Overall, this book was ok. I found it a bit convuluted. It used zig-zags as a way to shock the reader. The characters were not fully drawn out which made it difficult for me to be invested in what happened to them and to care about them in any way. Overall, the characters are not likeable and very thinly sketched out.

I really enjoyed Howard's 56 Days, but The Trap is even better. Full of twists and turns that I didn't see coming, especially the one at the end! That twist made a book I was loving even better.

It's hard to talk about The Trap without giving spoilers. The short version is Lucy's sister Nicki has gone missing and she is trying to find her. She does this by setting herself up to be "kidnapped" to find the person who kidnapped Nicki. Between Lucy's narrations you get pov's from the unsub and a victim. It's so well put together. I promise, you won't regret reading it!

Catherine Ryan Howard can always be relied upon for a solid thriller, and this one about a serial killer being blamed for potentially more crimes than he committed was another good one.
A small Irish town has missing women, and when one is pretty and well off, the local police (Garda) finally decided to look for links between the cases. But lazy police work means that people are falling through the cracks, and one woman decides to bait the killer in an effort to discover what happened to her sister.
The point of view of the killer alternates with several other characters’s perspectives, and I liked seeing all the sides of the story. I wish the ending was longer and explained more, but I enjoyed listening to the book on my drives to and from work.
Thanks to the publisher, Blackstone, and NetGalley for the complimentary copy of the audiobook.

Well, at first i was a little confused. But in the end i was shocked and also a little confuse 😅
I went back to the first chapter and listened to it again, but something didn’t add up.
I was heartbroken for lucy.
But all and all it was a good book.

I think the audio for this book, made it more suspenseful. Although I wanted to.see.what happened at the end, the characters actions made little sense to me. There are no plans in place for if what they wanted to happen, happened. I'm another outlier with this one, or so it seems but even at books and I couldn't understand these women's thinking. I did understand the emotional connection but not reactions taken.

I hate to say this, but I really did not enjoy this book. This is my second book that I have read with this author and I am just thinking that she is not my jam.

Unfortunately the story moved at a really slow and boring pace that did not keep me interested.

The only saving grace with this book was the ending - I truly did not expect that ending! I also really liked that we got a POV from the murderer - that was super unique and made the story tolerable.

Well Done. I started The Trap on audio and immediately regretted requesting the book because the heavy Irish accent was hard to understand. By the end of the book, I was ready to pack my bags and visit the old country.

The story was fast paced and kept me guessing. Right until the end. Love that about a book.

We are immersed in a world of a serial killer and young women who disappear. Told from multiple points, including the killer himself, I now have a confession. Do not judge me. I loved the male, killer part of the story. He sounded cool and, except for the murdering, a guy you'd drink with at a pub.

Checking out the other books by Catherine Ryan Howard now and that's the highest praise when finishing a book.

First of all, Alana Kerr Collins could read me the Apple User agreement or whatever comes up when we do IOS updates and I’d listen eagerly. She is one of my first and forever favorite narrators.


When the male narrator came on I about jumped clear out of my skin. I think if he said hello to me on the street I’d faint. He did such a stellar job being TERRIFYING in The Nothing Man, I’ll never not be afraid of him.


Catherine Ryan Howard has written quite a few thrillers I really love, and obviously having such terrific narrators for her audiobooks is a huge bonus too.


If you haven’t read The Liar’s Girl yet (I do recommend it) you’ll get a spoiler here. The same goes for the aforementioned title, The Nothing Man, there’s an Easter egg in The Trap from that book too.


If you haven’t read CRH yet, I highly recommend you start with either her first: Distress Signals or with The Liar’s Girl and I extra súper very recommend going for the audiobook versions.


I was a sleepy mess when I got to the end of The Trap because chronic illness fatigue, but also I just couldn’t stop reading and the ending came up suddenly for me when I was still processing a few earlier clever twists and red herrings…


It took me a moment as the story wrapped for everything to click into place and the last penny to drop. When it did? Wow! I was nodding my head in appreciation for a good minute. This is a solid thriller that’s sure to please fans of this Irish Queen of Twists and Turns.


⚠️TW/CWs: Misogyny, rape culture, torture, murder, kidnapping, DV, rape, stalking, grief, suicidal ideation, this book contains spoilers for or info from previous books etc.

I loved Howard's previous book, 56 days, so I was excited to see a new one, but it just didn't do it for me.
It did not keep my attention, and the storyline was sort of predictable for me.
I will say that it could also have been the narrator as I had the audiobook - but alas, I could not even finish it.
It did not engage me enough to make me care how it would end.

DAMN. THAT WAS INSANE.
This was my second Catherine Ryan Howard book, and it didn't disappoint. I am so thankful to Blackstone Publishing, the lovely author, and Netgalley for allotting me advanced digital and physical access to this twisty tale before The Trap publishes on August 1, 2023.

