I thought this story was an interesting exploration into the friendships of women and also how women are treated differently in the workplace. I do believe that in industries such as banking or lawyering, women are not given as much respect as they should be due to it being a man driven work force. And women know this and do whatever they can to keep their job and pay. That shouldn't include having to suffer sexual harassments and I think Whisper Network does a great job at showing how women feel in these certain man-heavy work environments. However, with doing only audio, sometimes I felt like I couldn't keep the characters straight (and there are a lot of them) because they all kind of seemed one-note, just at different stages in their lives. The narrator also sounded more like a robot or AI instead of a real human. But that could be the download or the app and not the narrator's fault at all. Some of the plot was hard to follow but I still was able to predict some of the twists. Overall, it's an entertaining read and I think an important one for young women in the work force to read.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* had the biggest sense of déjà vu when reading this but i guess I've never read it before?? Besides that it was a good read just. Like. Wow i swear i read this before.

Sloan, Ardie, and Grace are three lawyers working at Truviv. Rosalita is a member of the cleaning staff at the firm. All are mothers and two are married. The balance in their lives seems upset when Catherine, a new lawyer, starts working with them. The death of the CEO coupled with the potential promotion of a disliked partner sets off a series of events . Chandler Baker tells a tale of sexual harassment among members of the firm coupled with the mystery of a tragic death. Each chapter contained a dated flashback together with testimony from depositions or other court documents. I really liked this technique. This was an easy, though-provoking read. I loved it and highly recommend it.

The narrator was wonderful in her tone and inflictions throughout the novel. The novel can be poised as a thriller, however the topics covered are experienced by women every day. The tone and infliction were crucial to pick up on the subltleties of the women's storytelling. I enjoyed the Whisper Network very much! I think the subject matter is so relevant and explored in a great deail throughout every women's experience with the antagonist. I was able to predict the ending and it seemed a little far fetched, but I still enjoyed how the story tied together.

After listening to The Husbands and arranging to interview the author, I did not want to miss our on Whisper Network, as I would say I am now a HUGE Chandler Baker fan. I would recommend this book as well, although I felt the characters in The Husbands were more fully developed. I enjoyed this.

I couldn't put this book down for about a quarter of it (starting about halfway through). Friends and colleagues at a law firm discuss the B.A.D. Men List - a circulating editable anonymous document that calls out bad behavior, including sexual harassment (and worse), of professional men in the Dallas area - deciding whether to add the name of their boss. The story takes a few turns, some of which I predicted and others that surprised me. While the book has a distinctly "white feminism" feel (despite two Latina characters), I appreciated the nuance presented in this #metoo style story.

I enjoyed the mystery of the book and leaning about who actually killed their boss. I also enjoyed the going back and forth between characters. The book got a little long as was hard for me to focus and keep track of who was what thought.

The Short Version: The quintessential Me Too thriller. A tangled mess of sexism, micro aggression, unabashed ambition, and all the things we think but don’t say. Chandler Baker dissects modern relationships (working and romantic) with incredible precision and molds it into a highly compulsive read.

The Long Version: I got to listen to the audiobook version of this novel thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio.

Having recently read Chandler Baker’s The Husbands and feeling that title came up a little short, I was a little wary to dive into this title, since authors tend to improve over time. I was also wary because The Husbands was another of Baker’s Me Too mystery/thrillers and I felt it got off the rails and lost its message. Boy was I pleasantly surprised as I devoured The Whisper Network. This was a stunner from beginning to end and hit all the notes I wished Baker’s follow up did.

The Whisper Network most directly follows the lives of four lawyers working for Truviv, an athletic company akin to Nike or Adidas. These are high powered professional women, who have to deal with the double standards and impossible expectations that come from being a high profile working mother. The book also covers the working and personal relationships each of these women has with Ames, the top lawyer for Truviv, a prototypical Alpha Male who wears the Technicolor Dreamcoat of chauvinism with pride, and why the hell not? It’s not like there’s any consequences for that behavior. When the CEO of Truviv dies, and Ames is first in line to take his spot, the four women take things into their own hands to ensure he gets what he deserves. Things get intense from there and as the mystery unfolds, Baker scorches all the preconceptions and glossy magazine articles that paint unrealistic pictures of successful working mothers

This was a damn near perfect debut, and if you’ve had this on your want to read list for a while, but haven’t gotten around to it, I suggest you do yourself a favor and make it next up. I really struggle to see someone being disappointed with this title.

