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by Catherine Ryan Howard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 17, 2021

Each new twist, dispensed with surgical precision, will keep you hooked, nostalgic for the days when Covid-19 was the worst...

A pandemic lockdown romance that ends very badly indeed.

It begins with a casual conversation about the Kennedy Space Center at a Dublin coffee shop. Architectural technologist Oliver Kennedy has never visited the place, and web services concierge Ciara Wyse thinks he really should. They take their coffees to a nearby park, they chat, he invites her to join him at a screening of a documentary about the space program. All super normal, apparently, but then comes the news of the first Irish Covid-19 infection, and then follows the first wave of restrictions, and the pair have to make a momentous decision. After a night at Ciara’s tiny flat, Oliver offers to share the relatively palatial digs his employer, KB Studios, has allotted him as part of his compensation package. The two of them stock up on every necessity they can imagine and prepare to hunker down in the Crossings till the storm has passed. But Howard, in a series of lightning dips into the past and future utterly characteristic of her suspense stories, has already broadcast the endgame for their affair: the arrival of Garda DI Leah Riordan and DS Karl Connolly at the Crossings, summoned by a neighbor alarmed by the telltale stench seeping from Oliver’s flat. The tenant, it turns out, was hiding a horrifying secret from Ciara and everyone else in Ireland, and there are depths still to be revealed beneath his deception.

Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-982694-65-4

Page Count: 450

Publisher: Blackstone

Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021

SUSPENSE | GENERAL & DOMESTIC THRILLER | GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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BOOK REVIEW

by Catherine Ryan Howard

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

New York Times Bestseller

by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SCIENCE FICTION

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BOOK TO SCREEN

by Tana French ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024

An absorbing crime yarn.

A divorced American detective tries to blend into rural Ireland in this sequel to The Searcher (2020).

In fictional Ardnakelty, on Ireland’s west coast, lives retired American cop Cal Hooper, who busies himself repairing furniture with 15-year-old Theresa “Trey” Reddy and fervently wishes to be boring. Then into town pops Trey’s long-gone, good-for-nothing dad, Johnny, all smiles and charm. Much to her distaste, he says he wants to reclaim his fatherly role. In fact, he’s on the run from a criminal for a debt he can’t repay, and he has a cockamamie scheme to persuade local townsfolk that there might be gold in the nearby mountain with a vein that might run through some of their properties. (What, no leprechauns?) “It’s not sheep shite you’ll be smelling in a few months’ time, man,” he tells a farmer. “It’s champagne and caviar.” Some people have fun fantasizing about sudden riches, but they know better. Johnny’s pursuer, Cillian Rushborough, comes to town, and Johnny tries to convince him he could get rich by purchasing people’s land. Alas, someone bashes Rushborough’s brains in, and now there’s a murder mystery. The plot is a bit of a stretch, but the characters and their relationships work well. Trey detests Johnny for not being in her life, and now that he’s back, she neither wants nor needs him. She gets on much better with Cal. Still, she’s a testy teenager when she thinks someone is not treating her like an adult. Cal is aware of this, and he’s careful how he talks to her. Johnny, not so much: “I swear to fuck, women are only put on this earth to wreck our fuckin’ heads,” he whines about Trey’s mother, briefly forgetting he’s talking to Trey. The book abounds in local color and lively dialogue.

Pub Date: March 5, 2024

ISBN: 9780593493434

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | POLICE PROCEDURALS | GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | LITERARY FICTION | SUSPENSE | GENERAL FICTION

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by Tana French

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A place for book reviews and recommendations.

Book Review: 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

56 Days is an engrossing and well-constructed murder mystery set in Dublin, Ireland during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a real page-turner, with surprising plot twists throughout.

This post may contain Amazon Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you. (This in no way affects the honesty of my reviews!) All commissions will be donated to the ALS Association.

The two main characters are Oliver and Ciara, who seemingly meet by accident after only being in Dublin for a short time. The two lonely souls tentatively get to know each other, and then rush into a closer relationship when the lock downs force their hands.

Throughout their relationship, especially in the early days, Oliver and Ciara are a little suspicious of each other, and rightly so – they are both lying liars who lie. The two have pasts that they aren’t being honest about. And 56 days after they meet, one of them is dead.

