In 2019, I enjoyed J.P. Delaney’s The Perfect Wife (giving it four stars), but Believe Me was a disappointment to me, ending up with just two stars. But after I learned that J.P. Delaney is the pseudonym of Tony Strong, who wrote The Death Pit, Tell Me No Lies, and The Decoy (which was re-written and published as Believe Me), I was ready to give this author another go, and was happy to get a copy of Playing Nice from Random House Ballantine and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.

This story, set in England, follows a thirty-something couple and their two year old son. Pete Riley and his partner Maddy are thrilled with their son Theo, and Pete loves his role as the primary caregiver while Maddy continues to work following her complicated childbirth experience when their son Theo was born very premature. Things are fine until Pete answers the door one morning and encounters Miles Lambert, who tells Pete that Theo is actually the Lamberts’ son, having been switched at birth by an understaffed hospital while their real son David was sent home with Miles and his wife, Lucy. To complicate matters further, David suffers complex disabilities as a result of being deprived of oxygen during his birth.
 
The two families seem to have good intentions about moving forward as a sort of unconventional blended family as well as suing the hospital. The resulting investigation uncovers  some issues that lead Peter and Maddy to get into a treacherous battle for their own and their son’s (or sons’) safety.

Great fun. Good escapist fiction, well-developed characters, and good plotting. Four enthusiastic stars