We are told, aren’t we, not to accept lifts from strangers?
And yet that is exactly what she does.
Not only once, but time and again. And at night.
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, to discover what happened to her missing sister.
She will try again tomorrow night. But will the man who took her sister take the bait?
Just reading the blurb of The Trap is enough to give me goose bumps. This book is brilliantly written with chapters told from different points of view so you get to see inside the mind of a monster and it gave me chills on top of my goose bumps.
If I had a sister and she went missing, I know I would do everything I could to find her but I can't get past the 'Stranger Danger' motto that I still adhere to, even now that I'm in my forties. It's a very brave and probably stupid thing to do to try to set a trap to catch an abductor but it does make for heart-pounding reading.
The Trap is so very cleverly written and I had the rug pulled out from under me as everything I thought I knew about the missing sister turned out to be wrong. Yay! Reading books is one time I'm more than happy to be wrong though, as it means the author has played a blinder. So, well played Catherine Ryan Howard!
It's really interesting to read Catherine Ryan Howard's inspiration for the story in the Author's Note as I had completely forgotten that I saw missing posters when I was a child in the 1970s and I can even remember the girl's name on it. That sort of thing stays with you and it's really sad to think that nobody ever knew what happened to their missing family member.
Clever, creepy and chilling, The Trap is a disturbing and intriguing novel that held my interest throughout and I really enjoyed it. Catherine Ryan Howard's intelligent and crafty plot gave my brain a little workout, especially at the end where my initial 'huh?' was transformed into an 'oh!'.
I received a digital ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
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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.
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Thanks for the blog tour support x
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