Character construction and development was top notch here. Each of the main characters was eminently real. I could picture co workers dealing with the same challenges as these women and wouldn’t have been surprised to see one of them walking down the street. They were characters you wanted to succeed but they had enough flaws to hate them just a little bit also. It’s great to see women who aren’t stereotypes, women who are ambitious, feminine, fed up, angry, and willing to do something about it. Ames was a perfect villain and while he may have bordered on a caricature, I could certainly imagine him existing in an executive suite somewhere. He’s easy to loathe for men and women, because we all know that one guy who’s endlessly successful, but doesn’t deserve it for one reason or another. The supporting characters too are fleshed out enough to want to know more, without feeling like the author left something out.

The mystery is perfectly balanced by the plot. There’s such a knot of motives, and secrets that you are sure to have hunches as to what happened, but until the near end you won’t be confident enough to put your money where your mouth is. I ultimately guessed the twist, a little before it was revealed, which was satisfying both in guessing correctly, and in having to wait to get there. The progress of the story is interspersed with excerpts of depositions, police interviews, news articles, etc… and it’s through this carefully curated slow drip of information that the brilliance of the pacing to this story is achieved. Baker provides the breadcrumbs, and consistently re-ups the mystery/tension so that you will struggle to stop listening. This is an area, where Baker was not as successful in her follow up novel, and the plots of the two stories dictate the difference of impact. In Whisper Network, it was a pitch perfect device. Balance really might be the best word to sum up this book, because so many stories, and especially thrillers, and especially the ones trying to make some bigger commentary, really struggle to find balance and let the mystery simmer without feeling forced, struggle to make a statement without it feeling like a bludgeon. Whisper Network succeeds where so many others fail.

All of the twists and turns, ended in a way that is so utterly satisfying, but without being too sunshine and rainbows. The book keeps one foot in reality and it feels like a real world happy ending, where it’s not everything you hope for, but it’s perfect in that, to quote the Rolling Stones, “you can’t always get what you want, but… you might find you get what you need”.

The narrator did a great job on this title as well. Her female characters were nuanced enough to tell apart and she heightened the emotion of the story without feeling like a character herself. Very solid job if not exceptional.

As I said before this was a great title, so it was very difficult to find much of anything I didn’t like. There were however a couple nitpicky things that I thought could have been tightened up. There were two clues to the “big twist” near the end that didn’t really sit well with me. One has to do with a secondary character’s paycheck and the way her pay changes in the present didn’t exactly make sense to me (I know that’s vague, but saying more would really undermine the twists of the story). Secondly, the way Ardie, one of the main characters, discovers the big twist, by noticing something about a supporting character she hadn’t previously, also did not make a lot of sense based on the time she had previously spent with that character. The thing she notices isn’t a microscopic detail, so it was hard for me to believe it would have gone unnoticed until it did.

The only other drawback was in the POV of the story. The story is told through a rotating third person, but every so often, when describing the general experiences of women in professional settings, it turns and uses a we voice. The reason for this is addressed in the prologue, and it makes sense, but as I was listening, it was a bit jarring and took a little getting used to.

Overall an all around knockout and a 5 out of 5. Great for women and men for very different reasons, and just a thoroughly enjoyable mystery that speaks on some important social issues we used to keep hushed.

