Believe Me: The twisty and addictive thriller from bestselling author of The Girl Before

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Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Something I loved about this story was that it intertwined Claire's real life and her love of acting. There were chapters were she was either in class or acting in a play and I could see the connections between the two. It was almost like the author wanted to foreshadow some of the upcoming events but I thought this was done in a really creative way. 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.

I thought this was a really engrossing read and I had a hard time putting it down. The characters won’t win any awards for Miss/Mr. Congeniality, but I was intrigued by them. Usually, it bothers me if I can’t connect with characters, but it didn’t irritate me as much as it normally would. In fact, I liked not knowing who I could trust. This is a well researched novel, I like the psychology and legal sections as they make the whole thing feel very authentic. As the storyline builds I think some situations may be a tad unlikely, possibly even implausible but it does make for darn good fiction and that at the end of the day is what we as readers are after. I did think the novel suffered from too much telling, and not enough showing. There was a lot of info dump and over explaining, and it slowed the plot down. An average read, but definitely not my favourite by J.P. Delaney. It's been a hard time coming, but I've really come around to structural changes to your typical story telling (when done right). Delaney truly created something wholly unique here. We only have one POV (Claire) however, she views her life as a movie and we switch between traditional story-telling and script writing. I had originally and right away been turned off by this. For me, the goal of every book is to enter what I call the "reading zone" but what many call "deep reading" and when you really shake things up with formatting it can be hard to drop into. I'd say this took me about......a grand total of.....two chapters to drop into that zone because of the script writing. Around us, heads are turning in our direction. But there’s going to be no confrontation, no eruption of New York stress. Already I’m getting to my feet, pulling my bag onto my shoulder. Defusing the drama.The story revolves around a murder which is committed and for which the police have no significant leads. Claire may or may not be a suspect, she is summoned to the police station and makes some sort of deal with them for which she will be compensated with a green card which will allow her to stay in the US. She meets Detective Durban who will play a part in the unfolding of this story. She finds a job which will pay her cash. She works as a decoy, hired to entrap cheating spouses on tape. There are rules that need to be followed, the spouse withe the wandering eye needs to proposition her, and she needs to get it all on tape. Then one day, the wife of a suspected cheater is found murdered. The police believe her husband is to blame and have Claire help them get his confession.

I enjoyed about eighty percent of the book but that ending was so unbelievable that it took away something from the enjoyment of the book. The book did have an interesting format written at times somewhat like one would expect a script to be written. So, in a nutshell while the premise kept me going this book did in the end disappoint this reader. It happens....The performance aspect of her personality is a refreshingly innovative way to style an unreliable narrator! Hmmmm. Talk about "method actor method actor method actor".