I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I always love Mark Edwards’ books but this one stood out for me. Plenty of twists and turns with beautifully developed characters. Nothing was quite as it seemed.

The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards is a true Mark Edwards-style thriller—gripping, tense, and relentlessly paced. From the first chapter, it keeps you on the edge of your seat, masterfully layering suspense and psychological intrigue. I devoured it in a day just to reach the explosive finale.

The plot is taut and cleverly constructed, with just enough twists to keep you guessing without feeling overdone. Edwards' signature ability to blur the line between paranoia and reality is on full display, pulling you into the protagonist’s unraveling world.

The characters are sharply drawn, especially the lead, whose internal struggle adds a compelling layer to the unraveling mystery. While a few turns might echo familiar beats, they’re handled with enough finesse to feel fresh.
With a great plot and a satisfying final act, The Wasp Trap proves once again why Mark Edwards is a master of the genre. It’s a compulsive, chilling read that sticks with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

Thankyou Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC to post voluntary this my honest review.
A couple arrange a reunion dinner with four other friends who have not seen each other for 25 years!! Back in the summer of 1999 they all worked on launching a dating website together brought together by Sebastian to work on the project. The dinner is in honour of Sebastian's passing. Things soon take a drastic turn when all their lives are in grave danger!! Something happened in the summer of 99! One of the six has been keeping a secret and someone will stop at nothing to find out who knows it!!
This book was action packed! Kept my interest throughout!! I loved the storyline and all the twists!! I didn't figure out any of it! The characters were likable and interesting! I would recommend anyone to read this book who loves a good thriller and keeps you guessing till the very end!! Fantastic writing Mark!! :)

This was amazing I have no words I loved it
Such a fast paced mystery thriller which kept me on my toes I just couldn’t put it down by far one of my favourite reads

Another fantastic read from Mark Edwards. I love all of his books but this one was especially good. Its a read in one sitting type of book that you won't want to end. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards is a taut, suspenseful thriller that delivers tension in all the right places. With a tightly wound plot and Edwards’ signature knack for psychological twists, the story keeps readers second-guessing motives and outcomes from beginning to end. The setup is simple but executed with precision, drawing you in quickly and holding your attention.

The characters are well-drawn, especially the protagonist, whose mounting paranoia and self-doubt make the unfolding mystery feel all the more intense. Edwards layers in just enough emotional depth to make the stakes personal, while keeping the pace fast and the atmosphere tense. A few twists feel familiar, but the execution keeps them fresh.

The final act is satisfying, tying together the suspense and emotional threads with a confident hand. The Wasp Trap is another strong entry in Mark Edwards’ catalog—a gripping, fast-paced read that earns its 4 stars with solid storytelling and a steady build of dread.

Mark Edwards is now on my "must-read" authors list after devouring his latest thriller, "The Wasp Trap." A suspenseful and twisting and turning thriller that grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go!!

This was my first book of Mark Edwards and I can confidently say it won't be my last – I may have just discovered a new favorite author.

The story unfolds across two timelines, the present-day nightmare with the events of 1999. In the past, we're introduced to six individuals bound together by their work for the professor, Sebastian Marlowe.

As the narrative shifts to the present, we find these six individuals reunited at a fateful dinner party. What begins as a seemingly innocent gathering quickly descends into a terrifying ordeal, a deadly game where long-buried secrets are exposed.

The clever interweaving of the 1999 timeline gradually unveils the events that led to this explosive confrontation, providing a compelling motive for the present-day horror.

The interplay between these timelines creates a captivating reading experience, leaving you constantly guessing and eagerly anticipating the next revelation.

Thank you to Mark Edward’s, NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this fantastic book.

I had high hopes that were dashed.

This is the story of 6 university graduates who had spent the summer of 1999 sequestered with a Professor, developing an online dating website. Each of the 6 bought a skill that the others didn't possess to help the Professor launch the site. However, the morning before the launch the Professor suddenly disbands the group and they are sent their separate ways. 25 years have passed and the group gather together for the first time at a dinner party to remember their now deceased Professor.

Theo and Georgina have done well for themselves and are hosting the dinner party from their beautiful hi-tech home. Rohan is dissatisfied that he has not achieved the dizzy heights he had hoped to reach, Lily has done reasonably well but has struggles in her personal life, Sophie has managed but didn't get everything she wanted, and Will has become a teacher of creative writing and a frustrated novelist that has spent the last 25 years regretting not telling the woman of his dreams how he felt. Joining the group is Finn, a man who claims to be the Professors last assistant but doesn't seem to know much about the man he claims he worked for.

As the first course is served all is not as it seems, their phones have lost connection to the networks, the internet has gone down and all the doors are locked...and someone is hiding on the third floor...

This could have been an incredible book but it fell short of the mark by a distance. The first half was interesting and engaging as the dinner party unravelled. The flash back scenes to 1999 that slowly built towards the event that lead the group to being disbanded were interesting and relevant to the story being told. However, once a blast from the past showed up I felt that it went downhill. As the story went on the action became a little more farcical - I understand the set up of co-incidentally having two empty houses surrounding the property so that the people felt isolated but to believe that several gun shots went completely unnoticed by anyone is a stretch.

The reveal of what was really going on was reasonably plausible but the last 20% or so of the book kind of ruined all the good that had come before. Hidden passageways within the house that horded evidence of secrets from the past and those secrets being used against the secret keeper just felt silly. On the whole I was left feeling a little let down and disappointed.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is not a book that I would necessarily have picked up but, WOW - I'm so glad I did!

