Review of The Trap

I’m a fan of Catherine Ryan Howard, whose books are always suspenseful and never predictable. The Trap, based on a series of real true crime cases, was no exception. Check out my Review of The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard, which I have deemed the Creepiest Mystery I Read in 2023 AND put on my list of Travel Thrillers Set on Airplanes Boats Trains and Cars!

Written and edited by Jen Ryland. Last updated on:

The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard

To be published on August 1, 2023 by Blackstone.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review.

I read this book in July 2023

Plot Summary for The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard

One year ago, Lucy’s sister, Nicki, left to meet friends at a pub in Dublin and never came home. Nicki is the third Irish woman to vanish inexplicably in as many years, and the agony of not knowing what happened that night has turned Lucy’s life into a waking nightmare. So, she’s going to take matters into her own hands.

Angela works as a civilian paper-pusher in the Missing Persons Unit, but wants nothing more than to be a fully-fledged member of An Garda Síochána, the Irish police force. With the official investigation into the missing women stalled, she begins pulling on a thread that could break the case wide open—and destroy her chances of ever joining the force.

A nameless man drives through the night, his latest victim in the back seat. He’s going to tell her everything, from the beginning. And soon, she’ll realize: what you don’t know can hurt you.

Review of The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard

I’m a fan of Catherine Ryan Howard’s books. I’ve read 56 Days and Run Time.

Both those books (56 Days especially) featured an interesting narrative structure, family relationships, and a lot of surprises.

The Trap was, according to the author, inspired by the Vanishing Triangle murders of the 1990s, a still-unsolved series of disappearances and murders in and around Dublin from the late 1980s to the late 1990s.

Ryan uses these real-life cases to point out that decades ago, there was a great deal of institutionalized sexism and religious-based slut-shaming in the police department, something that prevented these cases from being solved. Now they have gone cold and someone got away with it!

Another mystery writer has written a non-fiction book about these cases. I thought it was fascinating and I definitely recommend reading that as well!

In The Trap, Lucy is distraught over her missing sister Nicki, who Lucy is certain must have been taken by a local serial kidnapper of women. When Lucy becomes convinced that the task force investigating the cases isn’t doing their job, she starts poking around on her own.

Denise, a missing persons investigator for the Garda, the Irish police, is the Family Liaison Officer assigned to Nicki’s case, is trying to balance office politics with finding the missing women.

Angela, is a civilian employee of the Garda, dreams of becoming an officer herself. One day, she takes a phone call at work from a woman who claims to have important evidence in a missing persons case.

Then, finally, we have the chilling POV of a man who has forced a young woman into his car and wants to tell her a story…

The Trap was a very twisty read, and I enjoyed all the strong female characters, from Lucy to Angela to Denise.

The ending of The Trap was definitely unexpected. First, the ending makes you realize that a lot of things you assumed are wrong.

Based on the comments, most of us were only partially successful in understanding everything the first time around.

I have read other books with a similar technique but I definitely didn’t see these twists coming. At all.

If you enjoy true crime-inspired books and love a book that can take you by surprise, try out The Trap!

UPDATE: I hadn’t planned to do a Spoiler Post for The Trap and just read it for fun. But clearly there is a LOT to talk about in this book.

I know that most mystery readers hate and avoid spoilers but honestly (!) this is a book that makes more sense if you do know the end. I ended up reading it twice and the second time everything made sense.

I will ask going forward that all spoiler discussion happen on the Spoiler Post here for those readers who want to be surprised or try to figure things out themselves.

The comments below this post DO contain spoilers, so proceed with caution.

Please don’t leave new spoiler comments here, come over and discuss the twists. I figured out a few new things!