I am a fan of Catherine Ryan Howard and have really enjoyed her thrillers, particularly The Liar’s Girl and The Nothing Man. However, for some reason, this novel fell somewhat flat for me. The premise is an interesting one: women have been disappearing and the sister of one of them is determined to find out what happened, so much so that she sets herself up as bait to try to help catch the perpetrator. There were many characters to keep track of, and I felt that this read as a true crime synopsis instead of a novel. It was also pretty slow moving at times, which is quite different from the other books by Howard that I have read. All in all, however, it was a good read, and I look forward to reading more by Howard.

I love a great thriller so I knew I had to read this one.

Although I felt that there was "fluff" in the book that wasn't necessary, and almost felt like filler at times, I still enjoyed the read, and would definitely add this to my bookshelf.

Wow…this was a thrilling ride. Twists, turns, and an ending that was so unexpected. I loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The Trap is the latest release from beloved Irish author, Catherine Ryan Howard. I was so excited for this novel and happily, ended up really enjoying it. Admittedly, I did reread about 40% of it, due to slight confusion with perspective shifts, but I was definitely invested in the story nevertheless.

The Trap is inspired by the real-life cases of missing women in Ireland in the late 1980s-early 1990s. If you are curious about these events, prior to picking up the novel, I would recommend a google search for Ireland's Vanishing Triangle. Additionally, if you do decide to pick this one up, which I absolutely recommend if you are a fan of Crime Fiction, be sure to read the Author's Note at the end where she discusses her motivations for writing this story.

The Trap is told via a few different perspectives. I enjoyed them all and felt each of the main characters brought some intrigue and feeling to the table. I particularly enjoyed that we got the perspective of the criminal. That was disturbing.

One of the perspectives is Lucy, whose sister, Nicki, has been missing for a year; disappearing after a night out with friends. I felt like Lucy really took center stage in bringing all aspects of this story together. We also get the perspective of a woman working in a civilian capacity for the police force investigating the disappearances, and as mentioned above, the baddie.

It does shift a lot and if you aren't paying close enough attention, to people mentioned, as well as the timeline, it can be easy for it to get a little muddled. I came to a point, about 65% of the way through, where there was a reveal and I was like, who is this person?

Needless to say, I learned my lesson and went back and reread. It certainly made that reveal much more impactful and honestly, I was enjoying it so much that I didn't mind at all. It helped to reiterate the facts of the story for me and I am glad I took the time to do that.

This is only the second book I have read from this author, but I am excited to read more. Incidentally, the other was Run Time, which I thought was so good. I feel like Ryan Howard has a knack for examining the darker side of humanity with her stories and that's what I am here for when I pick up a book. I love the atmosphere she creates as well. Her stories definitely have ominous vibes.

This got me in the end. I loved how it sort of flipped the script on how I was expecting it to end. I thought it was so well-plotted, particularly in that regard.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Blackstone Publishing, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I think a lot of Thriller Readers are going to really enjoy this. I'm definitely going to start exploring some of Catherine Ryan Howard's backlist. I think we are going to have a long and beautiful friendship...

The Trap was my second Catherine Ryan Howard book, and it didn't disappoint. I was hooked in right from the very intense first chapter!

Lucy is desperate to find her sister Nicki who’s been missing for over a year. Little has been done to locate her or the other missing women from the Dublin area. She engages in some very high risk behavior in her search for information. She then decides to meet with a journalist who convinces her to be interviewed by a top tv reporter and gives a shockingly truthful but brazen interview & that ends up drawing the killer closer…just as she intended to do.

There are multiple POV’s. The most unsettling is from the killer himself. My favorite was from Angela, who works with law enforcement & is trying to become a Gaurd.

This book kept me captivated from beginning to end. I could hardly put it down. I will definitely be reaching for more from this author in the near future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the advanced copy of this book.

Ohhhh! Loved this one! So well written with amazing twists and a haunting ending.

