Workhorse

Set in the early 2000s New York magazine world, the novel follows Clodagh "Clo" Harmon, a young woman from suburban Philadelphia who lands a job as an editorial assistant at one of the most prestigious fashion magazines in the country. Clo narrates her own story with biting self-awareness, tracing her transformation from eager outsider to complicit insider across nearly a decade of ambition, deception, and moral compromise.

Clo arrives at the magazine in post-9/11 New York City and quickly learns the office operates according to an unspoken caste system. Employees divide into "Workhorses," upper-middle-class strivers like Clo who earned their positions through diligence, and "Show Horses," Ivy League women from generational wealth whose pedigree lends the magazine its exclusivity. Clo's cubicle mate, Davis Lawrence, is the ultimate Show Horse: blonde, poised, and the only child of former Broadway star Barbara Lawrence. Clo becomes instantly obsessed with Davis and campaigns to win her friendship through self-deprecating humor and eager compliance. Davis takes Clo under her wing sporadically, though her attention is unpredictable. When Clo's first boss is abruptly let go, L.K. Smith, the formidable executive editor, instructs Clo to keep the section running until a replacement is hired.

Davis arranges for Clo to wear a borrowed gown to a library benefit, and the black-tie experience seduces Clo completely. She downplays the evening's impact to Allie Blum, her childhood best friend from Philadelphia who is now pursuing a doctorate at Columbia. Clo also meets Harry Wood, a charming society reporter who runs his own blog. When advance copies of the new issue arrive with Clo's name on the masthead for the first time, she feels she finally exists. The arrival of Isobel Fincher as the new senior editor marks a turning point. A published novelist with quiet authority, Isobel begins silently training Clo, who sits behind Isobel as she edits copy and coaches writers. Over months of observation, Clo absorbs the craft of editing.

Meanwhile, Davis takes Clo shopping for a red coat that becomes Clo's signature garment. To pay for it, Clo uses a credit card belonging to Barbara, which Davis had lent her for a discount. Clo slips the card into her own wallet and never returns it. During a weekend at Barbara's Southampton house, Clo wanders into the study of art advisor Susan Goldsmith-Cohen at a party and impulsively steals a small bronze horse statue valued at over a million dollars, dropping it into her straw bag. Clo was not on the guest list and was not photographed, so the trail goes cold. That same weekend, while swimming with Davis, Clo holds her underwater too long in a moment of dissociation before Davis bites Clo's arm to escape.

In late 2003, Davis returns from Palm Beach wearing an engagement ring. At the engagement party, Clo learns from a colleague that Davis is moving to California, news Davis never shared. Drunk and enraged, Clo confronts Davis, who coolly responds: "It's not like we are close friends" (219). Clo flees. The next morning, Barbara calls in a panic: Davis was found at dawn on Delancey Street, barely conscious, with a broken nose, fractured wrist, and a shattered ankle. The police cannot determine the cause, Davis remembers nothing, and the case goes cold.

Clo capitalizes on Davis's absence, becoming the office authority on her condition and attending events from Davis's mail pile. Harry proposes an alliance: With Davis sidelined, they should pool contacts to build their profiles. Barbara enlists Clo as her escort to social events and takes her shopping at Bergdorf Goodman for a complete wardrobe overhaul. Clo's use of Barbara's stolen credit card accelerates into a system of expensing personal purchases through the magazine and pocketing the reimbursement cash. When she discovers a voicemail from Barbara's accountant about high bills, she deletes it. Isobel assigns Clo her first major reporting trip to Los Angeles, and the resulting article is approved after heavy editing.

Signs of trouble surface in the Lawrence household when Davis appears with a badly split lip, claiming she fell. Clo confronts Harry, who reveals that Barbara has a history of physically abusing Davis. He recounts an incident from their teenage years when Barbara beat Davis badly enough to require 25 stitches, then coached Harry to tell police Davis had been mugged by a Black man in Central Park. Harry complied because he feared losing the only family he had. In Davis's closet, Clo discovers canceled checks revealing Barbara has paid Harry $5,000 monthly for nearly a decade, totaling close to $600,000: hush money for his silence about the abuse.

When Clo's landlord dies and the building is sold, she moves into the Lawrence apartment. Harry proposes that Clo sell advance photographs of embargoed designer products to a major retailer for $10,000 per month, essentially corporate espionage enabling mass-market knockoffs. Clo initially refuses but accepts that evening. Isobel resigns from the magazine, telling Clo she must decide her own path or "they will eat you alive" (459). L.K. gives Clo Isobel's responsibilities on a probationary basis. Clo's personal life deteriorates when, while babysitting the infant daughter of her oldest friend Allie, she drinks two bottles of wine and leaves the baby alone with a young neighbor to chase a paranoid hunch downtown about Harry and Davis. Allie and her husband return to find the baby screaming, and the lifelong friendship is destroyed.

Barbara lands a major Broadway role, and on opening night, Clo learns Harry's website has been acquired by a private equity firm without her knowledge. Davis reveals she asked Harry for a job as the site's entertainment editor in Los Angeles, her long-desired escape from Barbara. Clo realizes she has been cut out of the arrangement she helped build. Harry tells her bluntly that Davis "wasn't your friend. She was your opportunity" (519). In a calculated act of revenge, Clo carries the stolen horse to Harry's housewarming party, places it on his library shelf, and photographs Harry and Davis in front of the bookshelf. She encourages Harry to post the image online, then retrieves the statue before leaving. She also drops Barbara's gold American Express card on Harry's entryway table.

An online follower spots the horse in the posted photo and alerts the police. Harry is arrested. Having learned about Barbara's hush-money payments, Davis provides a false written statement placing Harry at Susan Goldsmith-Cohen's party years earlier, and Clo corroborates the lie. When FBI agents visit the Lawrence apartment, they reveal Harry was in serious financial trouble, confirm Barbara's decade of payments, and note that no horse was found in Harry's home. Barbara deflects by demanding a search warrant and orders everyone to stay silent.

Clo walks out of the apartment for the last time with $223,197.07 in her checking account, accumulated from the espionage fees, and decides to keep every dollar. She rents a new apartment in Brooklyn and places the horse on her writing desk. About a year later, she spots Davis and Barbara through a bar window on Forty-Sixth Street. Davis looks brittle and diminished. Clo is convinced she "destroyed the most beautiful thing in the world" (548) but cannot remember what it was for. She rushes to the window for one last glimpse, but the street is already empty.