The Trap: A gripping, chilling new thriller and instant number one bestseller

Catherine Ryan Howard

Aug 2023 · Random House

About this eBook

'Dark, creepy and very clever, The Trap will lure you in and keep you captive until the very last page' - C L TAYLOR

‘Elegant and twisty, it lingers in the memory’ – Daily Mail

'Topical, twisty, and with a real heart stopper of a moment halfway in that'll make you turn the lights back on' - GILLIAN MCALLISTER


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?

Inspired by a series of still-unsolved disappearances, The Trap is the startlingly original new thriller from internationally bestselling author Catherine Ryan Howard.


‘As brain-teasing as it is gripping . . . [a] psychologically dazzling novel' - Sunday Times Thriller of the Month and chosen as one of the 12 best thrillers of 2023 by The Times

'Dark and witty and clever. An original and highly gripping read, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough' - Alice Feeney

'Howard has a sly gift for misdirection . . . Again and again, you'll blithely follow her down the wrong path' - New York Times

'A breakneck thriller with so many twists and turns that your head will spin. I absolutely tore through The Trap ' - Holly Seddon


The Trap was an instant Irish Times bestseller and a Sunday Times Thriller of the Year

Ratings and reviews

Great book.

About the author

Catherine Ryan Howard is the author of 56 Days, which was an overall No. 1 bestseller in Ireland and a Kindle top ten bestseller, as well as winning Crime Fiction Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2021, and The Nothing Man, which shot straight to the top of the Irish bestseller charts on publication, was a Kindle No. 1 bestseller in the UK and was shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. Her work has been shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey/New Blood Dagger and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Novel, and she is currently longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2023. She lives in Dublin.