Writing a bestseller is the best revenge. Erin Duffy spent more than a decade working on Wall Street. In 2008, she found herself a victim of the recession, losing her job at Merrill Lynch. She spent a short time licking her wounds and then got to work, writing about her experiences in the male-dominated finance industry. In Bond Girl, Erin’s doppelgänger (in the best sense of the word), is Alex Garrett, who beats the odds to land a job at one of Wall Street’s top firms, Cromwell Pierce. Like the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. Alex soon finds that on both the personal and professional fronts, she may have taken on more than she can handle. Not one to give up easily, Alex straps on her five-inch stilettos and tries to keep up with the big boys.

Bond Girl is Duffy’s first novel and she has wisely chosen to write about something she knows. For that reason, the setting, the characters, and the plot ring true. Many of the anecdotes are hysterical; one trader, Billy Marchetti, bets $28,000 that he can consume the contents of the office vending machine. “One by one he consumed the heavier items: the pretzels and most of the Hostess shelf. Random people passed by calling out `Mangia, baby!,’ `You’re an animal!,’ and `I hope you took your Lipitor.’” He succeeds, pulverizing the last few items in a blender, chugging the mixture down, and then running for the bathroom. Alex sits close by during the ordeal, making notations on each candy wrapper to validate the feat. Food figures prominently in the story, with Alex and other underlings often sent on wild goose chases when her boss desires a particular treat for the traders during lunchtime. On one occasion, Alex goes to the Bronx and drags back to the office a $1,000 wheel of parmesan cheese, while another rookie is sent to Philadelphia for cheese steaks. Just average days at Cromwell Pierce.

Bond GIrl won’t do anything to polish up the image of Wall Street. The masters of the universe working at Cromwell Pierce are misogynistic, greedy, arrogant, lecherous, amoral, rude, egotistical—we could go on, but you get the idea. Alex toils away in this hostile work environment, determined to succeed. Yet every other encounter Alex endures with her co-workers qualifies for a charge of sexual harassment. Why, we wonder, would Alex choose to work in this environment?

Growing up, Alex looked up to her father, an investment banker. To make up for her being teased about her name (“Alex’s not a girl’s name!”) her father allows her to skip school to go to his office. First impressions are powerful, and Alex falls in love with “The Business,” what her father and other Wall Streeters call the finance industry. “Time was money, and money was all anyone thought about: how to make it, how to keep it, how to make sure someone else didn’t have more of it than you did. It was electrifying.” She looks at the New York Stock Exchange and compares it to the Parthenon. “My father had no idea that those days would alter the course of my life.”

On her first day at Cromwell Pierce, Alex meets her new boss, Ed Ciccone, or as he’s known, Chick. (Nicknames proliferate—Tank, Pig Pen, Shrek, Barney Rubble, Chewie, And Alex acquires one of her own—Girlie). Rather than a desk, she’s given a folding chair and instructed to sit behind other traders to learn. What she receives is an education in what it means to start at the bottom. The only other female member of the group, nicknamed Cruella, is no ally, telling Alex, “I don’t get paid the money I do to educate the youth of America.” She tosses Alex a dozen financial tomes and tells her to do her homework. No female bonding here. Alex realizes she’s on her own.

Alex makes mistakes along the way, but Chick and other members of the group are impressed by her willingness to work hard and learn. She is slowly accepted and actually makes friends. Against Chick’s warning to avoid office affairs, she begins to see a young trader, Will. The relationship, however, will not run smoothly and add to her pressures at work.

What will ultimately hand Alex her biggest challenge, however, is a client intent on getting to know her, as Alex tries to explain to her new boss, “In the biblical sense.” The recession hits and heads are rolling. Alex is handed the key to the city, a major account, but one with a big price tag. What’s a girl to do?

At one point, Alex is sent to interview possible new hires at her alma mater, the University of Virginia. When all the students turn down offers from Cromwell Pierce, they cite Alex’s honest answers. She’s called on the carpet by her new boss:

“Did you tell the students that Wall Street was not like they saw in the movies?”
“Yes”
“Did you tell them that it can be difficult for women?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell them that the atmosphere and the pressure can be brutal, and that money alone is not a sufficient reason to take the job?”
“Yes.”
“What were you thinking, Alex?”

Bond GIrl is a lively fun read, even for those not contemplating a career in finance. No doubt Erin Duffy still has many stories to tell and the time to write now that she’s left her Wall Street career behind. We can’t wait to read what she comes up with next.

On Amazon, buy Bond Girl by Erin Duffy