Component Ratings
Concept/Idea: 5 out of 5
Main Characters: 5 out of 5
Supporting Characters: 5 out of 5
Character Development: 5 out of 5
Plot: 4.5 out of 5
Pacing: 5 out of 5
Prose: 4.5 out of 5
Dialogue: 4.5 out 5
Narrator’s Performance: 4 out of 5
Ending: 5 out of 5

The sudden death of Truviv's CEO makes Ames Garrett the heir apparent. Ames is someone who gets what he wants. If Sloane, Ardie, and Grace have anything to say about it, this time may be different, There have always been rumors, whispers, if you will, about Ames and young women in the company, Some of the women have started passing around a spreadsheet putting down the names of men who have used their power to abuse and manipulate young women, Someone adds Ames' name to this list. The game is afoot.
Chandler Baker's Whipsper Network may be tagged as a thriller, but this portion of the story, while entertaining, is what Alfred Hitchcock would call the the MacGuffin - something needed to move the plot along, it is not truly what the book is about. The book is more a social commentary on the day to day indignities that women in the work world face every day on every rung of the ladder. Pay disparities, objectification, having credit for work to a man and sometimes, mental and physical abuse,
Baker also holds a mirror in front of women. How do we contribute to this environment? What do we do to protect others? What have we done to protect ourselves? Are we allies that can be trusted even amongst ourselves? The answers are complicated and are great fodder for book clubs.
The book has the vibe of Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty. - but I mean the book, not the stripped down tv version. As with Big Little lies, the story is about the women and how they bond and the allegiances they build and break and even more interesting - why do they build and break them,
Whisper Network is a good story on every level. You aren't required to be introspective, you can just follow the MacGuffin and still have a good time. Surprises await you. It will give you something to whisper about.
My Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the audio version of this book in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars

If the gauge for how good a book is lies in its ability to get inside your head and force you to consider its contents long after finishing, then this one is certainly a qualifier.

The loaded topic of sexual harassment and assault allegations is far from a black and white issue and Chandler really drills into it from all angles. As a mom of boys and a woman who has experienced some ugly sides of life, it is a lot to consider and process.

I don't know that I loved some of the portrayals of these "power lawyer women" contrasted with a poor, colored woman who happened to be the cleaning lady. Yet, I can see how these stereotypes ring true in some places of business and need to be brought to light just as much as the rights of women's safety.

I haven't composed exactly how I feel about the ending but I would not hesitate to recommend it to others. It has the ability to make you uncomfortable, offended, judgemental, and proud throughout the reading experience.

Thank you Macmillan audio, Netgalley and Chandler Baker for the gifted copy.

I just read The Husbands by Chandler Baker and really loved it so decided to also read this one. The story follows 3 women working at a law firm who face sexual harassment and help to protect a new colleague.

I listened to the book at and enjoyed the narration. I also really enjoyed how the harassment was commented upon and it felt very relevant.

I’d add this to the feminist psychological thriller category and recommend it to anyone who likes strong female driven plots.

I just reviewed Whisper Network by Chandler Baker. #NetGalley

This was a great ride of a thriller, keeping me listening as fast as I could. However, and I think this is on me and reading this book mid-2021, I think I'm generally exhausted by the pain women have to go through at home, at work, everywhere, just to get treated equally, so parts of this were hard to listen to and I just got mad. Again, that's not a criticism of the author or her writing - those parts were fabulously done and the narrators' observations were spot-on - but it just left me feeling defeated.

I finished this timely and relevant book in three days. Told from the perspective of southerner Sloane Glover. recently divorced Ardie Valdez; new mom Grace Stanton; the newest hirer Katherine Bell; and the office cleaning woman Rosalita. They each have experienced some type of sexual harassment with the next likely CEO of their Austin, TX based company.

The story can be slightly confusing because the story unfolds bit by bit. I listened to the audio book and I couldn't stop listening. Whenever I had five or ten minutes, I played the book.

The author's note at the end is interesting (it usually is). I love to hear how a story was formed.

Thank you NetGalley.

This story confused me a bit with the genre. I thought it was going to be a thriller, but it's really more of a women's fiction. There is a mystery to solve, but it's not a thriller, so I would just say, don't expect that going into this book.

The characters were okay. I struggled to connect to some of them. The overall story was good. I did enjoy it, even though I was thinking it would be a thriller, the plot did pull me in.

An important read - so often women are mistreated and taken advantage of in the workplace. It's appalling how men treat women and what they feel they can get away with. It's time to keep men accountable,

I'm thankful for Chandler Baker's choosing to write about this.

