The Coworker by Freida McFadden: A Thriller

Author: Freida McFadden 

Title: The Coworker 

Genre: Adrenaline - Thriller

Publication Date: 2023

Length: 360 pages, 8 hours & 12 minute audio

Geographical Setting: Boston, MA, US

Time Period: Present Day 

Plot Summary: Dawn Schiff is a person that likes routines, doing the same thing at the same time every day. One day, Dawn is late to work and Natalie, Dawn's cubicle neighbor, immediately feels like something is wrong because of Dawn's routines. After answering a phone call at Dawn's desk where she hears a quiet plea for help and Dawn not showing up for an afternoon work meeting, which she never does, Natalie decides to visit Dawn's home to check on her. What she finds inside sets off an investigation to find out what happened to Dawn, placing Natalie at the center of the investigation. But Natalie soon discovers that not everything is as it seems as someone seeks to implicate her in Dawn's disappearance. With two unreliable narrators, what follows is a set of twists and turns that leads you down a road of realizing that not everyone is what they seem. 

Content Warnings: ableism, infidelity, bullying, mentions of suicide, suicide ideation

Subject Headings: 

• Employees - Fiction 
• Female relationships - Fiction
• Missing persons - Fiction
• Murder - Fiction 
• Murder investigations - Fiction 

Appeal (based on Wyatt & Saricks, 2019): 

• Character - With Natalie being the "ordinary, everyday woman" getting caught in the middle, it's quickly obvious that she is an antihero and an unreliable narrator, while still being strong and sympathetic.
• Pacing - In between chapters detailing the present day investigation from Natalie's point of view, there are dated e-mail threads from the victim that start 9 months earlier, slowly leading up to the event that started the story - Dawn being oddly late for work. 
• Story line - With its fast pace, the story line moves from event to event, with each one adding another piece to the puzzle and finding out what really happened through it's "labryinthe plot" (Saricks, 2016).

3 Terms to Describe this Book 

• Captivating 
• Dark 
• Mysterious

*Spoilers Ahead*

3 Relevant Fiction Works and Authors

• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - fast pace, similar plotline, characters are those ordinary, everyday people that are antiheros

• Girl Gone Mad by Avery Bishop - dark tone, similar plot lines such as past mistakes coming back to haunt, bullying, and revenge, fast pace, female protagonist 

• The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly - main character is framed for murder, intricate plot, fast pace moving quickly from event to event

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors 

• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - intricate plot, murder investigation, fast pace, storyline told in a narrative reminiscent of a fiction thriller 
• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson - narrative changes points of view, dark and gritty story, murder investigation 
• Rouges: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels, and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe - intricate crime stories, investigations, compelling and accessible narrative 

References 

Saricks, J. (2016, May 1). At leisure with Joyce Saricks: suspenseful thrillers and thrilling         suspense. Booklist, 112(17), 17. 

Wyatt, N. & Saricks, J. G. (2019). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction (3rd ed.).             ALA Editions.