"I write psychological thrillers - here's what to expect from my new book which is out now"
A 30-year dream has finally come true for author Mark Edwards, who is celebrating the publication of his debut hardback.
The Wasp Trap, which is out today, is his first book with Penguin Michael Joseph and will also be published by Simon & Schuster in the US in September.
“I was with Amazon for 10 years and during that time my books were available as paperbacks, ebooks and audiobooks. This is the first hardback so it’s quite exciting.
“Generally you could only buy my books at Amazon, occasionally you would find them in shops, but this is the first one that will be widely available in book shops.
“It’s completely different for me. All the time while I have been making a living from being a published author, I would go into a bookshop and I would never see any of my books,” explains Mark, who lives in Wolverhampton.
“This is what I have wanted to do since I was 24 – I wanted to be a full-time author.
“It took me another 17 years of doing it before I got my first book deal and it’s taken me another 13 years since then to get a hardback.
“So it’s taken 30 years from when I first started writing to have a hardback in the shops – that’s why I’m so excited about it.”
Last month, he visited his new US publisher for the first time, which was another milestone moment for the writer.
“Simon & Schuster have a massive office in the middle of Manhattan.
“I had walked past it lots of times and I used to dream of being published by Simon & Schuster in the US – and it’s happening. I feel lots of dreams have been coming true lately.”
Since his first solo novel was published in 2013, Mark, who writes psychological thrillers about “ordinary people who encounter terrifying events”, has sold more than five million copies of his books.
The Wasp Trap, which is his 23rd book, has been partly inspired by his own experiences.
“It’s set at a dinner party in London where six old friends who worked together 25 years ago meet up to celebrate the life of the professor who employed them in 1999.
“They had been hired to build one of the first dating websites that used personality and psychometric testing. This group of people worked together in a big house in the middle of the countryside for this professor.
“While they were there, they created a test designed to identify psychopaths,” explains Mark. What happened in 1999 is gradually revealed throughout the book, but the majority of the action is set at the dinner party.
“The main character can immediately sense something isn’t right and someone is lying about who they are,” says Mark.
“There is a big moment where everything twists and the characters find themselves playing a game where they are forced to reveal their darkest secrets – or die.”
The author had always wanted to write a home invasion thriller and struck on the idea of it taking place during a dinner party.
“Back in 2000, I worked for a dot-com startup, but it wasn’t a dating site. I was based at my boss’ big country house in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t live there, but I went there every day and worked in his summer sitting room. It was such a weird place to work and I always thought it would be a good setting for a book. So I put the two ideas together,” says Mark.
Readers will find a lot of 90s nostalgia within the pages such as brightly colourful iMacs and music references from the decade. “It was a fun book to research and write, especially the scenes set in the past,” says Mark.
To celebrate the publication of The Wasp Trap, Mark will be hosting a free ‘meet the author’ event at Waterstones in Wolverhampton this Saturday from 1pm until 2pm.
He will also be appearing ‘in conversation’ with Jo Callaghan at an event at Bridgnorth Library, hosted by Booka on September 25.
