THE PERFECT GIRL opens with what should be a joyous scene. Having overcome a personal tragedy, 17-year-old Zoe is about to return to the place where she feels most comfortable and proud --- the piano bench. This musical genius has been out of the limelight for too long, but now she’s about to make her debut in her new hometown, performing alongside her equally talented stepbrother, with her beaming mother, stepfather, aunt and baby sister in the audience. But the celebratory atmosphere is shattered when an angry man staggers into the concert venue, shouting at Zoe, screaming at her mother Maria, bringing a halt to the recital…and to the carefully constructed “Second Chance Life” that Zoe and, in particular, Maria have worked so hard to build for themselves.

"Macmillan’s latest novel of suspense will likely surprise readers --- not only with its unexpected plot twists but also with the extent to which the issues it raises remain with readers beyond the final page."

But that’s not the end of the story. Within 12 hours after the end of the concert, Maria is dead, her battered body left outside next to the garbage cans, and Zoe is once again adrift, left to relive the tragedies that brought her to this place, which include that terrible night when, having had too much to drink, she drove the car that left three of her classmates, including her best friend, dead. Since then, and after a year spent in a juvenile rehabilitation and detention center known as “The Unit,” Zoe has tried to get her life back on the rails, back on the obvious path to success that she was walking before everything went wrong. But now, as tragedy strikes again, she struggles to avoid jumping to conclusions, to fearing that the nightmare from years ago is about to arise again and, most particularly, that the baby sister she adores will soon no longer be truly hers to live with and care for.

THE PERFECT GIRL has a very condensed chronology --- the whole thing takes place between a Sunday evening and a Monday --- and Gilly Macmillan aptly uses this chronological constraint, bouncing back and forth through time both as these current-day events unfold and as her characters reminisce about prior tragedies. As she does, she illustrates how Zoe is far from the only victim in this story. Lucas, too, an aspiring filmmaker still shattered by the death of his mother, has secrets, as does his father, Chris. Even Zoe’s aunt Tessa and her solicitor, Sam, have seen their lives undeniably changed by Zoe’s prior crisis. How they all approach this new tragedy is colored and shaped by what came before.

In addition to being an exploration of the broad repercussions of a single foolish decision, THE PERFECT GIRL tackles bullying head on, showing in vivid detail the devastating effects it can have not only for teenagers but also when bullies are allowed to persist, unchecked, into adulthood. Macmillan’s latest novel of suspense will likely surprise readers --- not only with its unexpected plot twists but also with the extent to which the issues it raises remain with readers beyond the final page.