Lucy's sister, Nikki, went missing over a year ago. She was at a bar with friends and then just...disappeared. Nikki joined a growing list of women in Dublin who have vanished without a trace.

Reeling with grief and perhaps, a little guilt, Lucy spends her nights trying to trap a killer or kidnapper, and her days working with other families who have lost their daughters, mothers, and friends.

While The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard was a fast-paced thriller with a twist at every turn, I felt that there was some disconnect between all of the storylines. I didn't care about Angels and Detective Pope, despite their work with the Missing Persons Unit. That could be it's own book/series. The missing sister is the more interesting of the storylines and the....TWIST took that storyline into another atmosphere.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I don't really like summarizing thrillers, because I personally enjoy going into them blind so much more than knowing the outline of the story in advance. So I'll skip the summary here and just say that this one was a GREAT time! Like all Catherine Ryan Howard books, the pace is lightning-fast and I didn't want to put it down at all. I had no clue who the killer was until it was revealed, pretty much suspecting every single character in the book at one point or another. There's one twist in particular at the end that knocked me flat because I did NOT see it coming!! An all-around good time and one heck of a single-sitting summer read. Highly recommend it!

Thank you to Catherine Ryan Howard, Blackstone Publishing, and NetGalley for my advance digital copy.

Over the last several years, at least three women have gone missing from Dublin and the surrounding area. Lucy’s sister Nicki is one of those women who disappeared without a trace, and even with a task force, the police don’t seem to be making much headway into solving the case. Frustrated by the lack of progress, Lucy decides to do whatever it takes to find out what happened to Nicki, even if she finds herself in grave danger.

Wow!! This is my first Catherine Ryan Howard novel, but it definitely won’t be my last! I devoured this taut, twisty thriller. The narrative uses multiple POVs to great effect, giving us not just Lucy as a main character, but also Angela (an ambitious civilian in the Missing Persons Unit), and best of all, the perpetrator. All of the perspectives are great, but his sections are the very best – dark, chilling, and sociopathic. So creepy, but I couldn’t get enough! I read so many thrillers that it’s hard to feel surprised, so believe me when I say The Trap is an unputdownable, heart-pounding, genuinely thrilling entry into this crowded genre. The plot is perfectly paced and so clever, delivering a truly shocking twist that I can honestly say I never saw coming but made brilliant sense once it was revealed.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for providing me an advance copy of this book and giving me the opportunity to discover this talented author! I can’t wait to dig into CRH’s backlog – 56 Days and The Nothing Man are going on my TBR list immediately!

3.5 stars

I really enjoyed this thriller set in Ireland right up until about the 90% mark. At that point, I really struggled to keep going.

I’m a huge fan of Catherine Ryan Howard’s writing, and even though this one missed the mark for me, I’ll continue to read her books.

This may be a winner for you, though, so if it sounds interesting, give it a whirl.

My thanks to @blackstonepublishing and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book before its publication date.

While reading The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard, it took me on a dark and twisty ride, that took you on the hunt for a lost sister and into the mind of a serial killer. This book is told from multiple view points: Lucy who is looking for her missing sister Nicki and will stop at nothing to get the answers she needs in regard to her disappearance; Angela, who works in the Missing Persons Unit, but feels that something isn't adding up in the case of the three missing women; and a mysterious man, driving down the dark roads, with a story to tell. This book will have you drawn in from the first pages, until the end. You may think you know the story of how these women went missing, but read The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard and you will see just how wrong you were.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free copy of The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard in exchange for honest review.

Solid thriller but not as good as her last book. I felt like the ending was lacking. Still a good read if you like serial killer thrillers. I did like how the author really let the reader see inside the killer's head.

This book was a slow start for me. I would recommend it to her fans, but it wasn’t a personal favorite.

Different points of views in this thriller and one is the killer!
This was such a fast paced, oh my goodness, can’t put down read! All the elements of a good psychological thriller.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a really great read. She is a master storyteller. This was one of my favorite books by her. I love the setting and characters.

Such a great thriller. I honestly couldn't put it down. The characters were crisp and smartly written. Loved it.

Wow! Such a twisted ending to a great story. I didn’t see any of it coming until it ran
Me over. 5/5.

On a positive note, I did enjoy the overall style of writing and tone of “The Trap”. Other than that, not much else. I found that the transitions between the narrators were very confusing, and at one point, which I can only hope was a mistake, the narrator switched without even a chapter break, and really threw me for a loop. Granted, I don’t know anything about Ireland, but the premise of putting yourself outside at night, wandering around, hoping that the same person who kidnapped your sister will kidnap you, and that you can then save the day, seems a bit implausible. Without giving any spoilers, I completely did not understand the way it ended. I turned the page expecting for the story to continue to a tidy ending, and there was the author’s notes. The book seemed interminably long and drawn out to me, and I will not be reading this author again. Sadly, because I really wanted to enjoy this book. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of this book.

👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻

Everyone who loves the mystery and thriller genre needs to be reading Catherine Ryan Howard. Full stop.

My friend gifted me Howard's The Nothing Man a few years ago and I loved it. Since then, I've been keen to get my hands on anything Howard writes. I don't want to give anything away here, but this novel is an addictive read that finds us racing against the clock to (hopefully) find missing women who have "fallen off the face of the Earth" in Ireland. What Howard does so well in this novel is that she gives us a compulsive page turner while also sketching out the realities of these sorts of crimes, not just in Ireland but the world. How women live with fear versus how men most often live with impunity; how a woman's fear of insulting a man often takes precedence over her self-preservation; how hard it is to know when a woman is missing or how long she's been missing or if she's left of her own free will or . . . the thousand other complications that makes these cases so hard to close.

And the end of the novel really got me. Even when I knew something was a bit off, I still didn't put things together. So good on you, Catherine Ryan Howard.

But really, if you haven't read Howard yet, you should. Just be sure you have a clear calendar once you get started on this one!

Catherine Ryan Howard strikes again! This was such a fun read. While it didn't do anything groundbreaking, it still did the most. I believe Howard could have tried to make this a little more far-fetched and it would not have the same fun factor it does now. She ended it perfectly, there's the right amount of thrill, and the story keeps you engaged.

Women have been going missing, including Lucy's sister Nicki. Lucy becomes tired of the police failing to find her sister for the past year, or get any leads on the man that is taking these women, so she tries to find a way to get Nicki's name in the news and move the investigation forward.
I've read a few books by Catherine Ryan Howard and they are usually hit or miss with me. I really liked the concept of this book, the beginning was really strong for me, then the middle started to drag, and I was furious with the ending. I liked the writing style and the fact that it went to different character's POV's, but this is the first book in a long time that I hated an ending so much that I regretted reading the book. I loved her other books like The Nothing Man and Rewind, but this was a huge miss for me. There was no closure for any of the characters and it seemed like the author didn't know how she planned to finish the book so she threw in a weak twist and ended it prematurely. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was non stop from the very first page. Catherine Ryan Howard has a very intriguing writing style that’ll have you hooked.

This story follows several unsolved disappearances in Ireland in the 90’s and a young woman is doing everything she can to find the killer.

Honestly, I think the best way to read this is to go in blind! I devoured this book. I loved the setting of the story and the different POV’s we follow throughout. I wasn’t expecting the twist towards the end and I just stared at the wall after reading.

If you’re looking for a twisty thriller that’ll keep you up reading late into the night, then I highly recommend picking this one up on August 1st!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Blackstone for the e-arc!

I absolutely loved Run Time and was excited for The Trap. I really tried but the story didn’t grab me and I struggled to get through this.
Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for a fair review.

One year ago Lucy’s sister Nicki goes missing. She’s not the only one who’s gone missing in the area. However, Lucy feels that her sister’s case isn’t getting enough focus from the police or as much coverage as the others. So she sets out to set a trap to catch the killer and find her sister by doing the one thing your parents warned you about doing as a woman.

I really wanted to love this one especially since I loved 𝑹𝒖𝒏 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆 last year when I read it. I’ve got to say though I was a bit disappointed. It started off pretty strong at the beginning but it became pretty apparent that there’s just too many povs. There was also a little too much going on with this one. That being said I did like that we had the killers pov even though it did make it this one darker. So make sure you check the triggers before reading it.

Even though this one was a bit of a let down for me. I do look forward to reading more by this author. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an arc to review for an honest opinion.

My favorite thriller read of late! This gripped me from the first page and never let go!

I love that Howard always uses Irish settings and had some loose inspiration from “the Vanishing triangle” cases in Dublin.

The multiple perspectives ( including chapters from the kidnapper) were great at building tension at a steady pace.

This was a very clever take on the missing girl trope, with twists that were unique and unpredictable.

My first reaction after reading this was - " what did I just read?". There was a twist I didn't expect at all that literally turned the entire plot upside down. Leaving aside that twist, this was about an intense hunt for a serial killer by Lucy whose sister, Nicki has been missing for over a year. There were few other missing cases in the area that all had common patterns and Irish guard, Denise and an aspiring guard, Angela are actively trying to investigate these cases. We also get a POV of a man who knows about every small thing in the case but will only reveal slowly at his own pace. It kept me hooked all the way due to the intrigue and tone that it set straight away. The extent to which Lucy goes to get answers is beyond crazy as she puts herself in dangerous situations day by day and every time as a reader, I couldn't stop screaming why is he being so reckless and stupid. Definitely, an engaging read!