🐝🐝🐝1/2
The Wasp Trap
Mark Edwards
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Atria Books
336 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org
Genre: General Fiction | Mystery & Thrillers
This author has been hit and miss for me. While I enjoyed both Here To Stay and In Her Shadow, The Darkest Water was a dud. I am happy to say The Wasp Trap was more to my liking. In this story, six friends reunite at a dinner party to honour their old professor and revisit the summer of ’99 when they worked together developing a dating website. During the get-together, things take a sinister turn when they’re held at gunpoint and are given an ultimatum: share your darkest secret from the summer of 1999 or be killed. As the night goes on, it becomes apparent that their predicament is somehow linked to their work. That work included a psychological test to weed out the psychopaths (also known as “The Wasp Trap”). With paranoia setting in and old secrets and betrayals being revealed, the group of “friends” tries to uncover the truth and figure out who this person is. Can they do it before it’s too late?
Okay, this is as tense as it gets, and if you know me, you know I love tension. This is, I guess, what they would call a locked-room thriller, and it left me feeling claustrophobic—which is a very good thing. The pacing was amazing, and the plot was gripping. This is the definition of a page-turner. Where the book lost me, and a star, was in the character development; they felt more like caricatures than real people, and their dialogue didn’t ring true. Another thing that wasn’t perfect was the ending; you need to suspend belief quite a bit. BUT, this book had me flipping pages and kept me entertained; it was perfect for a bit of an escape. I just took it for what it was: a popcorn thriller. If you’re looking for something with lots of depth, you won’t find it here, but if you want a fun thriller with an intriguing concept, I can recommend this one.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
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