That’s about all I’ll reveal about the storyline because I don’t want to give too much away.

Buy now on Amazon!

In addition to being a clever mystery, I liked the format of 56 Days. It alternates between the past – when Oliver and Ciara are getting to know each other – and the present day when a body is found and police are gathering evidence and trying piece together what happened. Some of the “look backs” are from Ciara’s perspective and some are from Oliver’s, and together with the present-day police scenes, the author slowly and suspensefully puts the puzzle together to reveal the entire picture. Very satisfying!

I also think setting it during the pandemic was genius because it added an element of surrealism. Rules were very different during the lock downs and people’s behavior was often out of the norm. Plus, the pandemic added an unusual type of stress to people’s lives. These factors all play important roles in the ultimate outcome.

Overall, I highly recommend 56 Days. Mystery and suspense lovers should particularly enjoy it. Would 56 Days be a good choice for book clubs? Definitely. There’s a lot to talk about ranging from ethics to forgiveness and redemption to the wisdom of letting sleeping dogs lie. There’s even a special cocktail featured in the book that would be perfect to serve at a book club meeting.

Thanks, Martha, for the excellent recommendation!

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5 thoughts on “ Book Review: 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard ”

Oh, good – I’m so glad you liked it! I thought she did a terrific job of showing the story from both sides – so that we sympathized with both characters. It was also a perfect “pandemic” novel, since most of the plot couldn’t really have happened during more normal times. I’ll be eager to hear what others think, too!

Like Liked by 1 person

I will add to my list! Thanks. I always value (and read) your reviews.

Thanks, Tom! Hope you like it.

This was a good book! Did like the whole pandemic book idea – clever and well-constructed. A really good whodunit!

Sounds really good to both Alan’s and my liking, Michelle. Have noted it to our list of what next to read. May have to save it for my book club too. Thanks, Joanne

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Book review: 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard is the first book I’ve read to centre around the Coronavirus. I mean, it’s not specifically about the virus but its plot turns upon the arrival of the virus in Ireland in 2020 and its resulting upheaval.

Of course many other novels have started to reference Covid in some way or another. Generally it’s a reflection on recent concerns or extra cautions required, but 56 Days is very much about the early days of the virus and I was surprised at how evocative this was. I quite enjoyed being reminded of our thoughts and feelings back then. When we knew so little.

Having said that this is also a murder mystery so… Covid really only provides the opportunity.

56 DAYS AGO Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin the same week Covid-19 reaches Irish shores. 35 DAYS AGO When lockdown threatens to keep them apart, Oliver suggests that Ciara move in with him. She sees a unique opportunity for a new relationship to flourish without the pressure of scrutiny of family and friends. He sees it as an opportunity to hide who - and what - he really is. TODAY Detectives arrive at Oliver's apartment to discover a decomposing body inside.

Weirdly this is also the second book I’ve read in quick succession about the same past secret. An old crime. Dues paid. (Although I’ve not published the other review yet…. so you’ll have to wait for that one.)

This is cleverly written. It’s not just the ‘Is this really happening?’ early days Covid references but also the fact the book goes back and forth in time. From 56 days ago (obvs) to the present. It then jumps forward (a few days) in the past (so 53 days ago) and so forth. In essence (in the past) we’re just moving along with Oliver and Ciara as their relationship grows.

However… in a Stephenie Meyer-esque twist, we also revisit some of the same days and scenes from a second point of view. So, while initially we think Ciara is our narrator (along with DI Leah Riordan in the present) we jump back in time to re-experience scenes from Oliver’s point of view.

I really liked our lead characters – both Ciara and Oliver – as well as Leah (Lee) and her partner Karl. Oliver is obviously keeping secrets and the more we get to know him, the more we learn about his past. But it’s obvious that Ciara is not being completely honest herself… Howard cleverly words some of her narration in a way that we know she’s sometimes acting in a way she thinks she should, rather than what comes naturally. So we wonder why…

The secret-keeping is just part of the twisty read Howard offers us. In the present we have a murder – though for some time we don’t know who it is. Of course as the gap between the present and the recent past diminishes more secrets are revealed. But they’re not always as we suspect and Howard does a great job at making us think we know what’s coming but…. being wrong.