Lucy is desperately looking for her sister Nicki after she suddenly went missing more than a year ago. In fact, other women have been missing from the Dublin-area as well, and little has been done to locate these ladies. As the families continue to grow agitated with their police force, Lucy takes matters into her own hands to meet with a journalist and broadcast their stories to call attention to the abductor in hopes that the girls are still alive.

At the same time, we get POVs from Denise Pope, a detective on the cases, Angela (whose just a common paper-pusher working at a desk, longing to see some action in her day-to-day career), and even the abductor himself, clueing us in on his methods and his processes for being a sadist.

In true Catherine Ryan Howard nature, you won't know what's going on until you finish the book, and even then you'll probably need to sit for moment to look back on what you've just consumed... Trust me yall, this was an easy 5 star read for me.

Another great one from Catherine Ryan Howard! I loved the beginning and end of this one (if you know you know) Overall a solid thriller story. I think my favorite parts were the snippets from the unsub that we got sprinkled throughout. It was so interesting hearing his thought process and plan. The ending is absolutely tragic and I appreciated the authors note about the real life cases that led her to this story and her writing thrillers set in Ireland in general. I will stay on audio I got a bit confused switching between the female characters at times but otherwise it was a fabulous listen!

I received a free audiobook copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

This book follows Lucy, who has never stopped looking for her missing sister, and Angela a civilian working with An Garda Síochána, the Irish police. They both eventually end up pulling at threads of a possible serial kidnapper that could give Lucy closure, and help Angela join the force.

This was an interesting read. Extremely frustrating, but interesting. The characters could have been just a bit more fleshed out, but I think it’s the ending that will make or break it for readers. It’s open ended, but I think most people will come to the same conclusion.

I enjoyed the setting-Dublin is always a favourite book location, and the narrator did a fantastic job. It’s gritty, upsetting, and , eventually, maddening. If this sounds like a good read to you, try it out! Lol.

I truly enjoyed listening to the audio version of this story. I was not expecting this story to end the way it did, had me hooked from the complete beginning.

I would not recommend this audiobook as it is a little hard to follow the women’s POV’s and the thick accent was tough to understand. The twist at the end was good, but left me with some questions.

This one was just not for me. It had a couple of different viewpoints, but it felt so all over the place. The ending wrapped up in such a weird way. Parts were hard to follow. Idk I had a hard time with this one.

I did, however, enjoy a point of view from the murderer himself. That was cool and clever.

Thank you @netgalley @blackstonepublishing for the ALC to listen to and give my honest review.

Twisty, suspenseful, intense, and thrilling are all words I can use to describe this book. I only wish the ending was a little less open ended.

Thank you to Net Galley and Blackstone publishing for accepting my arc request.

I was all over the place with this book, mainly because I was hearing this on audio. This is my second book by the author,with first being "The Nothing Man" and I definitely like how her books include the perpetrator's perspective.

I had a hard time getting into the first few chapters because of the introduction of a lot of characters,and the story being told from multiple POV's. The accent was also Irish (assuming based on the setting), which took some time getting used to. At first, I did not like the male narrator at all and I was almost going to stop listening, but his pov was so great,and some of his lines were narrated so comically that I started enjoying it after a while.

The book is mainly told from three povs': Lucy,Angela and a nameless man. Lucy's sister, Nicki, vanished a year ago and Lucy has been trying to get answers to what happened to her sister, engaging in stupid actions like trying to get herself kidnapped by the same person who might have taken her sister. I understand the concern and helplessness, but not trusting the police,and taking matters in her own hand,seemed stupid to me. Angela is a civilian who works as a Civilian paper-pusher in the Missing Persons Unit and is trying to help the guards, in the hopes of becoming a guard in the Irish Police Force. The nameless man is the perpetrator/kindapper who tells his entire story to the girl who he has recently picked up. His part was super interesting because that's where I got most of my answers from.

The overall story was engaging, and a mix of thriller/crime mystery. However, I wish there was one more chapter to give readers a closure of a major twist in the story, but I guess it was open to interpretation. Overall,a good read!

𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘺, 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨!

I love Catherine’s books and I think this is one of my favorites. Dark, twisty, heart-wrenching and unputdownable. It was simply addictive. I loved every page.

Thank you Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for this gifted copy.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗽 by Catherine Ryan Howard released August 1, 2023.

https://www.instagram.com/booksandcoffeemx/

I really enjoyed this mystery right up until the end. I wish it had more of a conclusion. The story wasn't wrapped up and I have no idea happened! The author did a great job of of keeping me guessing and I liked the twist at the end, I just wish we got a true conclusion to the story.

Thank you to netgalley for a audio copy of this book. Girls are going missing and the cops aren’t doing enough to stop it.

This book jumps back and forth and confused me. Im still not sure what happened with the ending. Maybe I need to physically read it instead of audio.

It did keep me wanting to know what happened though. It keeping all the characters sorted was hard.