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Quercus has acquired a new psychological thriller by J P Delaney entitled Believe Me.
The new novel will launch in hardback in August 2018, ahead of Delaney's forthcoming book The Perfect Wife, slated for August 2019, and following Delaney’s debut The Girl Before.
The UK edition of The Girl Before racked up sales of over quarter of a million copies, according to Quercus, which is still to launch the paperback in January 2018. It is being published in 41 countries while a film adaptation of the book from Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard is also in the works.
Publisher-at-large, Stef Bierwerth, who acquired rights via Denise Cronin at the Random House Group USA, said to expect an "equally mesmerising page-turner" in Believe Me as The Girl Before.
It tells the story of an out-of-work British actress who pays rent on her New York City apartment the only way she can: as a decoy for a detective agency, hired to entrap straying husbands. When the cops begin investigating one of her targets for murdering his wife – and potentially others – they ask her to lure the suspect into a confession. But with the actress pretending to be someone she isn’t, differentiating the decoy from the prey becomes impossible – and deadly.
"I’m very proud to be part of the J P Delaney franchise and it’s been an incredible experience making The Girl Before the debut thriller of the year so far," said Bierwerth. "Believe Me is an equally mesmerising page-turner which has all the great hallmarks of J P’s writing and we’re very excited to be working together with Kate Miciak, Denise Cronin and the Ballantine team on its launch next August."