In some ways there’s a sadness to this book. A poignancy perhaps. There’s a reflection on past mistakes and their bearing on the present.

I very much enjoyed this and it’s the first book I’ve read by Howard. She writes about the early days of Covid in her notes at the end of the novel and we learn more about her inspiration. It’s really well done and she manages to remind readers of the sense of trepidation we felt then. Uncertainty about what was to come, but at the same time expecting a quick crisis before life returned to normal. She doesn’t belabour the virus stuff though. It’s more of a backdrop or a setting – a marker of time and place – rather than being part of the plot itself.

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard was published in Australia by Allen & Unwin and is now available.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review.

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Hi, I’m Deborah… a seachanger living on Australia’s Fraser Coast, in Queensland. I write about books and life in general.

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Word of Mouth

Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:.

As most of the world was at home during lockdown and cocooning to the max, authors were in the same boat, and their writing could have gone in one of two directions. They could have written about the pandemic or somehow infused it into their work. The more popular choice was to write solid, entertaining, escapist fiction in worlds that were not impacted by COVID-19 to allow readers to disappear into a novel and forget about what was going on in the real world.

Irish author Catherine Ryan Howard chose the first option with her book, 56 DAYS. In a brilliant turn, she not only references the pandemic but uses it as a plot device to hide an alleged murder. In the Author Notes, she indicates how the characters had kept her company, and she wishes that in a brighter, more hopeful world, their story would entertain us as well.

"In a brilliant turn, [Howard] not only references the pandemic but uses it as a plot device to hide an alleged murder.... 56 DAYS is pure perfection and a psychological thriller of the highest order."

Howard has become a must-read author. An Edgar Award finalist for THE LIAR’S GIRL, she produced the most unique take on the serial killer novel I have ever read with THE NOTHING MAN. So it goes without saying that I eagerly awaited the opportunity to read and review 56 DAYS. As the title indicates, the story unfolds over a period of 56 days, the majority of which are during the government-imposed pandemic lockdown, this one taking place in Dublin, Ireland.

Each chapter is set on a different day during this timeline. It's a genius move from Howard, who can keep readers off-balance thanks to this disparate storytelling, which skillfully reveals and hides key plot twists. The first chapter is set “Today,” and we find two detectives from the Gardai investigating the discovery of a body in one of the many apartment units at a tightly compressed complex in Dublin. Fifty-six days ago was the first meeting of Oliver and Ciara, both of whom were at a local grocery store in the self-checkout line. They run into each other again at 53 days, and Oliver clumsily asks Ciara out to a movie. He has learned in their brief time chatting that she is a fan of anything related to NASA and astronauts, and he has found a cinema playing a film in that genre.

The pandemic hits incredibly early in their relationship, and they find themselves spending more time in their apartments. Eventually they will choose Oliver’s flat as Ciara’s is way too small. They learn more about each other, like how Ciara is originally from Cork and Oliver has just returned to Ireland after living in London. He also spends a lot of time texting and phoning someone named Rich, who he says is his brother from Australia.

When the action returns to “Today,” we see the detectives questioning various neighbors and gathering data primarily about Oliver. As the novel propels forward, you will have a challenging time putting it down as two very odd and telling plot twists are revealed. There are many questions about Oliver and Ciara for which you will want answers, and you will be eager to find out whose body was found by the Gardai.

56 DAYS is pure perfection and a psychological thriller of the highest order. For fans of Howard’s work, you will appreciate the slick mention of the serial killer known as The Nothing Man --- a great shoutout to her prior novel.

Reviewed by Ray Palen on August 20, 2021

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

• Publication Date: August 17, 2021
• Genres: Fiction , Psychological Suspense , Psychological Thriller , Suspense , Thriller
• Hardcover: 450 pages
• Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
• ISBN-10: ‎1982694653
• ISBN-13: 9781982694654

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The Quick and the Read

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Book Review: ’56 Days’ by Catherine Ryan Howard

Too soon for a novel about the pandemic?

In a word, no! This is a lively and cleverly structured novel that takes us through a lockdown mystery. I raced through it in two sittings because I really needed to know what happened.

