A scintillating debut about a disillusioned tech executive who goes into an obsessive spiral when her best friend-âand longtime crushâis implicated in a womanâs death.
Edie Walkerâs life is not going as planned. At thirty-five, she feels stuck: in her career, in her love life, and in her tiny San Francisco studio apartment. It doesnât help that her best friend, Peter Masterson, is basically the Ăźber successful male version of herâand sheâs hopelessly, unrequitedly in love with him. But when Peter breaks up with his girlfriend of seven years, Edie thinks her life might finally be turning around. Heâll discover how toxic dating app culture is and realize that Edie has been right for him all along.
Except Peter almost immediately lands a date with Anaya Thomas, a gorgeous, whip-smart professor and writer of feminist literature who even Edieâreared in the culture of tech brosâis smitten by. Unlike the women Peter has dated before, Anaya is like an alternate reality version of Edieâone with shampoo commercial hair and a meaningful career, who definitely doesnât spend her weekends scrolling social media alone in her apartment. Itâs only a matter of time before Peter falls head over heels for this woman; Edie herself is infatuated after one meeting.
Then, Anaya is found dead in her apartment. Right after a date with Peter.
Driven by her near-fanatic love of Anayaâs work and a desperate need to prove Peterâs innocence, Edie begins searching for clues to what really happened that night. As her obsession with the investigation grows, so do her doubts in Peter. When the truth finally comes to light, Edie must decide where her loyalties lie, who deserves justiceâand who deserves to be punished.
Provocative, tense, and compulsively readable, Nothing Serious is a shrewdly observed, astonishingly heartfelt debut combining a darkly funny takedown of online dating with an honest examination of the challenges women face every dayâbut donât dare discussâfrom a brilliant new voice in contemporary fiction.