The Girl Before

In The Girl Before by JP Delaney, the narration jumps between Emma and Jane, two tenants in One Folgate Street. I don’t always love perspective-jumping fiction, because the constant cliffhanger switches can get annoying. Also, if the characters aren’t written really distinctly, it can be confusing to keep up with them. Here, it really works, because it shows readers how Jane accidentally, and then intentionally, follows Emma’s footsteps.

Each woman decides to rent the beautiful One Folgate Street, an architectural marvel with all kinds of smart-tech features (so you know that the house is going to start blasting the cold taps and playing ominous music). But the house comes with a special rental agreement, a personality test, and then a personal interview with the enigmatic, perfectionist architect before anyone can rent it. The novel’s sections are divided by these ethics and personality questions, a bit like in An Anonymous Girl.  Most people don’t even make it to the interview, and when they do, they’re still turned down. I’m currently apartment-hunting, because our landlord is selling the building, so we’re losing our convenient, lovely, modest flat. Basically, I’ve been examining fourth-floor walk-ups and apartment buildings so far out that we might as well not live in the city. Anyway, I’d absolutely do a weird personal interview to live in a beautiful, convenient flat that won’t be sold out from under me.

As each woman moves into One Folgate, she finds herself in the same places and situations. They each start a relationship with the architect. Jane, the second tenant, notices she resembles Emma, as Emma notices she resembles Edward’s late wife.  Emma starts to look into the wife’s mysterious death, just as Jane starts to look into Emma’s mysterious death.  Don’t worry, thought, just when I was starting to find the enigmatic genius architect a little too much, there’s a shocking twist that makes it so much better.  Oh, he’s a self-important, inconsiderate ass, with certain blind spots…  That’s much more nuanced than the crazed, murderous perfectionist.

This is another page-turning suspense novel, with an ominous feel and several well-plotted reversals, plus the unique twist of One Folgate Street almost as another character. Although there’s murder in this novel, there’s mostly just blood, so I didn’t find it too gross or gory. Whenever there is something a bit icky, like live seafood or bloodstains, it really serves to develop the characters, just what I want in a suspense novel.