Believe Me

The author appears to have thrown everything bar the kitchen sink at this book in terms of plot. Once I had cast aside my disbelief regarding the Police using a civilian in this way, and accepted the story for the work of fiction that it is, I actually rather enjoyed the book. It appears quite a tome in terms of size, but the large print and easy style made for a relatively quick read.

Slightly mixed reviews with a rasting of average to excellent from our group.

I would give this book 3 stars. The first 40% or so, was quick paste and well written however after this the book really slowed down and started to become predictable. There was a lot in there, but this book could have easily been 100 pages less and still told the same story. The ending picked up and some of the twists but the impact of these was lost with the slow pace in the middle.

A psychological thriller that takes you on an original twisty addictive journey. Claire is a believable vulnerable character who shocks throughout this book. Thoroughly enjoyed this book.

It was a good concept/idea for a story, initially. A bit different from your usual psychological thriller, although I’m not sure there was the need for the dark side of things (websites), almost seemed a bit unnecessary and gratuitous. However, as the story went on, it became less believable – was the actress playing someone or not? Overall though, I enjoyed the book.

An interesting narrative that had potential. Some of the characters weren’t properly formed and it broke the illusion in the story. Sections of the story were engaging and then other parts seemed underdeveloped. Overall, there are sections of originality which were diluted by less original sections.

A super book with lots of twists, turns and red herrings! The ending was super.

Claire, a British woman, is determined to become an actress. She has been awarded a scholarship to study in the U.S. but does not have a Green Card so cannot work and struggles to make ends meet. In desperation she eventually lands an occasional job with a firm of lawyers. They are looking for somebody to ensnare husbands on behalf of female clients in order to prove that they are cheating on them. The work isn’t that great, or that frequent but it helps pay the bills. And then the wife of one of Claire’s targets is murdered. The police think the husband did it but need help proving this, so they employ Claire to lure him into a confession.

At the start this book showed lots of promise. The premise was good, the writing was good and it all seemed quite plausible and interesting. I had been promised lots of twists, turns, lies and deceptions, all of which sound like perfect ingredients for a great psychological thriller. And, to be fair, it did deliver on many of these points. As things progressed I certainly had the feeling that things may not be quite what they seemed, but I completely failed to work out the complexities of what was to come. So far, so good. Also on the plus side, it is a very easy and quick read - although it has a lot of pages, much of the conversation is written as a double-spaced film/theatre script which results in very little actual reading material per page.

Unfortunately things did start to go downhill and sadly, for me it just didn’t live up to expectations. It really is a most peculiar book and started to get darker and weirder until it became so dark and so weird that I was completely out of my comfort zone and not enjoying it at all. Add to that the fact that I really didn’t like any of the characters involved (particularly Clare, the main protagonist) and perhaps you will understand why this book really wasn’t my cup of tea. To be quite honest I got to the point where I really didn’t care what happened to any of them. I also think the level of complexity was one twist and turn too far, although you may have to read it to understand where I am coming from with that one.

I can’t honestly say that I would recommend this book as I didn’t really enjoy the latter part of it at all. Having said that, it does potentially have a lot going for it and other people may have a completely different take on it. I haven’t read any other books by this author and don’t think I will be rushing out to find more.