Review | The Catch by T. M Logan

T. M Logan has quickly become one of my favourite authors. I came across his work by chance in the first lockdown. The library ebook lending service had barely anything available except The Holiday. I judged a book by it's cover and thought it perhaps looked a little cheesy but I couldn't have been more wrong. This is my third T. M Logan book and every one has kept me up later than I wanted reading 'just one more chapter'. Here's what I thought about The Catch.

Abbie, a young teacher meets Ryan, a mature man, 10 years her senior. They instantly fall in love. He's well educated, hard working and adores Abbie. He treats her well, respects her and is far superior to the usual low lives she dates- the perfect man for your daughter to marry- right?

Ed, Abbie's kind and doting father just wants the best for his little girl but he's not entirely convinced that Ryan is the best, surely someone this perfect can't be genuine. Ever heard the phrase too good to be true? 

Is this simply a case of an overprotective father or does the enigmatic Ryan really have something to hide? Is Ed looking for something that's not there or is Ryan so talented he's fooling everyone around him? 

The thing I most enjoy about TM Logan books is that the mystery and suspense builds steadily through the majority of the book then towards the end, as more information comes to light, it hurtles towards an satisfying and unpredictable end. Every one of T.M Logan's books that I've read follows this pattern and it's this that keeps me wanting more. The reader isn't spoon fed, we're simply given snippets of information to piece together to create our own theories and conspiracies. 

Throughout The Catch there was no point where I thought 'aha! I know what's going off here!' I couldn't fathom whether Ryan was a bad guy or whether Ed was losing the plot. I didn't know who, or even if there was a villain. 

I read through the first two thirds of the book at a leisurely but still enthusiastic pace but when I hit the turning point in the last few chapters I couldn't read fast enough. There was a particular moment towards the end where the action had built to a crescendo and then all of a sudden the intense action recedes and you're back to reading about everyday occurrences that don't seem to be relevant to the cliff hanger you've just been left on. As a reader this was immensely frustrating but absolutely necessary to the development of the plot. It was at this point that I could not stop reading. I needed to know what happened next. I won't say too much as I don't want to spoil the plot but I will say that the cliff hanger is resolved and you get a very satisfying end- one that I absolutely couldn't have predicted.

I sometimes feel that a book having an unpredictable ending can be an indicator that the ending is far fetched but that wasn't the case with this book. The ending, though unpredictable was still very plausible. The Catch feels more experimental compared to the other T. M Logan books I've read, this one was perhaps a little darker than the others and it felt like the author was stretching out some muscles and testing the water. I am eagerly awaiting the chance to read Logan's next novel, Trust Me to see how this darker side develops.

This is a fantastic thriller and my favourite T. M Logan so far. It's intriguing and puts forward so many questions about so many different characters. It had moments where I held my breath, moments where I felt raw emotion and empathy and moments of genuine shock and betrayal. If you only pick up one book this year then make it a T. M Logan.

Thanks For Reading,

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