Book: The Trap
Author: Melanie Raabe
Pages: ~300
Read: The paperback edition
Read in: 3 hours or so
Plot Summary: For 11 years, the bestselling author Linda Conrads has mystified fans by never setting foot outside her home. Haunted by the unsolved murder of her younger sister--who she discovered in a pool of blood--and the face of the man she saw fleeing the scene, Linda's hermit existence helps her cope with debilitating anxiety.
But the sanctity of her oasis is shattered when she sees her sister's murderer on television. Hobbled by years of isolation, Linda resolves to use the plot of her next novel to lay an irresistible trap for the man.
As the plan is set in motion and the past comes rushing back, Linda's memories--and her very sanity--are called into question. Is this man a heartless killer or merely a helpless victim?
General Thoughts: I found this book via Instagram. I saw a picture of this book on my explore page and read the summary and was hooked! It sounded so interesting!
A bookworm will find book recommendations everywhere!
:)
Things I Liked:
1. The premise is really quite thrilling. A reclusive author, who had witnessed the murder of her only sister, sets a trap for the killer by writing a book about the murder. The book promises loads of mind games and thrills and it does not disappoint!
2. Linda Conrads is an interesting character. She suffers from anxiety and depression and is agoraphobic. She never leaves her home and even within her home, there are areas where she feels more comfortable than the others. This was done very well. The author seems to have done her research on Agoraphobia quite well, as well as on other anxiety spectrum disorders.
Though Linda's reactions and behaviour sometimes seem excessive because the author does not really give us a glimpse into the real nature of Linda's trauma on finding her dead sister.
3. Linda's whole interview with her sister's killer is a very interesting sequence. We have Linda being in control and fully losing control.. don't want to give anything else away but what happens during the interview is a nice little twist.
4. The snippets we get to see of Linda's book are also interesting. Since it is a pretty accurate fictionalized version of the events following Anna's murder, we get to see how Linda almost fell in love with the cop investigating Anna's murder. Also this little feature made it seem like we were reading 2 books in one, which is quite nice.
5. The final outcome was quite satisfying. Won't say much else, but it was nice that things happened the way they did.
Things I Didn't Like:
1. Anna as a character was not really done justice to- was she a saint? Was she a bitch? It was almost like we saw Anna through the misty haze of Linda's guilt and then, later, through the killer's anger. So, we don't really get to see how she really was! We see two versions of the same person but the real Anna seems to remain elusive.
2. The way Linda lost the plot during the interview was kinda predictable and quite boring to read about. As a reader, I saw it coming because the interview was at the halfway mark of the book and you know that since the book is nowhere close to ending and so, there would be no resolution at this point.
Rating: 3.5/5
This is a good, quick read which is quite nicely written.
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