"I know you killed my sister. I wrote this novel for you."
These were the words that grabbed my attention on the book jacket for The Trap by Melanie Raabe. I had to pick it up. The premise was immediately engaging. "Twelve years ago, Linda's sister Anna was murdered. Her killer was never caught, but Linda saw him Now, all these years on, she's just seen him again. On TV. He has since become a well-known reporter, and Linda - a famous novelist and infamous recluse- knows no one will believe her if she accuses him, so she does the only thing she can think of: she writes a thriller about a woman who is murdered, her killer never caught. When the book is published, she agrees to give just one media interview. At home. To the one person who knows more about the case than she does. He knows what happened that night and she writes a book about it but, when the doorbell rings, neither of them can be sure how the story will end."
I began reading with the expectation of a good mystery but Raabe delivered an excellent one. The main character, Linda Conrads, is a prolific and successful novelist, and she hasn't set foot outside her house in more than eleven years. Think Sigourney Weaver's character in the movie Copycat. Instead of an attack by a serial killer that has shut her in, it's instead the unsolved murder of her sister that has broken her. At first impressions, she seems at peace with her life, but with the discovery of the man she holds responsible for her sister's death, fractures immediately appear. You find yourself questioning the sanity of Linda, the innocence of the "suspect", especially as Raabe's prose becomes disjointed and broken, mirroring the thoughts of Linda as she searches for the truth.
Even as it is a thriller that keeps you asking questions the entire way through, it is also a redemptive tale, not without its small romance, which I'll admit, was an added bonus. Melanie Raabe is a new voice in fiction and one that I will look forward to hearing from again. I should also mention that The Trap was originally written in german and has been translated by Imogen Taylor.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
translated by Imogen Taylor
ISBN: 9781925240870 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781922253507 (ebook)
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