A satisfying journey along a well-worn path

Thriller: The Girl Before, JP Delaney, Quercus, hardback, 406 pages, €15

Layer of mystery: The Girl Before, like The Girl on the Train, falls within the 'domestic noir' sub-genre

Darragh McManus

Say hello and welcome to the latest in a seemingly endless line of mystery novels whose title begins with "The Girl…" Never mind that the girl who kicked the hornet's nest, was on the train or in the ice, or most of these titular girls are actually women, some of them past their twenties (can you really call a thirtysomething a "girl"?).

The hook obviously works and the public can't get enough of these novels. Indeed movie rights to this one have already been sold to Ron Howard, even before publication. And weirdly enough, another thriller with this exact title was released only last August.