The story begins when Ollie and Ciara meet in a Dublin supermarket (56 days before the present day). They bond over Ciara’s space shuttle bag and a romance begins. When the Irish Taoiseach orders people to stay in their homes, the couple decide to live together rather than spend the lockdown apart. However, a murder investigation in the present day suggests that something has gone wrong and the Garda are left puzzling over what could prove to be a perfect crime.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel – I did wonder whether it was too soon to be reading about the pandemic, but actually it was strangely cathartic to go over the weirdness of the past year and a bit in the company of some fictional figures. Indeed, the pandemic – with masks, lockdown, limited social contact – actually creates a brilliant and creepy backdrop for a thriller in which secrecy is key.

My favourite parts of the novel were the sections about the police investigation. I loved the Garda team – the way that they are introduced at the start of the novel made me laugh (oh dear, Karl!) and the dynamic between them is brilliant. The fact the lead detective is female was an extra bonus for me.

I enjoyed the cross-cutting between Ollie and Ciara in the past and the police investigation in the current day – this ratchets up the tension as the reader hunts for clues about what happened and feeds on the paranoia of both Ollie and Ciara regarding the situation they have got themselves into.

It’s so hard to write about this book without giving spoilers, so I’ll just recommend that you read it! I think this would appeal to domestic thriller fans mainly, although there is the added bonus of a police procedural element too. It’s pacey, cleverly-plotted and compelling to the last. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

If you want to pre-order this book (out 19th August) – and I think you should! – please use my affiliate link below. Thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.

Header photo by Eric Rothermel on Unsplash

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Bookworm, Mum and English teacher. Resident of Cheshire in the rainy north of England but an Essex girl at heart and by birth. View all posts by TheQuickandtheRead

3 thoughts on “Book Review: ’56 Days’ by Catherine Ryan Howard”

I’m not entirely sure if I’m ready to read a book set during the pandemic personally but I trust your judgement that it’s cathartic in a way. I’m glad you enjoyed it!

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56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard – Book Review

Warning – possible spoilers! (Tiny ones, though, and I’ll try to avoid even those; I swear I’ll give my best not to ruin it for you… :-))

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard – Book Details

TITLE  – 56 Days

AUTHOR – Catherine Ryan Howard

GENRE – thriller , mystery

YEAR PUBLISHED – 2021

PAGE COUNT – 305

MY RATING – 4 of 5

RATED ON GOODREADS –  3.87 of 5

A huge thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an audiobook version of 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard in exchange for an honest review.

What It Is About

He made his way to the checkouts where he saw that she was just about to join the line – perfect timing, but whose? – and he’d hung back so she’d have to do it in front of him, and that’s when she’d stopped and looked up and their eyes had met.

Amongst all the other things the lockdown was, was it also a perfect opportunity to commit a crime and get away with it?

Ciara and Oliver met in a supermarket right before the Covid pandemic reached Dublin. When after only a couple of weeks the lockdown has been announced, they decided to move in together and spend the quarantine in Oliver’s apartment.

But when the lockdown is done, there’s a decomposing body in the apartment and not much evidence as to what happened. No one of the neighbors knew the couple. No one has the slightest clue how they got into that position.

What happened in 56 days since they met that pushed one of them over the edge and cost the other one their life?

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard – My Review

Ah, the sweet suspense… Not only who done it, but in this case also – who died?!

I was in such a mood for murder mysteries lately, that’s practically all I want to read. And 56 Days has been everywhere , I’ve heard so many people talking about it and – they got me intrigued. When I got the opportunity to read the early copy, I just couldn’t pass on it.

And boy, did it deliver!

The premise of this book was so good. Two people meet during the pandemic. Because of the lockdown they don’t get a lot of opportunity to get to know each other well. But they still decide to live together through the lockdown.

Which is more than reckless. But also – I mean, I can see it. On one hand, you have an almost complete isolation. On the other, you can spend that time with someone you’ve just met, but kind of like.

Sure, things could go wrong, but that severely – what were the odds?

This book pulled me in from the start and kept me on the edge of my seat like not many others. It follows 2 timelines and it is told from 3 perspectives, the two in the past unsynchronized. Which sounds like it might give you a head spin, but it was actually quite easy to follow. It would annoy me in many other cases, but I thought it was a great way to present this particular story.