The story is just stunning - highly original and just so well put together, so well written, that, especially for the closing chapters, I literally couldn't put it down.

The author really gets into his characters and every aspect of the plot is well thought out with no loose ends or inconsistencies.

Highly recommended!

An EASY 5⭐️ Deliciously twisty from start to finish, The Wasp Trap is a compelling and gripping locked-door psychological thriller.

Six old friends reunite to celebrate the life of their recently deceased eccentric ex-employer, a professor that brought them together in 1999 to help build a dating website based on psychological testing. I loooooved the dual timeline element of this book — switching back and forth between 1999 and present day. This format added so much more depth to the story and kept me guessing how reliable and trustworthy each character was.

This was a really great page-turner with twists, turns, secrets and lies that unfold into utter chaos. Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book!

Good story flirting between the events of Summer 1999 and the present day.
A group who had been brought together to create a new dating website but who haven’t seen each other since, are invited to a dinner party. Once there things start to go very wrong. They all have secrets, but someone wants to know a particular secret and will go to great lengths to find out what it is.
Exciting tale with good characters. Recommended.

In 1999, a group of disparate graduates spent their summer developing a dating app for their boss Sebastian to launch. But the project was aborted and the six went their separate ways. Now 25 ywears later they are reuniting at the grand London home of two of their number, to celebrate Sebastian's life. But things start to go horribly wrong when they find themselves locked in and forced to turn on each other to try to escape the very real danger they are under.
Which is hiding secrets? Is one a psychopath? What really happened 25 years ago to cause such fury and anger now?
This story had one twisted plot and a narrative, which is fast-paced, tense, dramatic and dangerous! Chief narrator Will engages the reader instantly with his take on what is happening now, and what happened then. He is the most sympathetic character in a disparate cast - each one interesting, if not exactly likeable.
Though not in the least bit literary - and as a thriller, why should it be - the book has echoes Donna Tart's Secret History with clever young people drawn into a web of deceit and lies and bad choices that will haunt them for ever more.
As the action draws to its climax, the story becomes ever more complicated with twists coming so thick and fast there's no time to take stock of what is actually a pretty unconvincing plot. if you stop to think about it.
But the drama carries you along! You want and need to know what's going to happen, and that's what makes this a really good read.

Mark Edwards has a talent for making me feel anxious and uncomfortable, something I bizarrely enjoy in his thrillers. The Wasp Trap doesn't hit the top of my list (will anything ever beat The Magpie trilogy though?) but it was still a fun read. The characters were in turn loveable and hateable as they should be, the story turned on its head and I was pleased by the ending.

A novel that really draws you in from the start. Reunion of work colleagues from years ago, which one of them holds a secret that could ruin Dominic's life?

You really do not want to go a dinner party like this one, where peoples secrets are bought to the fore either by fair means or foul.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In 1999, six college age people spent a summer at their professor’s property working on a dating app. They haven’t seen each other since, except for Georgina and Theo who are married. They invite the others to their house for a dinner party. One of the participants has a secret and may get killed if they don’t reveal it.

I am not always the biggest fan of a closed room mystery but this one was pretty good. I didn’t have trouble keeping the characters or their backstories straight.l which tends to be an issue. I was engaged enough to be interested in how it ended but I wasn’t that wow-ed by the big secret.

This book caught me and held me till the last turn of the page. A group of young revolutionaries go about creating a dating app but who could possibly have guessed the outcome of that summer. The relationships between the group and the secrets they hold. Years later they come together again at a dinner party. A night when secrets if years gone by are revealed. Full of the unexpected. A really good read

Ahh, this is pure 'Mark Edwards' stuff: nasty, twisty, 'what if' plot-driven, edge-of-the-seat writing that is what it says it is. The writing, as ever, is pacy and thrilling, and what Edwards is, and continues to be, good at, is hooking the reader and keeping them hooked. Another winner for those who love a beautifully unsettling psychological thriller. Huge thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for the ARC.

A twisty tale that looks back to a seminal time in the lives and loves of the 7 main characters. What happened in 1999 that became a secret their lives may now depend on? The book pivots between the past and present and feeds answers and more questions as it goes on. It's an enjoyable read that you whip through quickly.

This is exactly the sort of thriller I love – tense, clever and completely addictive. The Wasp Trap pulls you in from the very first chapter and refuses to let go. With its mix of old secrets, present danger and a twisted dinner party setup, I flew through it in just a couple of sittings.

The story centres around six old friends, reunited in a smart Notting Hill townhouse for what should have been a reflective evening. Instead, they find themselves trapped in a deadly game, forced to confront the darkest corners of their past or face the consequences. It is a brilliant setup that had me hooked straight away.

I thought the dual timeline and multiple perspectives worked really well. Sometimes that structure can get a bit muddled in thrillers, but here it was perfectly balanced and so easy to follow. The switches between 1999 and the present added just the right amount of suspense, and every reveal had me second guessing everything I thought I knew.

The characters were really well drawn. Each one felt distinct, with believable flaws and layers that slowly peeled back as the story progressed. I found myself genuinely invested in all of them, even when I wasn’t quite sure who I could trust. Mark Edwards has such a sharp writing style – it is pacy and precise, and the tension builds in such a satisfying way.

The Wasp Trap is a smart, unsettling thriller with emotional depth and a brilliant twisty plot. I loved every minute.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

From start to finish this book kept you thinking just who!!!!! Great range of characters, great twists and surprises. I loved it.