The Girl Before

The Girl Before is a psychological thriller by J. P. Delaney, published in 2016 and set mostly inside a London house built as an architectural statement.

Emma is recovering from a traumatic burglary and needs somewhere to live, and the only property she can afford that feels safe is One Folgate Street: pale stone, plate glass, soaring ceilings and a list of rules. The architect who designed it keeps control over who lives there and how they are expected to behave, and his application form asks each candidate to list every possession she considers essential to her life. Three years later, Jane moves into the same house under the same conditions and starts asking what became of the woman who lived there before her. The novel alternates between the two women, whose fates were settled by the same request and the same man, and neither of them is entirely certain what she agreed to.

Delaney writes a suspense novel about control, grief and architecture, and the house is as much the antagonist as any of the people in it.