place and, later, with Edward, and what exactly happened to the also-traumatised Emma, as Delany cleverly pulls the rug out several times and psychoanalyses our past-and-present protagonists with glee.

Another suspense thriller that’s hard to discuss without rather giving the game away, this is a fun, entertainingly creepy suspense thriller well worth the rental.

Dave Bradley

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