The Girl Before

The Girl Before is a 2016 novel by JP Delaney. The thriller is told from the perspectives of two women, Emma and Jane. Emma is the previous tenant and Jane the current tenant of One Folgate Street, an austere London flat built by the charming Edward Monkford, a leading innovative architect. As the narrative goes back and forth from the past to the present, mystery builds around the circumstances of Emma’s death, until Jane discovers the truth of who Emma’s murderer is.

Although Emma and Jane both get to One Folgate Street in similar ways, their lives are vastly different. Emma is the survivor of a home break-in who applies to live at One Folgate Street with her boyfriend, Simon. Throughout the lengthy application process and subsequent adjustment to the rules of living in the flat, Emma and Simon fight with one another. After Emma reveals to police that she was forced to perform oral sex on the break-in intruder, Deon Nelson, Simon becomes more hostile towards her, until she asks him to move out. Shortly after, Emma and Edward Monkford begin a relationship. In the present, Jane moves in to One Folgate Street for a “rebirth” (36) after the tragic loss of her unborn child, Isabel, whom she is forced to deliver as a stillbirth. As Jane struggles with her feelings of grief, she begins investigating the girl who lived at One Folgate Street before her, Emma Matthews. At the same time, Jane also begins a romantic relationship with Edward Monkford.

It becomes apparent early on that Edward Monkford follows a scripted pattern in his romantic relationships. A character who has also experienced significant tragedy, Edward lost his wife and child in an accident shortly before he built One Folgate Street. As an homage to his wife’s wishes, he buries her in the Japanese custom of “hitobashira” (129), where the dead are buried “under the threshold” (128) of a building. As Edward begins dating Emma, and then Jane, he uses similar language and experiences to draw each woman under his spell. He explains to each woman using almost the same phrasing that he “made a conscious decision to adjust to shorter [relationships]” (105) and that these relationships “can actually be better: more intense, a sprint instead of a marathon” (105). Both Emma and Jane fall quickly for Edward’s romantic overtures as he cooks them simple but expensive meals, takes them on tours of beautiful architectural spaces, and has adventurous, intimate experiences with them. In their own time, both Emma and Jane discover one aspect to the repetitive nature of Edward’s relationships, which is that each of them looks strikingly like the woman before.

As Jane begins investigating Emma’s death, she identifies a series of potential suspects. These range from the less likely—such as the policeman who investigated Emma’s break in and an awkward architectural student who is obsessed with Edward—to the more likely, including Edward himself and Emma’s ex-boyfriend, Simon. Jane hones in on the likelihood that Edward is the one who has murdered Emma because Edward is in control of One Folgate Street’s complex technology, which had reportedly malfunctioned at the time of Emma’s death. Jane discovers that Emma had been sleeping in the crawlspace above the cleaning closet, and also finds a card for Emma’s therapist, Carol Younson. During her conversations with Carol, Jane learns that Edward is probably a narcissistic sociopath, and begins tracking his behavior more earnestly.

A turning point in the novel occurs when Jane figures out that Emma lied about a large number of events. Not only was Emma not raped by Deon Nelson during the break-in, she had been cheating with a co-worker, Saul, which is where the videotape of the sexual act came from. As Emma’s lies unravel in her life in the past, Edward ends his relationship with Jane in the present because she won’t stop investigating Emma’s death. Shortly after the break-up, Jane realizes she is pregnant for a second time and begins attending doctor’s appointments. Jane learns there is a risk her child will have Down’s syndrome. Meanwhile, Jane continues interviewing people about Emma, including the person with whom Emma had the affair, Saul, as well as Emma’s ex-boyfriend, Simon. Jane and Simon meet several times, including to have dinner at One Folgate Street, and she begins to think that he is romantically interested in her.

As the novel approaches its climax, Jane discovers that there are video cameras in every room at One Folgate Street. Unnerved, she accuses David Thiel, Edward Monkford’s technology partner, of using the technology to spy on her. He has no idea what she’s talking about, and Edward yells at her to leave. When Jane arrives home at One Folgate Street, she is terrified, and invites Simon over. As she talks with him about the pearl necklace that Edward had given her, which is remarkably similar to one that Emma had owned, Jane begins suspecting Simon of knowing more than he should. Not only does he know she is fifteen weeks pregnant without her telling him, he also seems to be the one controlling the malfunctions in “One Folgate Street’s systems” (301). Jane realizes that it was probably Simon “causing it all” (301) and lies so that she can go upstairs, away from him.

Jane attempts to call the police, Edward, and her friend, Mia, but Simon is jamming cell phone signals. At first, she hides in the crawlspace above the cleaning closet, but as Simon continues to taunt her both verbally and by pouring lighter fluid under the door, Jane decides to take him on. She leaves the closet and begins trying to win Simon onto her side, saying “I’ll be Emma for you, and then you’ll let me go” (314). She stands at the top of the stairs, cajoling Simon as she clutches a handful of pearls. When he finally comes up, she says she’ll go shower, and asks him to come as well. In a moment of emotional panic, Simon begins crying and says he doesn’t want to lose her. Jane then dodges past him. When he grabs her hair, Jane throws the pearls at him and he trips, falling down the stairs to his death.

In the conclusion to the novel, Jane gives birth to her baby boy, Toby, who does have Down’s syndrome. Though Edward offers her a real relationship if she’s willing to give up Toby for adoption, Jane decides to keep her baby and to “let them fade into history, all the characters in this drama” (334). Towards the end, Emma’s voice enters one last time in the form of a letter to Edward, in which she expresses all of her feelings about how “messed up inside” she is (323). The novel closes with a new tenant, Astrid, who’s just gone through a divorce, beginning her application to live at One Folgate Street.