Payback by Molly D. Shepard and Peter J. Dean is a workplace thriller that follows Samantha, a high-performing banker who spends years navigating a toxic, sexist culture and the predatory attention of an executive named Archer Dunne. The story moves between Samantha’s point of view, Archer’s warped inner monologue, and the perspectives of allies and bystanders as the bank’s abuses pile up, push her out, and eventually circle back when Archer, now ill and diabetic, is admitted to the upscale nursing home Samantha runs. There, she seriously considers killing him by quietly increasing his insulin, only for fate to intervene when he dies after a fall, leaving her to grapple with what justice really looks like and how to live with a rage that never fully disappears.

The opening prologue drops you right into Samantha’s mind as she calmly admits she is planning “the perfect murder,” and it is both chilling and deeply believable once you see what she has survived. The early scenes at the bank feel painfully real: the drunken company party, the alleyway assault where she escapes only to realize the attacker is her own Executive Vice President, Archer. The authors lean into clarity more than subtlety, and sometimes the villains are almost grotesquely obvious, but in a workplace thriller like this, that bluntness works. It feels less like a puzzle and more like a long, angry debrief of “this is exactly how they get away with it,” which I found strangely cathartic.

What stayed with me most was how much of the book is about the slow grind rather than just the headline traumas. Samantha’s first boss Margie, who bullies her daily for minor mistakes until she quits, the constant body shaming from her parents, the impostor syndrome that keeps replaying in her head even as she racks up wins at the bank. Her friendships with Inga and Josephine become the emotional center of the story. Inga is a top pharma rep whose numbers are excellent but who keeps getting passed over because she is out of sight, out of mind in the Midwest, and Josephine is a Black consultant who writes speeches for her CEO yet cannot break past a certain rank because of bias in her firm. Their late night strategy sessions at the Barrister Bar feel like war councils and group therapy at the same time, and the book keeps circling back to how women have to quietly train each other to survive systems that were not built for them. That coaching tone does poke through sometimes, and a few passages read like a leadership manual folded into a novel, but I did not mind it. It gave the story a grounded, “here is what actually happens in these rooms” quality.

I also appreciated the choices the authors made around Archer and the men who are not monsters. Seeing scenes from his perspective is uncomfortable in the best way. You watch him stalk Samantha in that alley, brag to his young male “minions” about using women for sex while blocking their promotions, and later seek out the nursing home she runs because he wants one last chance to torment her and even ogle her teenage daughter. When he exposes himself to a vulnerable resident at The Fairfield and Samantha finally has the power to kick him out, her fury practically hums off the page. At the same time, the book gives us Lance, the new CEO who discovers Samantha’s detailed notes about the bank’s abuses and decides to tear out the culture by the roots, and Todd, the thoughtful carpenter who becomes her husband and steady base. That balance keeps the story from sliding into pure despair.

I see Payback as a feminist workplace thriller that also works as social commentary about harassment, bullying, and the cost of keeping quiet. It is not subtle, and it does not try to be. The language is clear, the emotions are right on the surface, and the plot keeps you turning pages to see whether Samantha will cross that final line. If you have lived through a toxic office, care about gender equity at work, or just want a tense, emotionally honest story about a woman who refuses to stay a victim, I think this novel will hit hard in a good way.

Pages: 240 | ASIN : B0FX3FV52H