Lucy’s sister has been missing for a year now. Frustrated with the lack of results from Operation Tide- set up to investigate the disappearance of three women and unable to live this life of not knowing, she decides that it is time for desperate measures.
Catherine Ryan Howard has established a new genre. I’m not just sure how to describe it; but it comprises outstanding storytelling skill, convincing characters, the ability to scare the daylights out of her readers and even to tell jokes in the midst of it and get away with it.
After a strong, chilling opening section the momentum of The Trap never falters, full of teasing and red herrings with a brain rattling pace. This read is, while thought-provoking, just riveting from first word to last.

Punchy, Pacy, Petrifying..
Punchy, pacy and petrifying suspense delivered with aplomb by the author. Inspired by a series of unsolved missing persons cases comes this tale of a woman prepared to use herself as bait to find a monster. Deftly drawn with an engaging and empathetic narrative throughout, credible and compelling and packed with chilling twists and turns, it paints a clear picture of devastation and despair. A heart stopping read.

I've enjoyed a couple of the author's previous novels so was looking forward to reading The Trap.
Catherine Ryan Howard writes an excellent thriller inspired by a series of unsolved disappearances of women in Ireland. It is an original, twisty and compelling novel with some interesting characters, I particularly liked the character of Angela, a civilian in the Missing Persons Unit. I did feel that the first half of the novel was better paced but the ending makes up for the slower pace of the second half.
Recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Catherine Ryan Howard never disappoints. The Trap is another tightly-plotted page-turner, extremely dark, with clever twists. I'm not going to give anything away about the plot, but this is must-read for all psychological thriller fans.

#TheTrap #NetGalley

This book was a typical Catherine Ryan Howard - which means it's a fantastic thriller, well plotted and with very real characters. There are a few different voices to get used to but each of them adds something. Denise and Angela were definitely my favourites, both people you can imagine working with in real life. It's very clever, to the point where I had to go back near the end, thinking I'd missed something. Completely engrossing, and with that heart wrenching knowledge that its all too real a situation.

'The Trap' is a return to form for Catherine Ryan Howard, who brought us 'The Nothing Man'. I loved the premise. This author's writing is compulsively readable and hard to put down. I liked hearing the story from different perspectives and found some of the commentary extremely topical and interesting, e.g. Who is a newsworthy victim? I also loved the wee meta reference to herself and 'The Nothing Man'. And I think it might finally be time for me to watch Jurassic Park…

The Trap is a thrilling new mystery by Catherine Ryan Howard, an unsettling and very real look at the grief and heartache that the families of loved ones who go missing suffer. It’s inspired by a series of disappearances in Ireland in the 90s that still remain unsolved, giving the story a gritty and raw feel that will keep you wanting to turn the page.

Lucy has been searching for over a year for her sister Nicki who never came home. She finds her life in limbo, not able to move forward without knowing what happened to her. She feels the task force set up to investigate the disappearances of several women, including Nicki, is not doing enough. It’s for this reason that Lucy decides to take matters into her own hands by offering herself as bait in an attempt to try and catch the man who took her sister.

There are multiple points of view in this book, while Lucy is the main character who drives the story we also hear directly from the kidnapper which is chilling. The plot twists were satisfying and caught me unawares, making this a thriller I would recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK for this ARC.

Firstly, thank you to Netgallery, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and Catherine Ryan Howard for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Catherine Ryan Howard is the queen of thrillers! I’ve read all her books so I was ecstatic about getting my hands on her latest one! Wow what can I say this book was amazing, it was a fast paced and kept me guessing throughout a perfect book for psychological thrillers fans alike! The ending wow and I did not see it coming!

Overall I throughly enjoyed this book and all the plot twists that it presented! Catherine Ryan Howard definitely should be on everyones shelf!

Ive read one of this authors books before and did not finish it, so I thought I’d try another one thinking it was the story. Unfortunately, I’ve realised that I’m just not a fan of her style of writing. It didn’t grab me or make me desperate to find out what was going on, which is a shame as I liked the blurb as it sounded very different. I can see from other reviews that I’m in the minority, so if you’ve read and like her books before then I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Stranded on a dark road in the middle of the night, a young woman accepts a lift from a passing stranger. It's the nightmare scenario that every girl is warned about, and she knows the dangers all too well - but what other choice does she have?