I actually really liked the format. The going back and forward. Each new perspective adding new layers to the story. Adding a new meaning to what you’ve read before. How quickly every thought and every small action starts to have a double meaning.

Since we knew for a fact that something horrible is about to happen in 56 days, all the chapters from the past felt like a countdown. And like a guessing game. There’s a body, but whose? Someone is hiding something, but what?

To me, the beginning was like a sweet romance between two flawed, insecure people who somehow managed to find each other and now have a chance to spend the lockdown not alone. So what went wrong?

56 Days is set during the first lockdown in Ireland. I know a lot of people don’t like to read about the Covid pandemic, but for some reason I find these books relaxing. I know it doesn’t make much sense, but in my head, I guess – if I see it in a fiction book, it somehow makes it less real?

This is not the first book I read that includes a lot of guidelines and procedures we had to follow these past months. But what I loved about 56 Days was that it didn’t only mentioned these things – it used the lockdown as a plot device. And it used it so successfully, a lot of the things worked out because of the quarantine.

It added another layer of mystery, where they had to ask themselves do I know so little about this person I’m living with because of the pandemic, or are they actually hiding something. Is this distrust I’m feeling paranoia, or could this person actually hurt me?

And though the twists weren’t 100% unpredictable, there were several surprises I didn’t see coming. And I love when a book keeps me guessing till the end.

Still not quite sure what I think about some aspects of the ending. But other than that, I really enjoyed this read.

I listened to 56 Days as an audiobook, and I am sure I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as I did if I read it physically. The narrator did an amazing job. I loved how she managed to pull me into the story, I just couldn’t put it down. Literally – I was looking for any excuse I possibly could to keep listening.

I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews and I know this book won’t be for everyone. But to me it was exactly what I’ve been looking for. The story was intriguing, exciting and on a weird level – relatable. The narration was really good. And though in many ways this was a typical murder mystery, it still had a dash or originality to it.

All in all, I had a great time with this book and I’m more than glad I’ve read it.

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Where Geeky Makes Sense

Book Review: 56 Days | Catherine Ryan Howard

📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚 56 Days

AUTHOR: Catherine Ryan Howard  #CatherineRyanHoward

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Stars: ⭐⭐ + 🐢

Published: August 17, 2021

https://amzn.to/3CrPxEm

The Review 📚 56 Days

✨ The Title/Cover Draw:

• I received this book from Book of the Month and thought the setting was interesting.

💜 What I liked:

• The basic premise of the murder happening during COVID lockdown was so clever. I think I most connected with the POV of the cop – which I never do. I don’t like to be negative about books, but there wasn’t much I liked. However, I will say it wasn’t boring.

😱 What I didn’t like:

• I listened to this book on audio as well as physically reading. The book jumps between multiple timelines and POVs. As such, it was so confusing to follow to even catch the general story. It reminded me a lot of All The Missing Girls by Megan Miranda.

🚦 My face at the end: 🤔

💭 2 Reasons to Read:

• 1. Interesting setting
• 2. Plot twist on plot twists on plot twists

🕧 Mini-Summary:

• Ciara and Oliver meet and decide to move in together during lockdown. 56 days later, one of them is dead.

All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

📘 Summary 📚 56 Days

No one knew they’d moved in together. Now one of them is dead. Could this be the perfect murder?

56 DAYS AGO

Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin the same week Covid-19 reaches Irish shores.

35 DAYS AGO

When lockdown threatens to keep them apart, Oliver suggests that Ciara move in with him. She sees a unique opportunity for a new relationship to flourish without the pressure of scrutiny of family and friends. He sees it as an opportunity to hide who – and what – he really is.

Detectives arrive at Oliver’s apartment to discover a decomposing body inside.

Will they be able to determine what really happened, or has lockdown provided someone with the opportunity to commit the perfect crime? 

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Freelance Editor, Stay-At-Home Mom, Aspiring Novelist, Sports Enthusiast

Book Review: 56 Days, by Catherine Ryan Howard

A foul odor causes residents of an apartment complex to call the police. The officers responding discover the body of a man that has been dead for about two weeks. Investigators must piece together the scant number of clues to figure out what happened.

