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!

As the mother of a young-adult daughter, I had a difficult time reading The Trap. A plot concerning the abduction of women seems a bit too real, especially in the hands of Howard. She had me hooked from the first chapter when we meet Lucy, whose sister disappeared one night (the presumed victim of a serial killer) and who now ventures out alone at night hoping to attract the abductor. Told from different Points of View, including the killer's, The Trap moves a bit slowly after that opening but the end redeems this drag. If you liked Howard's The Nothing Man, and I did, then you will like The Trap.

What a wild ride this book was! It reminded me so much of INVISIBLE by JAMES PATTERSON and DAVID ELLIS. We get multiple storylines. One is of the detectives and the missing girls families. The other is of the kidnapper/killer. This made for such a fascinating read. It was creepy, and uncomfortable and I felt like I was reading an episode of criminal minds which was awesome. And the unexpected twist was an added bonus. Thank you so much netgalley and Librofm for the gifted copies of this one!

Lucy’s sister has been missing for a year. She’s one of three missing women that appear to have been taken by the same person and Lucy feels Nikki’s story isn’t told as much as the other’s because she was drinking when she went missing. Lucy is desperate to find answers about what happened to Nikki.

The story is told in the third person from Lucy’s perspective as well as a civilian staff member from the Missing Person’s Unit, Angela. We also get a first person perspective from the bad guy.

The story progresses fairly slowly. We get a lot of background and suspicious until the build up at the end where we finally get a few answers. I didn’t find the ending very satisfying though.

DO NOT GET IN THE CAR 🚘!! “The Trap” by Catherine Ryan Howard

BOOK REVIEW: 🖤🖤🖤🖤/5

One year ago, Nikki went out with friends to a pub one night and never came home. Nikki is the third young woman to disappear in Ireland within the last couple of years. Her sister Lucy refuses to move on with her life because the NOT KNOWING behind Nikki’s disappearance eats away at her daily. She NEEDS answers and decides to go over the police and take matters into her own hands. She will go to any length to dig up new information … even if that means going head to head with a faceless killer 😶‍🌫️

This book is inspired by a series of unsolved disappearances in Ireland in the 1990s. There are a ton of TWISTY turns that are full of suspense, tension and feelings of being TRAPPED!!! The story is told in multiple POVS including the inner workings of the killer’s mind … which gave me the downright CREEPS 🫣!!

Thank you kindly to @cathryanhoward @blackstonepublishing @netgalley for my advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review!! This book JUST released on August 1, 2023 and is ready for you grab NOW!!

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book grabs you from the start! You are on the hunt for a serial killer and this time it’s personal…. This time it’s your sister who was taken. I enjoyed this crazy twisted serial killer murder mystery. A unique format with the POV from the sister, the police and the actual killer. This book will keep you up all night!

Solid 5 stars!

I really enjoyed this book! The characters were well developed and the story was engaging. I recommend that others try this book as well. Well done!

Catherine Ryan Howard is a must read author for me and I was excited to read her newest book - The Trap - and devoured it in a day. However this one is really tough to review.

I’m glad I read it and think it was clever - there are definitely things I didn’t see coming. However there were also times when it dragged a bit for me and felt repetitive. Would I recommend it? Yes - if you’ve read and enjoyed the other CRH books - but if you haven’t read 56 Days or The Nothing Man yet, I would say read those first!

Thank you to the publisher, Netgalley and libro.fm for the free ebook and audiobook to review.

I came across this author's book 56 Days a couple of years ago and have fallen into her being an auto-read author for me. This one is no exception. What a fun ride of a story! Nikki is considered a missing person in Dublin and her sister, Lucy is desperate to find her. Lucy is frustrated with the lack of media attention to her sister's case, despite there now being several young women who have also gone missing from a similar area within a couple of year time span. The MO appears the same and the women have features in common. Lucy decides to make herself "bait" for the supposed serial killer/kidnapper. One night she has left a pub late at night after drinking some alcohol and finds herself walking on a deserted road alone near the area that is being searched for the missing women. When a man in a car stops alongside her to see if she is okay, she is uncertain whether this could be the guy and what she should do about it. Twists and turns ensue. This book was based on a true story of missing women that occurred in Ireland within a 7 year span.
I definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a thriller.
#TheTrap #BlackstonePublishing #Netgalley

Can't breathe whenever you're gone, can't turn back now - I'm haunted.

A friend asked if I liked this book and I didn't know how to respond. Not really. And yet - it had me gripped, up past my bedtime. I think it's well done. For sure among the better thrillers I've read this year. But did I like it? ... Do I recommend it? Definitely.

The less you know going in, the better, so I think I'll leave it there.

The audiobook narrators, Alana Kerr Collins and John Keating, were well cast. Collins was easy to follow along with and Keating's voice added to my reading experience (as did the author's note at the end).