Chapter One: The Playboy Club Hit That Goes Wrong

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

April 1982. Billie, Helen, Natalie, and Mary Alice are three months into an undercover assignment as Playboy Bunnies in Chicago. Their target is the nephew of a Toronto gangster – a violent man pushing the family into drugs and underage prostitution. The team’s plan is elegant: slip peanut oil into his drink, then substitute a doctored EpiPen (loaded with Versed and potassium chloride) so his death mimics anaphylactic shock. Helen switches the EpiPen at coat check. Natalie laces a grasshopper cocktail with peanut oil. But when Billie serves the drink, the nephew throws his arms wide telling a joke and knocks the glass out of her hand, spilling it on her costume. Natalie reveals there is only one dose of peanut oil – the backup has broken. The uncle pays for the drinks and the nephew leaves, taunting Billie.

Furious, Billie ignores protocol. She grabs a trench coat and walks to the nephew’s hotel, using her Bunny costume to persuade the desk clerk to give her his room number. A kind maid lets her in. She waits in the dark, and when a man enters, she executes a silent takedown: chokehold followed by a sharp neck snap. But when she turns on the light, she realizes she has killed the wrong man. The chapter ends with Billie sitting on the sofa, saying “Well, shit.”

Key Events

The four women prepare in the dressing room, discussing their costumes and the indignities of the job.
The target and his uncle arrive at the club; the nephew gropes Billie when she takes his order.
Helen swaps the EpiPen at coat check, signaling success with a touch to her cheek.
Natalie laces the grasshopper drink with peanut oil.
The nephew’s joke causes him to knock the drink from Billie’s tray, spilling it on her chest.
Natalie reveals they have no replacement dose; the mission is aborted.
Billie, enraged, leaves the club and goes to the nephew’s hotel alone.
She uses her Bunny costume to get the room number from the front desk clerk.
A housekeeper lets her into room 612 with a passkey.
Billie waits in the dark and kills the man who enters, only to discover he is not the nephew.

Character Development

Billie Webster

Shows a flash of temper and impulsiveness when the plan fails, abandoning the team’s careful strategy.
Her anger fuels her solo action, but her confidence leads to a critical error.
A professional assassin, she executes the takedown flawlessly in less than ten seconds, yet the mistake reveals a dangerous over-reliance on instinct and emotion.

Helen, Natalie, and Mary Alice

Each contributes a specific skill: Helen’s patrician composure and meticulous detail, Natalie’s sleight of hand, Mary Alice’s resemblance to Marilyn Monroe.
They are shown as disciplined teammates, but Billie’s solo move sidelines them for the chapter.

The Nephew (target)

Characterized as a predator who enjoys violating women’s boundaries; his taunting “Sorry, tits” line cements him as a villain the reader wants to see punished.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

The Bunny Costume as Disguise and Degradation

The satin ears and corset are “seedy and tired,” a symbol of the sexist environment the women must endure. Billie considers burning her “feminist card” for wearing it.
The costume becomes a tool for manipulation: Billie uses it to convince the hotel clerk she is the nephew’s girlfriend.

Anger vs. Professionalism

Billie lets anger override training, breaking “every rule of their organization.” The chapter contrasts the cool, elegant plan with her hot, impulsive reaction.
The mistake suggests that emotional control is essential for a assassin – a lesson that will likely haunt her.

The EpiPen as a Weapon of Subversion

The team weaponizes the nephew’s own allergy, turning a medical device into a murder instrument. It mirrors how they weaponize their own sexuality and invisibility as women.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter One establishes the central premise: four older women are highly skilled assassins, but their cover as Playboy Bunnies demands they perform femininity and tolerate harassment. The botched plan and Billie’s solo kill set up a major plot twist – the wrong man is dead – which will ripple through the rest of the story. It also introduces the theme of improvisation versus procedure and hints at the personal cost of this work (Billie’s postponed Bermuda trip with a man named Taverner). The chapter ends on a cliffhanger that forces the reader to ask: who did she kill, and what happens next?

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Billie decide to go to the hotel alone, and what rules does she break?
Billie is furious that the nephew spilled the drink and that the backup dose was broken. She abandons the group plan, leaves the club without telling her teammates (fully), uses her Bunny costume to manipulate the clerk, and makes herself “obvious, memorable.” She breaks the rule against solo action, the rule against leaving a traceable description, and the rule of emotional detachment.

2. How does the chapter use sensory details to build tension?
The chapter contrasts the tacky, noisy club (Olivia Newton-John, dim lights, the nephew’s smell of Drakkar Noir) with the silent, dark hotel room. Billie’s bare feet on the carpet, the “cracking celery” sound of the neck snap, and the sudden light revealing the wrong face all create a visceral, tense sequence.

3. What does Billie’s memory of Taverner reveal about her character?
She remembers him with “sheets bunched around his hips” and a “sleepy smile” – a rare moment of vulnerability and desire. That she postpones seeing him for this mission suggests she prioritizes her job, but the memory also acts as a distraction she must push away. It hints that Billie has a life outside killing, and that personal connections may later conflict with her work.