Rewind 56 days. Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket in Dublin, Ireland and soon begin dating. Shortly after they meet, COVID-19 begins to infest Ireland, causing businesses to close and employers to keep their employees home. When the government imposes a lockdown, Ciara and Oliver want to continue to see each other. Oliver suggests that Ciara move in with him. Ciara agrees but does not get rid of her own apartment. The restrictions provide a great opportunity to see where the relationship will go without pressure from family members. However, it also prevents them from verifying anything that they tell each other.

The reader finds out that Ciara and Oliver each have a past that could lead to less than honorable intentions for the relationship. Ciara wants to find answers about her brother’s death and Oliver was convicted of murder when he was young. Oliver’s real identity is a secret and protected, but someone has let him know that they know who he really is and where he lives. He begins to suspect that Ciara has is not who she says she is just as Ciara realizes that Oliver is not who he says he is. When secrets are revealed, Ciara walks out of Oliver’s apartment and possibly his life. A distraught Oliver has difficulty sleeping, so he takes a sleeping pill, but then Ciara stops by to talk. Can he get through their conversation? Is she coming over to tell him that everything will be okay? Or does she have something sinister on her mind?  

56 Days is a classic who-done-it mystery written in a present-day pandemic time. Vivid details to Dublin as a locked down city provide the reader with a real sense of what it was like when a bustling city went quiet. The chapters alternate between narrators – Ciara, Oliver, the investigators – as well as different times. It becomes a bit difficult and disjointed at times to jump between three different time spans. Narration also shifts between Ciara and Oliver within chapters, making it even more choppy to read. There are several grammatical and spelling errors, which get under my skin. If you can get past that, the storyline is fantastic. It has a sort of Alfred Hitchcock feel to it. Ciara and Oliver both have interesting and connected backgrounds that are completely revealed by the end of the book. The author does a great job in creating twists and turns in the plot that the reader will not see coming. In my opinion, this is a great story, but needed just a little more time in editing.

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56 Days, a review by Cat

Published August 19, 2021 By Corvus Books 450 Pages

Find it on Amazon | Goodreads

*This post contains affiliate links. We earn a small commission if you purchase the book through the link.

How would you commit the perfect murder? Could you do it – and get away cleanly? This question sits high on the minds of the characters within 56 Days.

56 days ago, Ciara and Oliver had the perfect meet-cute. They found each other in the supermarket, and it was all thanks to one item she was carrying. Now, they’re talking about moving in together. Just short-term, while they try to cope with the early days of Covid-19.

Now? Now the police are investigating a body, and I’ll give you three guesses where it was found.

56 Days wins the honor of being the first thriller novel I’ve read that was actively set during the pandemic. Having 56 Days set during the earliest days of the pandemic was chilling. Literally, it gave me the chills, as this setting was borderline too real for me, and it certainly added to the impact of the story.

I know that this is probably not something all readers will appreciate, though! Sometimes we want an escape, and a reminder of the past year is not precisely that. Still, I have to give Catherine Ryan Howard so much credit for what she did here.

56 Days is told through three different perspectives and unfolds at a cautious pace. Ciara and Oliver’s story primarily takes place in the past (granted, it’s not a distant past – only 56 days ago), while our good detective is stuck in the present, trying to work her way through what happened.

This shifting nature allowed the mystery to hang in the air than it otherwise could have. It kept me on the edge of my seat, trying to guess the who, what, why, and how. It kept me perfectly entertained for the evening.

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'Hard by a Great Forest' traces a family's journey back to a land they fleed

3 new memoirs tell stories of struggle and resilience

‘this american ex-wife,’ ‘everywhere the undrowned’ and ‘the manicurist’s daughter’ delve into the challenges of knowing oneself and one’s family, ‘this american ex-wife: how i ended my marriage and started my life,’ by lyz lenz.

What’s clear from the very first page of Lenz’s new book is that her ex-husband is a real jerk: leaving garbage to fester on the floor, taking Lenz’s feminist mugs and hiding them in the basement, telling her she should get pregnant with baby No. 3 and write fiction to be “less stressed out.” Oh, and he voted for Donald Trump . Lenz acknowledges that getting married young and being raised in an evangelical community didn’t help her self-actualization skills. “Do you want to know how I finally got my husband to do his fair share?” Lenz asks. “Court-ordered fifty-fifty custody, that’s how.”

