Book Review: The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard

 

Book: The Trap 

Author: Catherine Ryan Howard 

Pages: 306 

Read on: Kindle 

Read in: ~4 hours 

Plot Summary: Stranded on a dark road in the middle of the night, a young woman accepts a lift from a passing stranger. 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.

She'll try again tomorrow night. But will the man who took her sister take the bait?

Things I Liked: 

1. The premise of this book was very interesting- a girl whose sister has been taken by a serial killer sets out every night hoping he'd abduct her as well. A dumb plan but what else would a sister do if the police had no leads and her missing sister was the third (or fourth? Or God-knows-what-number of girl) to go missing? So, I was curious to see where this story would go and boy, did this story take off and how! 

2. This book is told from the perspective of 5-6 people and they bring the story alive. 

We get to see Lucy's life one year after her younger sister- Nicki- has gone missing. Lucy's life is at a standstill; she is not able to move on because every waking moment she is haunted by the thought of what happened to Nicki? Who took her? Is she dead or alive? And in order to get her own answers, Lucy has been out at nights putting herself at risk. It is heartbreaking to see how lives are shattered when someone we love goes missing and there is no closure of any kind for families. Lucy and the families of the other missing girls have all fallen apart waiting to find out where their girls are. 

We get to see some chapters from two detectives' perspective- Denise and Angela- who are working (against the system, so to speak) to see if the right missing women have been linked together to the same abductor/ killer. 

We also have a few chapters from the killer/ abductor's perspective and those are cold yet interesting. 

3. This book, much like the author's other books, has a few nice little twists and I am 90% sure you won't see the big one coming. Not going to say anything else as I don't want to spoil the book for you! 

4. This was a fast-paced read but with a lot of emotional depth as well. There are parts of this book that will just break your heart! 

5. The ending was so satisfactory! :) Not saying anything more on this! Go read this book! 

Rating: 4.5/5