Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests

Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None gets a wicked update in Whittle’s assured debut. Seven strangers meet at a London restaurant after receiving anonymous dinner invitations. The guests—including a Welsh cop, an IT expert, a fashion influencer, and an editor—are puzzled when the waitstaff provide no information about the host or the purpose of their gathering. After haute cuisine and amicable conversation, the evening ends with each diner receiving a sealed envelope. Lingerie CEO Janet opens hers and reads that she will die at her current age of 44; everyone else’s cards hold similar predictions with different ages. The group brushes it off as a baffling prank or reality TV experiment, but a few weeks later, two of them die at the ages specified in their messages, leading the survivors to suspect that someone’s out to get them. Whittle smoothly toggles between the perspectives of each guest, maintaining consistent suspense as the years pass and more of them turn up dead. Though the setup is pure formula, crafty twists and voicey narration culminate in an impressive payoff. Whodunit fans will look forward to the author’s next effort. Agent: Rebecca Wearmouth, Peters, Fraser and Dunlop. (Sept.)