Pros:
The three different points of view including the "bad guy"
Short chapters
Fast-paced, didn't want to put this one down
a well-developed mystery
strong main character

Negatives:
An open-ending

Well worth the read. A great, twisty thriller!

Catherine Ryan Howard's "The Trap" is a masterfully crafted mystery that will leave you on the edge of your seat from the very first page. With an intricate plot inspired by real-life unsolved disappearances in 1990s Ireland, this internationally bestselling crime novel is a thrilling journey into the depths of suspense and intrigue.

Told from multiple points of view, The Trap explores the circumstances of three missing women in Dublin and the people who are resolved to find them and/or decipher the mystery of their disappearance. There is Lucy, the sister of Nikki, who had gone missing the year before and whose life is on hold, unraveling with the unknowing. There is Angela, a civilian working in the Missing Persons Unit who hasn't yet passed her physical but is determined to prove her worth, and, unexpectedly, the killer himself, who shares their history of urges and crimes. Though I found the premise and the individual stories intriguing, as the story unfolded and the twists were revealed, it felt like the story fell apart with the decisions and behaviors of the characters not making much sense at all. I had a lot of fun with and quite enjoyed Run Time and 56 Days by this same author, but I'm not so much a fan of this title.

This is what good thrillers are made of: short chapters, just enough characters to throw you off but not too many that you can’t keep track, multiple POVs, and of course….missing girls.
The Trap is nothing less than a fun to read, entertaining thriller! It’s suspenseful and engaging and just an overall well done suspense novel. I also like that the author based on some real life unsolved missing persons cases. Make sure to read the author’s note!

The Trap is a gripping thriller novel loosely based on still-unsolved disappearances in Ireland in the 90s. It mainly follows Lucy, the sister of one of the missing girls, Angela, a civilian working in the Missing Persons’ Unit, and the kidnapper himself.

I was absolutely hooked on this book just from reading the synopsis, and then once I started the book I couldn’t put it down. It is such a fast paced read with short chapters that keep you invested, and I will recommend this book to everyone who loves thrillers. I love that it’s loosely based on actual events and the author has a love of true crime that is part of the reason she writes, to give a solution to what she sees in the papers. I highly, highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a gripping thriller and is a fan of true crime!

4.5 stars
Catherine Ryan Howard has done it again! This was a well crafted mystery/crime novel. Women are disappearing. What’s going on? I loved the Easter eggs from her previous books! I don’t want to say too much as there are some jaw dropping twists in this book that are best experiencing without spoilers. My only comment is that having the same narrator throughout made the plot a bit more difficult to follow. I do love Aoife though!
*Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the advance review copy

The first chapter had me hooked. I felt like I was experiencing the opening scene to a scary movie and I couldn't put it down.
There are going to be spoilers in my review because the ending was the worst part and it is so frustrating! I am 100% someone who needs the ending to tie up the story- whether it be a happy ending or not. This one left me wanting know what happened to Lucy?! I will assume that based on what the villain said toward the end about him not having returned to the pink house, means she was also left there to die (apparently in his mind that means he didn't kill them?! SMH). This ending does not ruin the book for me though. I still very much enjoyed it- but it took away a star!

I REALLY liked the tie back to the first part of the book at the very end!! Throughout the book I was thinking "when is Lucy going to go on another late night hitchhiking excursion that she says she always does? She never tries in the whole rest of the book!" and then to find that the author was actually writing in the perspective of Nickie, it finally made sense. Nickie is an awful sister. I don't care how hard of a time she had in her life, to leave her sister without letting her know she was okay is just cruel.

The reader has to suspend their belief that of all the similar disappearances, there were actually THREE different causes. It's okay though, because it is a fun ride to the end.

Thank you to the publisher for this ARC!

I received a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It’s SO hard to talk about this without spoilers, but I’ll give it my best shot! Suffice it to say, this one has an excellent twist that I did not see coming.

