The Catch – T. M. Logan

Summary

Ed is delighted to meet his twenty-three year old daughter’s fiancé for the first time. Ryan appears to be the perfect future son-in-law. There’s just one problem. There’s something off about Ryan. Something hidden in the shadows behind his eyes. And it seems that only Ed can see it.

Terrified that his daughter is being drawn in by a psychopath, Ed sets out to uncover her fiancé’s dark past – while keeping his own concealed. But no-one believes him. And the more he digs, the more he alienates her and the rest of the family who are convinced that Ryan is ‘the one’.

Ed knows different. For reasons of his own, he knows a monster when he sees one…

Review

Make sure you catch the catch!

Mister T.M. Logan has the writing I love! There is a certain type of writing where the perfect blend of cheeky and emotional tones meets on the basis of a thriller, and I just gobble it all up. Love it; they are my favourite types of books.

Examples include: The Vacation by John Marrs; The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish; A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena; and (not the complete vibes but) Our House by Louise Candlish as well.

Got all the feels. I knew from the start something was wrong; I just didn’t know how much shit would hit the fan, but I always held out hope that the truth would come out, and my hero Ed wouldn’t go down as a gaslighted character, and that his efforts to protect his daughter at all costs wouldn’t go in vain. So glad I was vindicated and not AT ALL disappointed.

Tremendously addictive, one of the hardest books ever to put down, and I don’t say that lightly, The Catch will make you feel everything, ranging from a daughter’s desire for freedom and wanting to forge her own path to her father’s intense and primal priority to safeguard his daughter above anything and make her happy, even if it means putting himself in danger. I am, of course, going to be reading this book for at least a second time!

For anyone who knows me IRL, you know I find TV shows and movies boring; however, I may give Channel 5’s adaptation a chance now that I know it exists. Hmm…

Click for spoilers!

Ed was right all along. Ryan was a weird mf.

Ed discovered that Ryan was lying about everything, and he had actually killed his parents and sister in a house fire. After he found himself orphaned, he went on to live with a foster parent, whom he presumably also killed. After all of this, Ryan married a woman named Lori, but he shortly was sent to prison due to DV, and Lori asked for a divorce; however, ~~surprisingly~~, Lori disappeared before anything proceeded (just like his former foster parent).

Ryan knew Ed was onto him, so he staged phone calls with supposed affairs to toy with him, made people believe he was mentally and emotionally unstable, and starting to develop alcoholism to get rid of him. Ryan killed and buried Ed shortly after their confrontation in Ed’s final POV chapters in the hiking trial. Abbie, though, figured out that her dad hadn’t killed himself but was murdered by Ryan when she found a birthday present she had given him in Ryan’s possession.

While handing missing person flyers for Ed’s disappearance, Abbie and Ryan find themselves in the same trial, Blacken Moor, and Abbie decides to confront him and reveal she is pregnant in hopes this deters him from harming her. We instead find out that Ryan was not in love with her but rather was going to marry her because of the social image it would give him be a family man, which would allow him to continue his serial killing without much suspicion. Claire finds them and helps Abbie fight Ryan off and kill him.