The Snap

In Staple’s nimble first book, a PR director for a professional football team reckons with her role as enabler of toxic behavior after the head coach is found dead. Poppy Benjamin has spent the past 15 years with the Syracuse Bobcats, burnishing their image and occasionally preventing players’ indiscretions from making headlines. After coach Red Guillory dies in his home, the police open an investigation. Then, Poppy and four fellow female sports executives who jokingly call themselves WAGS (Women against Groping in Sports) discover they’ve each recently received the same anonymous note, warning that they have five days to fess up to some unspecified misdeed. As Poppy learns more about how Red died, she confronts decisions she and the other WAGS made on their way to the top that may have put other women in danger of being sexually abused. Some of the police procedural elements feel thin, but Staple’s love of football and unflinching look at its dark side are both colorful and credible. It’s a worthy addition to the fiction inspired by #MeToo. Agent: Andrea Somberg, Harvey Klinger. (Aug.)