Blood is thicker than oil—until murder is involved.

In this twisty psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before, an actress plays both sides of a murder investigation.

A struggling actor, a Brit in America without a green card, Claire needs work and money to survive. Then she gets both. But nothing like she expected.

Claire agrees to become a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers. Hired to entrap straying husbands, she must catch them on tape with their seductive propositions. The rules? Never hit on the mark directly. Make it clear you’re available, but he has to proposition you, not the other way around. The firm is after evidence, not coercion. The innocent have nothing to hide.

Then the game changes.

When the wife of one of Claire’s targets is violently murdered, the cops are sure the husband is to blame. Desperate to catch him before he kills again, they enlist Claire to lure him into a confession.

Claire can do this. She’s brilliant at assuming a voice and an identity. For a woman who’s mastered the art of manipulation, how difficult could it be to tempt a killer into a trap? But who is the decoy . . . and who is the prey?

I received a free copy of this book courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read a number of books by J.P. Delaney, and Believe Me offers up another thrilling narrative. When things take a turn for acting student Claire, she faces losing her home and her chance to make it in New York City. Jobbing as a honeytrap, she prides herself on having caught out many a husband looking to stray from their nuptials, until what would become her final job, when the husband fails to take the bait. But things worsen when the wife is found dead, murdered in a brutal fashion.

As someone well versed in playing a part, and assuming an identity Claire is enlisted to help catch the killer, with suspicion falling on the husband. But a troubled past involving questions about her mental stability bubble up to cloud proceedings and leave the reader twisting and turning as to where the guilt should lie.

The story is fast-paced, with twists and turns everywhere. We dive deep within the dark and twisted work of Baudelaire in trying to dive into the psyche of the murderer. The only thing that let the book down was in the final third – the story twists and turns one time too many, suddenly becoming predictable. I found myself knowing the outcome, if not the complete arc that would lead to it. In that regard, what had been a fantastic read quickly became somewhat disappointing in its conclusion.

My rating: