diff --git a/include/query_predicates.h b/include/query_predicates.h
index 026616a..e29b275 100644
--- a/include/query_predicates.h
+++ b/include/query_predicates.h
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 
 #include <functional>
 #include <memory>
+#include <stdexcept>
 #include <string>
 #include <vector>
 
@@ -82,13 +83,19 @@ class REFLECTION_EXPORT QueryPredicate : public QueryPredicateBase {
         : symbol_(symbol) {
         auto record = GetRecordFromTypeId(typeid(T).name());
         auto offset = OffsetFromStart(fn);
+        auto found = false;
         for (auto i = 0; i < record.member_metadata.size(); ++i) {
             if (record.member_metadata[i].offset == offset) {
                 member_name_ = record.member_metadata[i].name;
                 value_ = value_retrieval((void*)&value, record.member_metadata[i].storage_class);
+                found = true;
                 break;
             }
         }
+        if (!found) {
+            throw std::runtime_error("No registered member of '" + record.name +
+                                      "' matches the given pointer-to-member (type id: " + typeid(T).name() + ")");
+        }
     }
 
     template <typename T, typename R>
diff --git a/include/reflection.h b/include/reflection.h
index d0a97c7..6b046de 100644
--- a/include/reflection.h
+++ b/include/reflection.h
@@ -195,7 +195,10 @@ static std::string CAT(Register, REFLECTABLE)() {
     ReflectionRegister& instance = *GetReflectionRegisterInstance();
     auto isRecordRegisterd = instance.records.find(type_id) != instance.records.end();
     if (!isRecordRegisterd) {
-        auto& reflectable = GetRecordFromTypeId(type_id);
+        // Create the entry directly (operator[] default-inserts on miss); this is registration's
+        // own create path, scoped by the find() guard above, and is intentionally not routed
+        // through GetRecordFromTypeId, which is a pure lookup that throws on a miss
+        auto& reflectable = instance.records[type_id];
         reflectable.name = name;
 
         // store member metadata
diff --git a/src/reflection.cc b/src/reflection.cc
index d1e50b3..20934fa 100644
--- a/src/reflection.cc
+++ b/src/reflection.cc
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 #include "reflection.h"
 
 #include <memory>
+#include <stdexcept>
 
 static std::unique_ptr<ReflectionRegister> p = nullptr;
 
@@ -35,8 +36,11 @@ ReflectionRegister* GetReflectionRegisterInstance() {
 
 Reflection& GetRecordFromTypeId(const std::string& type_id) {
     ReflectionRegister& instance = *GetReflectionRegisterInstance();
-    auto& meta_struct = instance.records[type_id];
-    return meta_struct;
+    auto it = instance.records.find(type_id);
+    if (it == instance.records.end()) {
+        throw std::runtime_error("Reflection lookup failed: type not registered: " + type_id);
+    }
+    return it->second;
 }
 
 char* GetMemberAddress(void* precord, const Reflection& record, const size_t i) {
diff --git a/tests/query_predicates_test.cc b/tests/query_predicates_test.cc
index f3de274..079152f 100644
--- a/tests/query_predicates_test.cc
+++ b/tests/query_predicates_test.cc
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@
 
 #include <gtest/gtest.h>
 
+#include <string>
+#include <utility>
+
 #include "person.h"
 #include "pet.h"
 
@@ -207,3 +210,56 @@ TEST(QueryPredicatesTest, LikeInsideAndSurvivesCloneWithEscapeClause) {
     EXPECT_EQ(R"(%50\%%)", bindings[0].text_value);
     EXPECT_EQ(30, bindings[1].int_value);
 }
+
+namespace {
+// A plain struct that is deliberately never run through the REFLECTABLE/FIELDS registration
+// macros, so its type id never appears in the reflection registry.
+struct UnregisteredRecord {
+    int64_t id;
+    int64_t value;
+};
+
+// A plain struct that is also never run through the registration macros, but is manually and
+// incompletely registered below (name only, no member metadata) to exercise the
+// registered-but-offset-mismatch guard, as distinct from the unregistered-type guard above.
+struct MismatchedRecord {
+    int64_t id;
+    int64_t value;
+};
+
+// Erases a hand-inserted entry from the process-wide reflection registry on scope exit. Without
+// this, a MismatchedRecord-shaped entry with no member metadata would linger in the registry for
+// the rest of the test binary: Database::Database iterates every registered record and would
+// generate "CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS MismatchedRecord ();" (empty column list) for it, failing
+// every later Database::Initialize() call in this process.
+class ScopedRegistryCleanup {
+public:
+    explicit ScopedRegistryCleanup(std::string type_id) : type_id_(std::move(type_id)) {}
+    ~ScopedRegistryCleanup() {
+        GetReflectionRegisterInstance()->records.erase(type_id_);
+    }
+
+private:
+    std::string type_id_;
+};
+}  // namespace
+
+TEST(QueryPredicatesTest, PredicateConstructionThrowsForUnregisteredType) {
+    // #23: GetRecordFromTypeId must fail fast for a type that was never registered, instead of
+    // std::map::operator[] silently default-inserting an empty Reflection (empty table name, no
+    // columns), which would otherwise surface later as an opaque SQLite prepare error
+    EXPECT_THROW(Equal(&UnregisteredRecord::value, 42), std::runtime_error);
+}
+
+TEST(QueryPredicatesTest, PredicateConstructionThrowsWhenNoMemberMatches) {
+    // #22: even for a registered type, if no member_metadata entry's offset matches the
+    // pointer-to-member (here because the type was registered by hand with no members at all,
+    // rather than via the FIELDS macro), the QueryPredicate constructor must fail fast instead
+    // of silently leaving member_name_ empty and emitting malformed SQL like " = ?"
+    const std::string type_id = typeid(MismatchedRecord).name();
+    auto& instance = *GetReflectionRegisterInstance();
+    instance.records[type_id].name = "MismatchedRecord";
+    const ScopedRegistryCleanup cleanup(type_id);
+
+    EXPECT_THROW(Equal(&MismatchedRecord::value, 42), std::runtime_error);
+}