Review: THE NEXT GIRL, Pip Drysdale

• 
  This edition published by Simon & Schuster Australia 2022
• ISBN 9-781761-106644
• 355 pages

Synopsis (publisher) 

A bad day at work. A drunken night. A rogue Instagram follow. That’s all it takes to ruin a life …

The question is, whose life will be ruined? When Billie wakes up in a strange guy’s bed, her first thought is: what happened last night? She can't even remember meeting him. And how the hell did she get to Coney Island?

Then reality bites and the memories flood in – the reason she was in that bar, drinking to start with: today she's going to get fired. Because yesterday her law firm lost a big case: Samuel Grange v Jane Delaney. And it looked like it was her fault.

It wasn't. Yet now Samuel Grange is free to drive off into the sunset in his stupid Porsche and do it all again to another woman. And all Billie can think is: What about the next girl? And the one after that? But there is nothing she can do to stop him.

Unless ... She could expose the truth about him on her own. Then everyone would see what he was really like. And he wouldn't be able to do it again.

The problem is, the only way to protect the next girl is to become the next girl. And, well, that could be a little risky ... even deadly.

My Take

My second search for a book for my weekend book group to read. I wonder what they will make of this one?

Wilhelmina (Billie) Spencer-Tate wants to work as a para-legal in New York, but now she has lost her job. For Billie is not what she seems.

In fact she is a one-person vigilante. She uses her job to identify, select, and then target men who abuse and gaslight women. She attempts to "bring them to justice". She uses her considerable high-tech skills to reveal their true profiles on social media. It is dangerous work because if she is caught she could be prosecuted, imprisoned, or even worse.  She has had successes, but she has also had her failures.

It all started when her mother committed suicide...

This is an incredibly complex, multi-stranded, novel, and I'm sure that occasionally I literally lost the plot, but that was my fault rather than the author's. But something just keeps you reading, because you really want Billie to succeed.

My rating: 4.2

About the author

Pip Drysdale is a bestselling author, musician, and actor. She grew up in Africa, Canada, and Australia, became an adult in New York and London, and lives on a steady diet of coffee, dreams, and literature. Her debut novel, The Sunday Girl, was a bestseller and has been published in five countries. The Strangers We Know, her follow up, also a bestseller in Australia, is being developed for television. Connect with Pip at PipDrysdale.com or on Facebook and Instagram @PipDrysdale.