JP Delaney

Writer - fiction

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Books

Agent: Caradoc King
Assistant: Becky Percival

Books

JP Delaney is the pseudonym of an author who has previously written award-winning fiction under other names.

THE GIRL BEFORE, a stunning psychological thriller, was published by Ballantine in the US and Quercus in the UK in January 2017 and has sold in over forty territories.  An instant New York Times, PW, USA Today and Sunday Times bestseller, THE GIRL BEFORE was anointed the “top girl of this season’s suspense novels” by both The Washington Post and Newsday

JP Delaney's other novels include BELIEVE ME (2018), THE PERFECT WIFE (2019), PLAYING NICE (2020), MY DARLING DAUGHTER (2022) and THE NEW WIFE (2023). 

In 2021, THE GIRL BEFORE was adapted by BBC One and HBO Max into a gripping four-part TV series, hailed 'mesmerising' by The Times. 

PLAYING NICE is also currently being adapted into a four-part TV series for ITVX by StudioCanal, produced by Rabbit Track Pictures and starring James Norton. It will be broadcast on ITV1 and ITVX in 2024.

 

Praise for JP Delaney:

THE NEW WIFE: 'unputdownable' Mick Herron

HIS DARLING DAUGHTER: ‘a truly addictive thriller’ Crime Monthly

PLAYING NICE: ‘Unexpected and utterly convincing’ Daily Mail      

THE GIRL BEFORE: ‘“An outstanding debut that is more than a match for Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train… A remarkably poised psychological thriller.The Sunday Times

Fiction

Publication DetailsNotes
2023

Quercus

When Finn Hensen gets a call from his sister Jess to say their father has died, neither is heartbroken. Their parents divorced many years ago, after which their father, Jimmy, continued to live a bohemian lifestyle in sun-soaked Mallorca. Ownership of his beautiful but dilapidated farmhouse in the mountains now passes to Finn and his sister. The only problem is that Jimmy recently remarried and his new wife, Ruensa, is still living there. The pair agree that Finn should go to Mallorca and tactfully take possession of their inheritance. When he arrives, however, Finn is surprised to find that Finca Siquia has been completely transformed into a chic Mediterranean bolthole by Ruensa and her twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Roze. The Spanish police, meanwhile, are asking awkward questions about Jimmy’s death . . . Are Ruensa and Roze the helpless victims of circumstance? Or will they stop at nothing to get Finca Siquia for themselves?

2022

Quercus

Out of the blue, Susie Jukes is contacted on social media by Anna, the girl she gave up for adoption fifteen years ago. But when they meet, Anna’s home life sounds distinctly strange to Susie and her husband Gabe. And when Anna’s adoptive parents seem to overreact to the fact she contacted them at all, Susie becomes convinced that Anna needs her help. But is Anna’s own behaviour simply what you’d expect from someone recovering from a traumatic childhood? Or are there other secrets at play here – secrets Susie has also been hiding for the last fifteen years?

PLAYING NICE

2020

US: Ballantine, UK: Quercus

Pete Riley answers the door one morning to a parent’s worst nightmare. On his doorstep is Miles Lambert, who breaks the devastating news that Pete’s two-year-old, Theo, isn’t Pete’s real son after all – he’s Miles’s, their babies having been mixed up at birth in intensive care. The two families – Pete, his partner Maddie, and Miles and his wife Lucy – agree that, rather than swap the boys back, they’ll try to find a more flexible way to share their children’s lives. But a plan to sue the hospital triggers an investigation that unearths disturbing questions about just what happened the day the babies were switched. And when Theo is thrown out of nursery for hitting other children, Maddie and Pete have to ask themselves: how far do they want this arrangement to go? What secrets lie hidden behind the Lamberts’ smart front door? How much can they trust the real parents of their child – or even each other?

THE PERFECT WIFE

2019

US: Ballantine, UK: Quercus

Abbie wakes in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. The man by her side explains that he's her husband. He's a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley's most innovative startups. He tells Abbie she's a gifted artist, a doting mother to their young son, and the perfect wife.
Five years ago, she suffered a terrible accident. Her return from the abyss is a miracle of science, a breakthrough in artificial intelligence that has taken him half a decade to achieve.
But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband's motives - and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together for ever? And what really happened to her, half a decade ago?

BELIEVE ME

2018

US: Ballantine, UK: Quercus

A British drama student, in New York without a green card, Claire takes the only job she can get: working for a firm of divorce lawyers, posing as an easy pick-up in hotel bars to entrap straying husbands. When one of her targets becomes the subject of a murder investigation, the police ask Claire to use her acting skills to help lure their suspect into a confession. But right from the start, she has doubts about the part she's being asked to play. Is Patrick Fogler really a killer . . . Or the only decent husband she's ever met? And is there more to this set-up than she's being told? And that's when Claire realises she's playing the deadliest role of her life

THE GIRL BEFORE

2017

US: Ballantine, UK: Quercus

Jane stumbles on the rental opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to live in a beautiful ultra-minimalist house designed by an enigmatic architect, on condition she abides by a long list of exacting rules. After moving in, she discovers that a previous tenant, Emma, met a mysterious death there - and starts to wonder if her own story will be a re-run of the girl before. As twist after twist catches the reader off guard, Emma's past and Jane's present become inexorably entwined in this tense, page-turning portrayal of psychological obsession.