One year ago, Lucy’s sister Nicki went missing. She was out with friends, they got separated after leaving a pub, and no one saw or heard from her again. In the intervening year, Lucy has been wracked with guilt, and doing everything she can to draw attention to Nicki’s disappearance. She’s one of a few women in the area who went missing, but because she was young, and drinking, and dressed for a night out…she hasn’t gotten much attention. The police have put together a task force (inexplicably called Operation Tides), which only came together once a cute 17 year old was ostensibly abducted while walking her dog. Lucy and the other families occasionally meet to share information, but it’s clear the police only care about the young girl, not the drunk 20-something or the 30-something divorcee. Lucy grows increasingly desperate and makes a deal with a smarmy reporter to get Nicki’s story back in front of the public eye.

In the midst of this, we also have Angela, a civilian who works in the Missing Persons Unit. Angela would love to be an actual Guard, but she failed the physical test, so she’s stuck riding a desk. When a woman brings in a purse she’d found at a charity shop, there seems to finally be a break in the Operation Tides case – except the ID in the purse doesn’t match to any of the 3 missing women Tides is investigating. This means there could be more victims than previously suspected. Angela teams up with Denise, an actual detective (although I don’t think she’s part of Tides) to continue investigating. Denise is convinced that Tides is all BS, and although someone might be kidnapping Irish women, these 3 are almost certainly not victims of the same attacker.

Finally, we get a few intercalary chapters from a man (in first person) explaining himself to someone he has clearly just abducted. So…we’re hearing from the killer, essentially. But we don’t know who he is, OR who he’s talking to. There are also a few chapters from an unnamed woman who seems to be held…somewhere, under someone’s strict control. We don’t know who she is either. The circle around all 4 of these narratives keeps drawing closer and closer until the threads all FINALLY come together.

This was highly enjoyable. It all hangs together really well in the end, although there are times when it seems like we’re in a few different stories at once. I don’t normally enjoy hearing from the killers (that’s becoming more of a thing in mysteries lately, I feel like), but it’s used pretty sparingly here, and it works. Kind of like Riley Sager, Howard’s books always have a sort of last minute rug pull, and this one is no exception (there are a few of them, actually). It’s weird to say a book featuring narration from a serial killer is fun…but this was enormously entertaining.

The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard

*some spoilers in my review portion, proceed with caution*

Thank you to @blackstonepublishing, @netgalley, and the author, @catherineryanhoward, for the opportunity to read this #eARC in exchange for my #honestbookreview! This book is currently available for preorder and will be out July 31.

Lucy’s sister , Nicki, disappeared a year ago and she has spent the time since spiraling into a dark place. Her sister is the third Irish woman to disappear in three years and it certainly seems like police are not prioritizing solving the disappearances or locating the women. So she decides to take matters into her own hands. She wants to learn the truth even if it means trading in her freedom.

This book took some time to unpack for me emotionally. At first, I was incredibly frustrated by the ending because it doesn’t really give you any closure. But that’s really the whole point, right? For the families of those that go missing there is sadly generally no closure at all. I was so frustrated with her sister but that really doesn’t excuse Lucy’s incredibly reckless behavior. This is an exercise in what people do when they’re pushed too far - you bend until you snap. I recommend for fans for true crime.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 4/5

This is such a captivating psychological thriller. I was hooked from the beginning. This is my third book by her, and definitely my favorite so far. And that open ending was *chefs kiss* definitely an auto buy author!!

You know what made being stuck in an airport for six hours so much better? The fact that I had access to the @NetGalley ARC of Catherine Ryan Howard’s latest novel, The Trap. (And, lucky for you, I’m slightly late reading and reviewing this one, so it’s currently available!)

Listen, her best novel is The Nothing Man. This is not The Nothing Man. If you are expecting The Nothing Man, you are going to be disappointed. So go into this without that expectation so that you can get sucked into this twisty turvy novel about a string of missing women in Ireland. (It is in the same universe as The Nothing Man, though!)