Whisper Network is an unsettling and accurate reminder of the realities of being a feminine-presenting person in today's world.

A quick rundown: When the CEO of Truviv, Inc. passes away unexpectedly, employees Sloane, Ardie, Grace, and Rosalita all realize that their boss Ames will most likely assume the position. Each of these women has a different relationship with Ames, and none of them are particularly positive. There have been whispers surrounding his treatment of female employees, but they've always been ignored and passed over. Luckily for these four, the world has changed and grown. There is no longer a pressure to stay silent. So, when they discover Ames making inappropriate passes at a colleague, they know that they have to speak out. Once they do so, it sets off a chain of events that is unstoppable and potentially world-shifting. Not everyone will make it out, and everyone will change because of it.

My thoughts: I think this story is a steadfast story of women in our generation and the generations before us, who suffered in silence. Baker provides an unflinchingly honest depiction and commentary not only through the actual narrative but in the creative epitext (definition: textual and visual materials that derive from a published work e.g. reviews, advertisements, interviews, etc., regarded as external supplements that contextualize the work and shape its public reception, Lexico.com). This entire book is well-crafted and shows the complexities of the #MeToo movement. Baker makes sure to highlight the dissonance between wanting to maintain the status quo and not make waves, and the desire to stand up for others being harmed by those in power. She also does not hesitate to look at all aspects of these situations, including the less favorable side, when a woman unintentionally (or intentionally) makes a situation worse for another woman. The corporate culture that Whisper Network is centered on is not one I am familiar with, but Baker made it easily accessible and understandable. This book was equal parts thriller, psychological fiction, and realistic fiction. Each part outlines the enormous pressure that comes with being a female-presenting person in society, the workplace, and the wider world. This is my second time reading a book by Baker, and it was definitely worth the read.

Overall rating: 4/5

Whisper Network is available for purchase now. Be sure to add it to your Goodreads shelf. Also, be sure to check out Chandler Baker’s website!
I was lucky enough to be able to listen to this Advanced Reader's Copy through my partnership with NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I adored this audiobook. Chandler Baker takes the real, relevant topic of the #metoo movement and successfully spins an especially compelling story in The Whisper Network.

While I loved the book, I don’t know if I would really classify it as a thriller. The story was interesting throughout, but the mystery itself was an extremely slow burn. I was very satisfied by the ending, though, and hadn’t completely guessed the perpetrator.

I really enjoyed how these women supported each other. A lot of the time women join the men in cutting each other down, so it’s important to stand up for one another, especially in the situation these women find themselves in.

Since this book has been around for a while, I’ll keep my review short. This one worked really well on audio, and the narrator was the perfect fit for the story. I loved her slight Southern accent--it fit the characters really well and in a way added to the suspense.

I tried


I really Really Tried,

I loved the description of the book, and reading it brought up a lot of important things in regards of women in the workplace, but it was not executed well specially being a Fiction/thriller book. There were pages that I jumped and still got through the book in no time, I downloaded the audiobook thanks to Netgalley to help me through it, At the end, this is a book that I did not love but did not hate.

The Whisper Network follows the lives of four women working at Truviv in the aftermath of the unfortunate death of company's CEO. Each woman has a history with the most likely successor, Ames. As their stories play out, secrets and lies will be revealed with catastrophic consequences.

Unfortunately, I found myself being easily distracted and needing to consciously continue listening. I just didn't find any of the characters relatable ... or, honestly, likable. I found Sloane to be just as off-putting as Ames himself. The book is well-written and the narration is done very well - just not my cup of tea.

The minute I started reading Whisper Network, it reminded me of an old office building I worked in. The maintenance guy used to find people fooling around in the closets all the time. It’s crazy to me that stuff like that even goes on, so when I read about this book, I knew I had to read it since it was based on the author’s experience with relations in the workplace.

I loved the dynamic and relationships that grew between the women. I listened to the audio version and I felt like I was sitting down taking with my best friend. And while the events that happen in this book are wrong and shocking, in the end, it plays to the strength of those women who are sexually harassed at work and decided to put their foot down and do something about it.

I gave this one 4 starts, it’s definitely worth the read.