This is the second book that I have read by this author. Here’s what I thought about this “thriller”. 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.

I take a step away and look around helplessly, but the place is busy and my previous seat has gone. There is nowhere else. I didn’t care much for the erotic poetry (which may be because I didn't understand it). However, I still enjoyed the rest of the story, and I have to admit, I did end up Googling to find out more about “Les Fleurs du Mal” by Charles Baudelaire. Then she gets an opportunity to work for a divorce attorney. It’s easy money and the work is easy too. She is hired to entrap cheating husbands…though she prefers to think of it as “ behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances”. Her ability to act, to become someone else came from how she grew up. Most of the time she feels like the husbands have it coming. Although sometimes she feels a little disgusted by what she does. The premise of this book sounded extremely interesting to me. Like a cat and mouse book where one often questions just who the good guy is and who is the bad guy. I so wanted to enjoy this, and I will say that I did enjoy it in the beginning and then things went downhill for me. I found myself losing interest and didn't really care who was telling the truth, who wasn't, who was acting, who wasn't, etc.This is my third book by this author and I shouldn't be surprised that I liked it so much. My first read was Playing Nice and the second one I read was Believe Me and both were five-star reads for me. And oh boy was this one something else! I literally could not put it down. A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. Always appear available. Don’t approach them first. Always let them be the one to proposition you. Don’t actually sleep with them. Get the evidence, return it to the wife, and don’t speak of it to others. Claire has never struggled to seduce men. She finds this is a job she was made for. I really enjoyed The Girl Before so eagerly awaited Delaney’s second novel, Believe Me, which the author (Tony Strong, writing as JP Delaney) notes is a re-work and re-publication of a manuscript published 17 years earlier. Believe Me is that twisty thriller that will have you constantly changing your mind about “who did it.” Nothing is as it seems in this cat and mouse murder mystery.

Unfortunately, they have suffered a few miscarriages, and she wonders if the only baby she will successfully carry to term, would be Sky, the baby she relinquished. Infamous in her home country, Claire would give anything for success as an actress in the United States. Pretty, talented, and British seems like a winning combination... but she doesn't have a green card, so she can't actually work. At least not on paper. She needs money to pay for rent, food, and acting lessons somehow... so she has started to work under the table for a law firm. Using her feminine wiles and ability to read just what a certain man is looking for, she tempts married men and sees if they'll bite. Not to worry, their wife is totally in on it... curious to see if their significant other will pass on temptation and paying good money for that knowledge. Are you waiting on someone? Bet he’s been held up by the snow. That’s why I’m staying an extra night—it’s chaos out at LaGuardia.

Overall, I found this to be quite an entertaining psychological thriller. The story had some great twists and turns, leading up to an intense and gripping ending that I never saw coming!

Told via multiple narration we are privy to everyone’s thoughts and I have to say being inside Anna/Sky’s head felt dangerously fun. While Susie felt more needy and desperate, making Gabe the only genuine and likeable one among them and he’s accused of sleeping with underage girls so you know how bad the others are. As an aside, there’s a book ( Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire) featured in this novel and an obvious intention that our characters mirror those in the book. Although there comes a point at what we wonder if life is imitating art, or vice versa.Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions presented are my own. While I appreciate Delaney's creativity and exploration of some interesting and sometimes harmful policies in place in terms of adoption, different therapies, etc., I can't help reminiscing about the simpler days... when his books would leave my head SPINNING rather than my heart yearning for that LITTLE something more. This was an enthralling story that left me not trusting anybody! I thought it was so uniquely told I loved the script aspects... I loved all the psychology and the criminal profiling... The poetry discussed in this book will probably resonate with others more than me... poetry not my thing, to be honest I didn’t even know this was a real poet... color me ignorant! This was a group read and fortunately my fellow sisters were kind enough not to make me feel stupid when I excitedly told them that Baudelaire was a real live poet!🤦‍♀️

The adults aren’t much better either, being musicians they have pasts filled with drug taking and sex with groupies. Main character, Claire, is a struggling British actress, hoping for that big role on stage and her green card as well. The last third or so of the book took a slightly weird and unexpected turn. Suddenly the book has a bit more action in it but it seemed a bit out of place considering it felt more like a family drama before. They were some good twists, although a lot were pretty OTT. I enjoyed the first half more, as the second half was somewhat unbelievable. There was a family dog, and I’m happy to report he was not harmed during this novel, to spare you worrying. My Darling Daughter did touch on some serious issues regarding teenage angst, abuse of power, toxic masculinity, fertility issues, and mental illness, but the content wasn’t explicit, and was handled sensitively. This is one of the few books that you will read in spite of the main characters unlikeability, just to see what happens.

She’s an actress but a student of the Constantin Stanislavski method which suggests you don’t ‘play’ a character. You become it. You ‘immerse yourself in the emotional truth of a part until it’s a part of you.’ And her quite-attentive teacher, Paul, seems to be impressed by her talents…. which come in handy for her part-time job/s. With the exception of “The Girl Before” (the Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Mystery and Thriller in 2017 which was NOT a winner for me) J.P. Delaney has delivered mostly 4 and 5 star books.