The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard

The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard
Buy The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Crime
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: A standalone from the master of Irish crime thrillers. There's a twist which will bend your mind. Highly recommended.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 320	Date: August 2023
Publisher: Bantam
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1787636606
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It's a scene replicated all too often in the early hours of the morning. Drunken revellers spilling out of clubs and looking for a way to get home. Some are lucky and manage to get one of the few taxis available. Others squash onto the night bus that will only go as far as one of the outlying villages. The woman all regret the 'taxi problem', particularly in the light of 'the missing women'. For one young woman, the final stop on the bus leaves her a long way short of her home. She had intended to ring someone to come and collect her - but her phone's dead. The bus had driven off before she had the chance to beg the bus driver to let her use his. There's no option but to start walking - unsuitably clothed and in high-heeled shoes.

The missing women? Well, over the past year or so, three women have gone missing. They're linked by the fact that their phones were found discarded at the side of the road near the point where they were last seen. The search for the women is being run by Operation Tide, under the leadership of Superintendent Colin Hall. It doesn't have a great reputation as there's no further news of what happened to Tana Neehan, Nicole O'Sullivan or Jennifer Gold.

We hear the story from three main sources: Lucy (Nicky O'Sullivan's sister), Angela Fitzgerald a civilian working for the Missing Person Unit of An Guarda Síochána and the killer himself. The lead detective is Denis Pope, who's developing quite a reputation within the force which is more than can be said for Colin Hall. What quickly becomes clear is that it might be that not all of the disappearances are connected - and that there might be others which haven't been brought into Operation Tide. Hall needed three 'incidents' to get the funding for a task force> He found three that appeared to fit the bill - and didn't look further.

It's a cracking story. You'll need to be in the wide-awake club as you get near the end and points of view change rapidly and there's a twist you might not be expecting.

As well as reading the copy which the publishers gave me, I bought an audio download, narrated by Beau Holland, Jessica Regan, Heather O'Sullivan and Barry Fitzgerald. It was well-paced and a good listen.

So, what brought me to The Trap? Well, I had very fond memories of reading The Nothing Man back in August 2020 so this book wasn't one to miss.

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