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Synopsis

You thought he’d come to save you. You were wrong.

Deborah Jenkins pulls her coat around her for the short walk home in the pouring rain. But she never makes it home that night. And she is never seen again…

Four years later, an abandoned baby girl is found wrapped in dirty rags on a doorstep. An anonymous phone call urges the police to run a DNA test on the baby. But nobody is prepared for the results.

The newborn belongs to Deborah. She’s still alive…

Synopsis from Kobo Canada.

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What I Think

First of all, I can’t imagine I was able to finish the first quarter of this book in an hour. Usually, it would take me two days at the very least because I tend to read only for a short time, and then come back to it for another time. And did I mention that this one is actually FREE? Yup! You read that right, I got this book from Kobo Canada without denting my credit card!

Anyways, on with the review. Finally! After being lulled to point of dissatisfaction from my last read (in reference to my last book review), I was able to redeem my enthusiasm in reading another book. Thank you very much. In this story we are introduced to Detective Inspector Georgina Harte, a woman in her forties with iron guts, specializing in domestic abuse.

After four years, the cold case that has left her haunted ever since, resurfaced in the form of a frantic call. A new-born baby was found wrapped in a towel in front of the library, left in the freezing cold. The baby was found by a man, who in shock, knocked on every door of the nearby houses in desperate attempt to get help.

In a twisted turn of events, further investigation led to the discovery that the baby, in fact was a child of Deborah Jenkins, Gina Harte’s cold case from four years ago. Deborah, a missing woman who vanished without any trace, and whose acquaintances and even family members thought she may have ran away to start a new life or she could be dead.

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I would rate this book four stars.

The storyline is good, the characters are interesting, so where’s the missing star?

Umm this is the first time that I read a novel like this so, please excuse me. I believe this book is meant to reflect realistic scenarios on how things are not really that suspenseful and dramatic as opposed to what readers expect of crime novels and what viewers are shown in movies, and television series.

Halfway through, I stopped reading for a bit as I tended my blog. It’s a nice crime story but the thing is, once I stopped I didn’t felt compelled to finishing it. I only did because I was already 200 pages in and I wanted to give my opinion about it so I kind of just pushed myself to finishing this book.

As I’m writing this, I realized why. It is a crime story without the cliffhanging suspense. It lacked gravity. It’s like watching a documentary of an actual police investigation. It’s simple, straightforward, and seriously procedural. It didn’t pull on my emotions and wasn’t able to get me invested in the way Lucy Foley did with The Guest List, which I finished in two days.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Next Girl for me is more of a I’m a non-fiction girlie. It is not a bad book trust me. It is not boring at all. But I would say, you do have to appreciate non-fiction to understand what I mean. There’s no I’m-at-the-edge-of-my-seat-what’s-gonna-happen-next. It’s more like watching a news that’s been on the tv for quite some time with lots of interviews and updates, and on-going investigations.

Of course, I don’t want to deter interested readers in any way. Like I said, this is like one of those shows, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. It drags on the first half, and then slowly gains momentum. There’s a bit of thrilling action towards the end, which is fitting for stories like this. You have to be a little patient though as it takes some time to get there.

The Next Girl is a good read. I just prefer these type of stories on acted on screen.