What this book does really well: Howard presents an absolutely terrifying first chapter that sucked me into the story. If you’re a woman who has ever had to walk in the dark alone, it plays upon all of your fears. Additionally, the chapters from the killer’s perspective were beyond creepy. I also liked the ending, but I can see some people not liking it at all. (And that’s all I’ll say on that so as not to spoil the entire book.)

Things that didn’t work for me: Overall, I thought that the plot was a bit slow moving, especially given the plot was about missing women and there should be an urgency inherent in that. I also thought that sometimes the changing perspectives were a bit confusing—mainly because they weren’t labeled in any way—so it took me awhile to find my sea legs with this novel. Once I did, I still had moments where I had to reference back and reread before things clicked.

I don’t think I’ve read a book so obviously padded with unnecessary filler material before. This shouldn’t have been a novel–it should’ve been a novella. There wasn’t enough story here to make a novel and it shows.

This book is filled with multiple POVs, and that’s fine, but there’s one POV that doesn’t fit and is so poorly written I ended up skipping every instance when it occurred after the first few times because it came across as evil villain monologuing. It was cheesy and that was where most of the filler sat.

As for the rest of the book? It was messy. It was unorganized. It felt like something that landed in a slush pile and I don’t know how any editor let it get this far. I don’t recommend it at all.

A copy of this title was provided by NetGalley and the author. Any thoughts, opinions, ideas, and views expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. Personal policy dictates that since this title has earned a rating of three stars or below the review will not appear on social media or any bookseller websites.

The Trap grabbed me from the beginning. Lucy cannot let her sister’s disappearance go. She is obsessed to the point of trying to find the man she is sure took her. Her disappearance is being linked to other women in the area. As the story unfolds, the way the disappearances are linked, and not linked, is fastenating and keeps you on your toes. The story is told from three POVs-the sister, a civilian in the Missing Persons Unit, and a serial killer. Underneath, the fact of missing women being ranked and judged sometimes too closely mirrors society and how much people decide if victims deserved what they got.

A year ago, Lucy’s sister, Nicki, went missing when she went to meet her friends. With three Irish women mysteriously missing, Nicki one of the, Lucy can’t stay sane – her life is a nightmare. She is determined to take things into her own hands despite law enforcements advise not to.

Angela is a want to be Irish police office, but until she can pass the test, she is a glorified paper pusher. When evidence of one of the disappearances lands on her desk, she thinks this is what will blow the case wide open.

With both women trying to solve this case, its bound to be solved. Will they figure these cases out before more women go missing?

I recently read one of the author’s previous books and was really impressed with it. I love books set in Ireland and this one did not disappoint in that regard. Overall, I have mixed feelings about this book. It was fast paced and had several really good twists, but the ending left me…disappointed. The ending felt a little rushed and discombobulated with the final twist coming out of left field. I still highly recommend this one, especially if you enjoyed the author’s previous work. I also prefer it when chapters are labeled with whose point of view we are reading. I feel that makes for a much smoother read and it is easier for me to follow. Overall, I do think it is a worthwhile and fun read and would recommend it.

If you are looking for a fast-paced thriller with some interesting twists, then I hope you check this one out August 1st.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing, @blackstonepublishing, and Netgalley, @netgalley, for this e-arc in exchange for this honest review.

I was intrigued by this twisty thriller from the beginning -- the multiple narrators made the chapters move quickly and I didn't want to put it down!

The book begins with Lucy searching for the person who took her sister over a year ago. Her disappearance has been linked to the disappearance of a few other women, and Lucy hopes she can entice the abductor by walking around the streets at night.

One of the narrators of the story is the abductor, and it is very interesting to get that inside look at what motivates him - and it was very creepy and unsettling!

This was my second book by Catherine Ryan Howard and I really like her writing. I will definitely be reading more by her - this one had me interested the whole time and left me guessing.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!