But when he delivers her safely to her destination, she realises her fears were unfounded. And her heart sinks. Because a monster is what she's looking for.

She'll try again tomorrow night. But will the man who took her sister take the bait?

The Trap was an ingeniously plotted thriller that moves between several POVs. I especially enjoyed the ‘voice’ Angela, a civilian member of Garda staff in the Missing Persons Unit who is drafted in to help investigate a number of disappearances of young women.

It’s rare nowadays that I finish a book in a day, but I devoured The Trap. That said, I found the ending abrupt and the realisation of what had happened to the women was depressingly grim.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

For a lot of the book, I felt I wasn't quite getting what (I thought) the blurb sold me.
Non the less, it was interesting enough to keep going.
Some great ideas, and good thinking for some characters.
A little bit you slow at times for me to get fully invested.
The ending brings it all together well, and I was pleasantly surprised by that.

The Trap
Catherine Ryan Howard
Publication date: 1st August 2023

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks a mil to Netgalley and author Catherine Ryan Howard for an advanced reading copy of 'The Trap' due to be released later this year - 1st August 2023, in exchange for my honest review.

I've loved all of Catherines other books so I was delighted to hear she had another one coming out and even happier to get approved an ARC copy. It moved right to the top of my 'to be read' list and as expected it did not disappoint.

I really love Catherines writing style, its really engaging and well paced and her plots are always so clever and original. This one centres on the cases of missing girls in Ireland, told in multiple POV's - one being the abductor (which was really quite chilling) - it just flows seamlessly though and reads really well. Having read many many thrillers, I can often suss out the ending early enough but this one really got me. It was fast paced, tense and full of surprises. Plenty of edge of the seat, jaw dropping moments for sure, Had me hooked from the very first page. The ending was the only teeny thing I had an issue with - its a minor thing but I, personally, just would have liked a bit more of a resolution at the end. Without saying too much as I dont want to spoil it for anyone, I just thought the very end didnt give us an answer and left me wanting just one more closing chapter to complete the story. I would have loved if the ending had told us if **spoiler alert** Lucy was ever found. That being said, thats just a personal preferance, I know many people love a book being left on a bit of a cliffhanger where they can come up with their own possible endings/scenarios. It didnt take from the book in any way, I was thouroughly hooked from beginning to end. A very enjoyable read and one I will definately be recommending. Get pre ordering folks - you wont be disappointed.

A well deserving 4 stars
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The Nothing Man is up there as possibly my favourite crime thriller of all time so anytime Catherine Ryan Howard releases a new book I'm first in line with my preorder. You can imagine my excitement then when I received an arc of her latest novel The Trap on netgalley.

Inspired by real events known as the Vanishing Triangle cases during the 90s in which a number of young women in Ireland suddenly and inexplicably disappeared and that to this day remains unsolved, The Trap is a fictional story following Lucy who is desperate to find out what happened to her sister Nicki - one of several young women to have gone missing.

On starting this I was slightly worried it wasn't going to be for me. It's a bit of a slow burn with a large cast of characters to keep track of. But I needn't have doubted Catherine's ability to draw me in as before I knew it, I was hooked and couldn't put the book down, desperate to find out what would happen and how things would pan out.

I think the reason Catherine Ryan Howard is such a stand out writer for me is how completely original her ideas are. Each book of hers, while similar in genre, is so clever, creative and unique. I've been left thinking about the ending for days after!

If you're a big fan of CRH, you'll take great enjoyment in spotting Easter eggs to her other books sprinkled in along with nods to some of her personal interests (don't ask me how she managed to get Everest expeditions and Jurassic Park into a crime novel, but she did - and seamlessly at that!).

I can't say much more as I don't want to give anything away so apologies for the vagueness of the review. I'll be dying to have the chats with everyone about this in August once it's been released!

