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 Samuel Grange is now 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.
Promising Young Woman meets High Fidelity in this dark and twisty new thriller from Pip Drysdale. Drysdale is a firm favourite at BR, with three of her bestselling books, The Sunday Girl, The Strangers We Know and The Paris Affair, all making our Top 100 lists. So, it goes without saying that I was excited to get my hands on her latest thriller, The Next Girl – and believe me, I was not disappointed!
The novel follows Billie, a young lawyer who after losing a huge case and her job, wakes up on Coney Island next to an unrecognisable man. Billie is introduced to us as a damaged, hot mess. She’s not only drawing a blank on how she got to Coney Island, but she also carries a lot of trauma from her past. Slowly, she begins to retrieve fragments of information about her broken life, and so ensues an intensely thrilling psychological story.
Alternating between the past and present, we learn more about the events that lead Billie to the current state she’s in. Drysdale masterfully builds the tension to an explosive reveal that you’ll never see coming. We come to realise that there’s more to Billie whose pursuit for justice is honourable. She risks everything including her own life and will stop at nothing to unveil the truth… but is she telling the truth?
Drysdale cleverly delivers an intelligent plot with strongly drawn characters. You’re constantly rooting for Billie to triumph, while at times questioning her version of events, which makes the ‘what if’s’ and twists and turns all the more exciting. There are also undertones of the impact of social media that will have you reflecting on your own relationship with technology.
Drysdale has really hit her stride here and once again produced a compulsive domestic thriller which will you have you feeling the tension from page one. I read The Next Girl in one sitting, and suspect many of you will, too.
The Next Girl was incredible!! Such an amazing thriller that kept me hanging on every page!!