Whisper Network

Whisper Network, a mystery set in contemporary Dallas, is Chandler Baker’s first book written for adults. Baker draws on her past as a corporate attorney at a sports franchise in Dallas to portray her protagonists, a group of women who work in the Legal Affairs department of a large athletic wear company in Dallas. The novel uses the multitude of issues that working women face as a backdrop for a murder mystery; the mixture of omniscient third-person and first-person plural narration allows Baker to speak to the shared experiences of women.

First published in 2019, the book was a New York Times bestseller and a pick for Reese’s Book Club.

This guide uses the USA edition published by Flatiron Books.

Plot Summary

Close friends Sloane Glover, Adriana Valdez (Ardie), Grace Stanton, and Rosalita Guillen work in legal affairs on the 15th floor of Truviv, a huge athletic wear corporation. Their boss is the stubborn and at times self-centered Ames Garrett, a man they all despise.

The women have many secrets. Early on in her time at Truviv, Sloane had an affair with Ames, and he has used this fact against her ever since. Sloane’s friends know about their affair, but her husband does not. Rosalita, who is friends with Ardie, is a cleaner in the Truviv offices; Ardie tutors Rosalita’s son to help him get a scholarship to a private school. Grace is in denial about her postpartum depression, lying to those around her to get the sleep that she so craves post-birth.

Historically, women in the office have been disbelieved or punished for coming forward about sexual harassment and thus tend to keep quiet about it. However, several events catalyze the protagonists to speak up. First is the BAD Men List, an anonymous excel sheet where women in the city are writing the names of men who have harassed or abused them. Next is the fact that when the CEO of Truviv dies, the friends learn that Ames is likely to take his place; this would mean that there was no one above Ames to whom to report his dismal behavior. The final straw is the hiring of Katherine Bell, an employee slated to report to Sloane, but instead suborned under Ames’s predatory wing. Before anything bad happens, Sloane adds Ames’s name to the BAD List to try to warn Katherine and also tries to confront Ames about his behavior towards the new hire, but it does not work. After Ames threatens Sloane for interfering, Rosalita sees Katherine and Ames doing something inappropriate in the office one night. Meanwhile, Ames butters up Grace for a letter recommending that he become CEO. She writes the letter.

Eventually, Katherine admits to the other women that Ames has been harassing her, but asks to keep it a secret. Sloane, Grace, and Ardie decide to sue Ames and Truviv; Grace has realized that Ames is using her. In the process, Sloane must tell her husband about her affair, which goes poorly. The HR office is entirely unhelpful and the local news picks up the story. After Ames falls off the side of the building to his death, people start defending Ames and blaming the women for either bullying him into suicide or literally pushing him off of the building. In response, Grace stops coming to work and Rosalita’s paycheck is cut in half. Katherine takes Truviv’s side in the lawsuit, allowing Truviv to file a countersuit; Katherine gets a promotion.

In a subplot, Sloane’s daughter, Abigail, faces sexist bullying at school. When the district refuses to take accountability, Sloane writes a memorandum about other cases in which schools have been held accountable for the suicide of bullied kids; she signs Ardie’s name on the memorandum without asking her, causing a rift between the friends. This memorandum is later used against the women in their own lawsuit to prove that multiple people can be held accountable for one death. The bullying continues, eventually leading to a boy grabbing Abigail’s underwear.

In the end, Rosalita comes forward and testifies that Ames raped her—this is why she was being paid more than the other cleaners. The women win the legal battle. They leave the company to start their own practice, inviting Rosalita to join them. The women are finally honest with each other about things they have kept secret: Grace talks about her depression, Sloane tells her friends about her journey with her husband, and Ardie reveals that Ames also raped her. Ames’s death is ruled a suicide and Ardie decides to keep the fact that she and Katherine pushed Ames off the building a secret.