by Catherine Ryan Howard
SYNOPSIS
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?
As they drive, she alternates between fear and relief - one moment thinking he is just a good man doing a good thing, the next convinced he's a monster. But when he delivers her safely to her destination, she realizes 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?
Inspired by a series of still-unsolved disappearances, The Trap is the startlingly original new thriller from internationally bestselling author Catherine Ryan Howard.
REVIEW
The very first line in The Trap was all it took for me to know that I was going to love this book. "She'd been out-out, and town had been busy." This turn of phrase, in addition to other contemporary references like Jurassic Park and Dexter, proved to me that this is an author who is on the exact same wavelength as me. I should have known really - her previous book Run Time was just perfection for a lifelong horror film fan like myself, and now in The Trap, she focuses on unsolved missing persons cases, with a hint of true-crime, which is another trope that I love.
The structure of the book was brilliant at getting the story across from three different perspectives - Lucy, the sister of one of the missing girls, Angela, who works in the Missing Persons Unit alongside the Garda Police, and finally the unnamed kidnapper, giving a unique insight and providing answers to the questions that both Lucy and Angela are desperately trying to solve.
I am such a big fan of meta elements in a story, so it was a lovely surprise to see that used here. If you are a fan of The Nothing Man then this will make sense to you! I think that the way this was worked in so seamlessly just reinforces the cleverness of the plot.
I've said a few times in reviews this year that I've found books addictive or impossible to put down, but honestly The Trap wins hands down. This really was one of those books that I just powered through, I forgot that I was even reading a fictional story and then finished before realising I was reaching the end. There are some absolutely killer twists but I don't want to give anything about the plot away so I'll leave it at that. A creepy, clever and topical story that you will be disappointed to finish reading - another big hit from Catherine Ryan Howard.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CATHERINE RYAN HOWARD is an internationally bestselling author from Cork, Ireland. Her work has been shortlisted for the CWA's John Creasey New Blood and Ian Fleming Steel Dagger awards, and in 2019 her novel THE LIAR'S GIRL was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. THE NOTHING MAN was a no. 1 bestseller in her native Ireland. She currently lives in Dublin, where she divides her time between the desk and the sofa.
Thanks to Random Things Tours - @RandomTTours, Catherine Ryan Howard @cathryanhoward and Transworld Books - @TransworldBooks for the opportunity to read and review.
Publisher: Bantam Press - Transworld Books Genre: Thriller
ISBN: 978-1787636606
Pages: 320pp
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