Gripping, compelling and one that will leave you wanting more. 4.5 stars!

Huge thanks to @netgalley @bantambooksuk @penguinrandomhouse for the advanced copy of this one. As always this is an honest review!

The Trap begins with a truly nail-biting chapter which ends in a great sigh of relief. It's the highlight of the book which has so many POVs and such a wandering path to get to the end that I struggled to keep invested in the fate of the victims. So many characters to keep a finger on – Lucy, who came across as quite unhinged at times; Angela, who plodded along valiantly; Denise, who had the potential to be a strong interesting character but who, with a few exceptions, was mostly seen through someone else's eyes; and Nicki, who was shoehorned in near the end with an extended explanatory section which came out of the blue.
Added to these were the names of the missing girls, the names of their parents ,a few peripheral characters and, in the end, it all got a bit too difficult to keep track of them.
There is an excellent twist at the end but, overall, the plot needed tightening with perhaps a bit more detail along the way and a bit less inner rumination which became a bit repetitive.
I voluntarily read an ARC of this book and all opinions are my own.

I enjoyed the first half of this book more than the second which felt long and lacked some of the pace of the beginning. I almost gave up at one point as the various different plot lines were confusing me and it felt like a bit of a trial to try and get somewhere with it. I persevered and overall am glad I read it, but it’s definitely a marathon of a book rather than a sprint.

This was the lerfect book for a true crime lover like myself. The book starts off with a bang and the tension is just unbearable! The pace does slow down as the book goes on but it picks up again and once I was invested, I loved every second. Bit of a slow burn but definitely worth giving it a chance to get going. It's written from multiple povs and is a really easy book to follow. The characters were well written and the twist at the end was absolutely not what I expected!!

What a gripping mystery/thriller.

This was a very disturbing but good read.

Thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish and could not get enough of.

This is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good thriller!!

Stranded a young woman accepts a lift from a passing stranger,its the scenario every girl is warned about,and she knows the dangers all to well,but she has no other choice.
As they drive she alternates between fear and relief thinking his a good man one minute to his a monster the next.
But when he delivers her safely to her destination she realises her fears are unfounded.
But that's not what she wants Because a MONSTER is what she's looking for.
She knows she'll try again but will the man who took her sister take the bait?
This book is inspired by a series of still unsolved disappearances.
My third book by this author, it took me awhile to get into the story but once I did I raced through it,the ending was not what I was expecting
Another winner from Catherine Ryan Howard, Recommended.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for the ARC.

This is the third book that I've read by Catherine Ryan Howard and I have to say, I really enjoy the way that she writes.
Angela's perspective was easily my favourite because of this.
I liked the pace of The Trap and the changing of perspectives between Lucy (and Nicki to a degree), the man who is responsible and those trying to track them down.
I wasn't expecting how it ended and the final twist but I would have liked a tiny bit more resolution from the ending. Even a short epilogue from Denise's perspective would have been great to find out if *spoiler alert* Lucy is ever found.
We also don't find out what happened with Tana either. Was she in Caroline's garden/was Caroline responsible? It would have been nice to have some clarification on that.
It truly hurt seeing Lucy get into his car too. I get how difficult it must have been trying to find out what happened to Nicki but it just felt so unbelievably reckless and stupid that it severed a bit of a connection between me and Lucy.
But I still enjoyed this overall and it held my attention the whole way through.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I felt like I couldn't breathe through the opening chapter....there was so much tension and the threat of danger, I really felt like I was there....in the scene.

The book is told from a few POV's, even one from the killer which was quite chilling. Another POV was kind of mysterious because you didn't know who the speaker was.

The book is well written and well paced, a bit slow in some places, but then other chapters made up for that. There are quite a few twists that I didn't see coming at all! The ending is not one wrapped up all neatly with a bow, which is what I usually prefer, but the author doesn't leave you hanging either.

I chuckled so much in the scene with Angela and the carrots....there were quite a few scenes I laughed at or found so relatable, I really enjoyed the writing. I'd recommend The Trap👌🏼