Playing Nice - JP Delaney

Genre: Psychological Thriller
Release Date: 28th July 2020

The fourth novel from JP Delaney, who very quickly catapulted into being one of my favourite authors. Released this July, this was definitley pegged to be in the running for my favourite book of the year.
JP Delaney always has a magically dark way of making me uncomfortably interested in everything he's written, and usually I'm simply not able to put a book down until I've read everything in one sitting. And this time wasn't any different.

It starts off with just a normal day for Pete. His wife and son aren't home, but suddenly a strange man and his lawyer are at the door with an unbelievable claim - his beloved son isn't his at all. He was switched with another mans child at the intensive unit he was born in. If that wasn't enough, this man suddenly wanted to meet his biological son. Starting out, it seems like this might work out okay. Weird, but okay. Visitations, photographs, sharing the big moments with each other - could they really be a happy accidental family? Or was this all by twisted design?

The tension in this story started almost instantly, and doesn't let up until you've turned the very last page. It's that familiar Delaney-Style pit of your stomach sickness where you can't quite figure out what is wrong until it's too late. It's a very slow-burning story, with no real details or action being revealed until the very end, and while it did leave me craving something more, it definitley worked in highlighting the contract between our protagonists domestically normal life and the drama unfolding.

Compared to it's predecessors, I'll admit this book left me slightly unfullfilled - there wasn't as much of a mystery as I was expecting to be but all in all, this was such a great read if you want to be a little spooked.

TL;DR: Slow burning tense thriller about a child-swapping psychopath.

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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