The Wasp Trap

Six former colleagues reunite after the death of their mentor in this propulsive suspense novel from Edwards (The Psychopath Next Door). In 1999, former psychology professor Sebastian Marlowe recruited six recent university grads to work at a digital startup headquartered in his English country estate. The project, inspired by Sebastian’s obsessive study of love in the months after his wife’s murder, was an early algorithmic dating app. Twenty-five years later, Sebastian is dead, and his former employees reunite for his memorial. Among them is Lily, who worked with Sebastian on a side project to help identify sociopaths and shared a traumatic experience with the professor that both agreed to keep buried forever. During dinner, two of Sebastian’s current employees take the group hostage and insist they reveal their darkest secrets. They’re pursuing cryptic information that Sebastian alluded to on his deathbed—which Lily fears might be the very secret that could ruin her life. Edwards has a nasty good time airing his cast’s dirty laundry, stoking plot momentum with big and small revelations that are almost universally unpredictable. This will keep readers turning pages well into the night. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Agency. (Sept.)