The Girl Before by JP Delaney

In the tradition of The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl comes a psychological thriller that has won great reviews and accolades. Bestselling author Lee Child hailed it “dazzling, startling, and above all cunning—a pitch-perfect novel of psychological suspense.” Riveting, enthralling, addictive, intriguing, ingenious, genuinely eerie, and compulsive are some of the accolades that have been heaped on the novel. This 2017 release is already set to be a movie directed by Ron Howard.

I am talking about The Girl Before by JP Delaney. Novels with girl in their titles seem to have a tendency to land on the bestseller list and The Girl Before is another proof of that.

The premise is intriguing: One Folgate Street is a beautiful minimalist and modern house designed by a famous architect. The house records data, and tracks every move of its tenant. Tenants have to answer occasional quizzes, and if you don’t comply or do well, appliances will stop working. If the house is offered to you for a low rent, would you agree to it? The catch is that Edward Monkford, the house’s famous architect, is a control freak and preposterously selective about who gets to live there and in order to live there, one must pass a series of vetting including an in-depth survey and interview. The lease has over 200 clauses that place a lot of stringent restrictions on your life, reducing it to its minimalist basic.

The story is narrated in alternating chapters between Emma, the girl before who died in the house under mysterious circumstances, and Jane, the current tenant. And it milks suspense from matching scenes in which Emma and Jane do exactly the same things with Edward, who consciously sets up these parallels. Both find themselves drawn to Edward and the tragic history of his family. Were the deaths of Edward’s wife and child accidental? Or were they murdered for not conforming to Edward’s obsessive need for order?

Both Emma and Jane are recovering from traumas when they move into the house. That is probably part of why they meet Edward’s stringent requirements. Their physical resemblance to Edward’s deceased wife is also a big reason.

Emma moved into One Folgate Street with her boyfriend Simon after a horrible burglary that leaves her scared and feeling unsafe. She soon breaks up with Simon and enters into a relationship with Edward. Jane, on the other hand, is unattached when she meets Edward, but still shaken from a stillbirth that caused her to quit her job and switch to social work. She too enters into a relationship with Edward, not knowing he had been involved with the house’s previous tenant as well, or realizing that both women look a lot alike and both look a lot like Edward’s deceased wife as well.

Jane begins to investigate Emma’s death, and by doing so, puts herself in danger. I won’t reveal too much as it would spoil your enjoyment of the book. Suffice to say that the story is a kaleidoscope of duplicity, death, and deception.

The Girl Before tries very hard to be a psychological thriller that can outdo The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl in both popularity and success. All three books have the hallmark of having untrustworthy narrators and multiple suspicious characters which seem to be fast becoming a staple of the genre. THE GIRL BEFORE takes it a step further by adding sexual deviance to the mix to capitalise on the phenomenal success of Fifty Shades of Grey.

The book has received excellent reviews. It is a good read but I am in the minority who thinks the book is overrated. Before it was finally revealed who the murderer of Emma was, I have correctly guessed it. That spoiled my enjoyment of the book.