Written by Freida McFadden, published in 2023. Summary and review.

The Coworker is the third book in the Freida McFadden universe I’ve now read. I jumped on this book as it was a new release and got me all excited (ok, new release on the library… so not exactly new/new). I started my journey with Never Lie which was pretty solid, followed by One by One, that had its moments but wasn’t exactly a shining star… and then came The Coworker.

Unfortunately, I think the Freida McFadden fad is over. This story was not particularly entertaining nor shocking. I’ll still give McFadden some credit, as she does manage in every book to find a twist or turn I’m not prepared for… but in The Coworker, it’s fewer and farther between.

Our characters feel pretty bland and not very deep or nuanced. With perhaps one exception, Dawn Schiff… The Coworker. It feels like McFadden was dared by her friends to write a character so unusual and unlikable. Used as an excuse to write the word “turtle” 156 times (number is not exact, but turtles are mentioned many, many, MANY times).

We get a two part story, first told by Natalie Farrell – a pretty, always get what she wants, salesperson at Vixed (a natural supplement company – one we find out is snake oil, or worse). And later told by Dawn Schiff, the autistic coworker and turtle lover. I’m not a fan of how we keep hearing about Dawn’s struggles to fit in and fail to understand social cues and situations… only to have her immediately explain (internally) exactly what is happening – which feels counter intuitive. But I’m not a behavioral health expert.

Basically Dawn goes missing, and Natalie happens upon a bloody mess at her house gets wrapped up in a missing person/murder investigation that appears to slowly paint Natalie as the perpetrator. And we learn more and more how terrible Natalie really is… making it feel justified she’ll get what’s coming to her.

I’ll admit the ending had a twist I did not expect, which gives it a slight bonus above truly unlikeable. And I was personally disappointed with how the book appeared to be heading, only to left turn away into a much less justified (in my opinion) ending.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.

To go further, Natalie is a terrible person. She dupes businessmen to sell bad supplements, blackmails her “friend” Kim at work, cheats on her boyfriend (Caleb) with her boss (Seth), and back in high school she and her friend Tara bullied a girl, Mia, so bad she committed suicide.

Dawn was best friends with Mia and was so sad and enraged about this she teamed up with Caleb, Mia’s brother and Natalie’s now (current times) fake boyfriend, to take Natalie down.

Together Dawn and Caleb set up a series of events to frame Natalie for the murder of Dawn (who isn’t dead). With the major twist being the dead body that the police find, winds up to be Tara, Natalie’s friend and co-bully of Mia. This was the best twist of the book.

Now where the book WAS heading, was that Dawn was going to commit suicide and thus provide the nail in the coffin for framing Natalie… who would spend her life in jail for murder. In my opinion, a fair end to both character that were highly flawed and did not deserve the ending they got… essentially living happily ever after.

TLDR: The worst of the three McFadden books I’ve read this year. Pretty simple characters and a half thought out evil plot, with an ending I did not care for. If you happen to love turtles, this is a must read. If not, Would Not Recommend. 2/5 Stars.