NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In the tradition of The Girl on the Train, The Woman in Cabin 10, and Gone Girl comes an enthralling psychological thriller that spins one woman’s seemingly good fortune, and another woman’s mysterious fate, through a kaleidoscope of duplicity, death, and deception. SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY RON HOWARD Please make a list of every possession you consider essential to your life. The request seems odd, even intrusive—and for the two women who answer, the consequences are devastating. EMMA Reeling from a traumatic break-in, Emma wants a new place to live. But none of the apartments she sees are affordable or feel safe. Until One Folgate Street. The house is an architectural masterpiece: a minimalist design of pale stone, plate glass, and soaring ceilings. But there are rules. The enigmatic architect who designed the house retains full control: no books, no throw pillows, no photos or clutter or personal effects of any kind. The space is intended to transform its occupant—and it does. JANE After a personal tragedy, Jane needs a fresh start. When she finds One Folgate Street she is instantly drawn to the space—and to its aloof but seductive creator. Moving in, Jane soon learns about the untimely death of the home’s previous tenant, a woman similar to Jane in age and appearance. As Jane tries to untangle truth from lies, she unwittingly follows the same patterns, makes the same choices, crosses paths with the same people, and experiences the same terror, as the girl before. Praise for The Girl Before “Dazzling, startling, and above all cunning—a pitch-perfect novel of psychological suspense.” —Lee Child “ The Girl Before generates a fast pace. . . . [J. P.] Delaney intersperses ethics questions on stand-alone pages throughout the book. . . . The single most ingenious touch is that we’re not provided either woman’s answers.” —The New York Times “J. P. Delaney builds the suspense.” — Vanity Fair “Immediate guarantee: You will not be able to put this book down. . . . Fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train will realize that there’s not only more where that came from, but it’s also more thrilling.” — American Booksellers Association Emma and Jane have a lot in common; they even look alike. Each has been through a traumatic experience and needs to move into a new London apartment, but neither has much money. They both see a gorgeous, glamorous (but minimalist) flat on Folgate Street that is, miraculously, within budget—assuming that the renter meets the owner/architect's strict requirements: no alterations, no rugs or carpets, no pictures, no potted plants, no throw pillows, and about 200 other stipulations. The flat should be experienced as is and, in fact, is meant to transform the occupant rather than the other way around. But there's something very compelling about the apartment. When Jane moves in, she learns that Emma was the previous resident—and that she died there. Told in chapters that alternate between Emma's and Jane's stories, the book ratchets up the tension page by page as Jane can't resist looking into Emma's life and death. By the end, readers will have no idea whom to believe or how far any of the characters will go to get what they want. VERDICT Teens who gobbled up Paula Hawkins's The Girl on the Train and Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl will be clamoring for this page-turning psychological thriller, which is already being made into a movie by Ron Howard.—Sarah Flowers, formerly at Santa Clara County Public Library, CA “Dazzling, startling, and above all cunning—a pitch-perfect novel of psychological suspense.” —Lee Child “ The Girl Before  generates a fast pace. . . . [J. P.] Delaney intersperses ethics questions on stand-alone pages throughout the book. . . . The single most ingenious touch is that we’re not provided either woman’s answers.” —The New York Times “J. P. Delaney builds the suspense.” — Vanity Fair “Immediate guarantee: You will  not  be able to put this book down. . . . Fans of  Gone Girl  and  The Girl on the Train  will realize that there’s not only more where that came from, but it’s also more thrilling.” — American Booksellers Association “This is going to be the buzziest book of 2017. We may only be a few weeks into 2017, but we’re calling it early: This year,  The Girl Before  will be that book. The upcoming novel by author J. P. Delaney has all of the makings of a sexy murder mystery that is sure to hit the bestseller chart, and it already has the movie deal to prove it.” — InStyle “Delaney has created a genuinely eerie, fascinating setting in One Folgate Street. . . . The novel’s structure, volleying back and forth as first Emma and then Jane begin to question their improbable luck, is beautifully handled. The pages fly.” — USA Today “The house has a dark past and a landlord that’s anything but welcoming.” — New York Post , one of the must-read books of the week “ The Girl Be