The Devil’s Work

Sophie Greenwood, the heroine of this unsatisfying psychological thriller from British author Edwards (The Magpie), faces an endless array of calamities just as everything seems to be going right. Sophie, who has a supportive husband, Guy, and a darling four-year-old daughter, Daisy, has landed her dream job at Jackdaw Books in London. On her first day at Jackdaw, she’s startled to discover that Franklin Bird, the vigorous 85-year-old former head of the firm who’s nominally retired, is taking her out to lunch. Sophie hopes that Bird is unaware of her connection to his granddaughter Jasmine Smith, whom she met in college in Sussex 16 years earlier. Flashbacks to 1999 provide counterpoint to a series of present-day debacles: a sexual-harassment complaint takes out a senior marketing exec at Jackdaw, an offensive reference to domestic violence from Guy’s Twitter account gets him suspended from his journalism job, and a major goof sabotages Sophie’s first major marketing campaign. Past and present eventually come together in unexpected and unconvincing fashion as Sophie learns who has orchestrated her fall. (Sept.)