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

Auteur

Catherine Ryan Howard is the author of eight novels including the no. 1 bestsellers The Nothing Man, 56 Days and The Trap. Her work has been shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Crime Writers Association New Blood and Steel Daggers, and Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year multiple times. The screen adaptation of her lockdown thriller, 56 Days, is currently in production and will debut on Amazon Prime Video next year. She lives in Dublin.