“Dawn isn’t at her desk this morning when I walk into the office, which means the world is coming to an end.” So opens Freida McFadden’s “The Coworker” (2023, 358 pages in softcover format). Dawn Schiff is never late for work. In fact, it is her practice to be at least 15 minutes early. She never takes a sick day, never complains, never stands out.
Perhaps her behavior is so regimented because it is a cover-up for a darker side, or past discretions in the workplace, or even criminal conviction for having committed some kind of heinous offense. If you work in an office, you know her. She’s the coworker who is just a little “off.” In Dawn’s case, it’s turtles. She’s obsessed about turtles. As Ms. McFadden writes, “Like, seriously, her cubicle is a miniature reptile sanctuary.”
Natalie Farrell, who occupies an adjacent cubicle, is the polar opposite. Working for a company that sells a worthless, ineffective, and overpriced nutritional supplement, she’s the leading salesperson. By a mile. Everybody loves her, especially the man who is the boss of their local operation. She’s beautiful, gregarious, and nice to everyone, except Dawn. Of course, she pretends to offer helpful suggestions to her office mate as she sabotages Dawn at every opportunity.
This is our first hint that Natalie is not the “squeaky-clean” heroine that she initially appears to be. Because the rest of the salesforce has trouble meeting quotas, we have to wonder how Natalie manages to get such lucrative contracts for a product that is nothing more than a placebo.
Dawn, on the other hand, is an accountant, so there’s no reason for the underhanded conflict between her and Natalie. Until.
Yes, you probably just jumped ahead of me. Dawn finds discrepancies in the company books. At this point, Natalie’s covert activities turn to overt meanness against Dawn.
As one reviewer has written, “McFadden doesn’t shy away from the ugly reality of adult bullying. The subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways coworkers can make each other’s lives miserable are on full display here.” Ms. McFadden’s characters are complex in this psychological thriller. In terms of office politics, they demonstrate that just because some of us are “grown-ups,” doesn’t mean that we’ve outgrown childish cruelty. In fact, “The Coworker” is a study in how the actions that we take in our youth can have long-range consequences. Another reviewer reminds us, “A thoughtless prank or cruel joke in high school might seem like ancient history….” But, for some victims of bullying, those wounds that were inflicted during adolescence never truly mend.
Ms. McFadden is a physician, specializing in brain injury, in real life. On paper, she spins great psychological thrillers. She understands the workings of a damaged brain and conveys the images without hyperbole. Her “The Housemaid” trilogy and novels that concern medicine, hospital procedure, and deranged minds are unputdownable (to borrow a word that I’d never seen before I read a review written by Stephen King). “The Housemaid” was the basis for last year’s blockbuster movie.
Enjoy.
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Jim Glynn may be contacted at j_glynn@att.net.