“The Girl Before” by J. P. Delaney: Raises question of how you can tell whether lying to reader is cheap trick or a manifestation of multiple personality.

One Folgate Street is the address of a unique house, built by a world-famous architect and his technology-wizard partner. From the beginning of the novel and for hundreds of pages, everyone agrees that this house has cutting-edge technology and is built like a fortress. Yet it turns out that the man who murdered Emma had been able to breach the house’s security like a cheap toy.

If the impregnability of the house were the only lie in the novel, it might be shrugged off as a cheap trick. But one of the main characters, Emma (the first-person narrator of alternate chapters) is explicitly portrayed as a pathological liar. For example, she lies to the police about having been raped. And then, after the police catch her in the lie, she lies to them again, which, as the police detective comments, is very unusual.

Indeed, Emma has been lying since childhood. As she says at one point, “I hear my mother’s voice, that thing she always said when I was caught lying as a child. Liars shouldn’t be criers” (1, p. 219).

And Emma repeatedly hears voices. Another example: “And what if he’s really angry? a voice inside my head whispers” (1, p. 177).

Search “liar,” “lying,” and “voices” for past posts on lying and voices in multiple personality.

And three characters—the architect’s deceased wife, Emma, and Jane (the other first-person narrator)—are described as look-alikes.

Search “double” and “theme of the double,” literary metaphors for multiple personality.

And the novel is published under a pseudonym, which is another gratuitous lie, since various reviews and interviews reveal the author’s real name, and when you google the pseudonym, you get the author’s real name and picture.

Search “pseudonym” for past posts on pseudonyms and multiple personality.

And, finally, the back cover features blurbs by writers Lee Child and Lisa Gardner. Search their names in this blog for past posts.

1. J. P. Delaney. The Girl Before. New York, Ballantine Books, 2017.