But “This American Ex-Wife” is bigger than Lenz’s horrific marriage. Lenz is a journalist; her previous books, “God Land” and “Belabored,” explored the religious right in middle America and the rights of pregnant people. In her latest, she sets out to prove, using anecdotal evidence and hard statistics, that marriage (as a structure, in this country) is an oppressive tool determined to squeeze the life out of any woman it entraps. While it might be tempting to shrug off Lenz’s argument because of her unlucky (and that’s a nice word for it) coupling, the data here is persuasive. In heterosexual marriages, women bear more of the domestic and emotional labor, even when they are the primary breadwinners. This isn’t inherently because of the institution of marriage, but it stems from the ways we’re socialized to believe that women should function in a family. Lenz quotes a sociologist: “Other countries have social safety nets. The U.S. has women.”

“This American Ex-Wife” can be exhilarating or worrying, depending on the status of the person reading it. What ultimately makes it compelling, whatever one’s feelings about straight marriage, is the sheer joy that Lenz so obviously experiences as a single woman. Even when she meets a man she likes, “the best man I’ve known,” she says, “I was still scheduling and reminding and doing the emotional and cognitive labor. And I was no longer interested in doing all of that. I wanted to be the one who was free.” Lenz is done with marriage, but her book carries a more powerful message than “marriage sucks.” Women’s lives, their happiness and their desires, matter. If a husband stands in the way of a woman being “equally and fully human,” as Lenz puts it, well — it’s time to take out the trash. (Crown, $28)

‘Everywhere the Undrowned: A Memoir of Survival and Imagination,’ by Stephanie Clare Smith

“Cats don’t get sad,” Smith’s mother once told her when the family cat went to hide under the house, presumably to die. “Still,” Smith writes, “I could see it.” There’s not much Smith doesn’t see as a survivor of rape and neglect. When she was 14, her mother left her alone at home in New Orleans to fend for herself over a summer. Looking in her mom’s closet, still filled with all her clothes, “I knew somewhere in between all the shoulders hung my worry — Will she come back? ”

The memoir “Everywhere the Undrowned” is, somewhat unbelievably, Smith’s first book. A poet and essayist, she works as a clinical social worker and mediator in Raleigh, N.C. Her book conveys a story that many survivors of neglect and sexual violence will recognize. Her own experience led her to help other victims. One, named Tiffany, was 14 when her mother decided to relinquish her custodial rights. They discussed tattoos: Tiffany wanted “my mother’s name on my right arm and my sister’s name on my other arm,” she told Smith, despite the fact that her sister wouldn’t claim her, “because I am full black and she’s half.” “This is what it is,” Smith reflects. “We tattoo ourselves with the people who won’t claim us.”

After she was raped by a man in a green truck the summer of her mother’s absence, she put the clothes she had been wearing during the attack in a paper bag and placed them near a trash can. “But when I got back upstairs, I could still hear them crying. After an hour, I brought the clothes inside,” she writes. “They quieted down or else they just died.” This book, told in short vignettes like one of the books Smith recalls reading — “Bluets,” by Maggie Nelson — is a kind of prose poetry that recalls the work of writers like Denis Johnson and Raymond Carver. When Smith finally told her mother about her assault, the response was deeply upsetting. “ Why are you telling me this? She was hot; she was mad. She walked like a gun as she walked out of the room.”

That Smith survived that summer in New Orleans is remarkable. That she found the drive, space and courage to turn that experience into this book is what makes “Everywhere the Undrowned” not only a compelling memoir but a work of literature, the kind she was reading that horrible summer. She recalls staying up late to read Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre”: “One morning, I found a dent on my cheek from where her bound corner slept into me all night.” Describing how Jane survived, because of “her resilient heart cave,” Smith is also describing herself. (University of North Carolina Press, $20)

‘The Manicurist’s Daughter: A Memoir,’ by Susan Lieu

“In Vietnamese, there are six tones that can change the definition of a word,” Lieu writes. Depending on tone, the word “ma” can mean mother, but, tomb, horse, ghost or rice seedling. The loaded connotations of a lost mother are what haunt and propel this memoir, which is based on Lieu’s one-woman theater show, “140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother.” Lieu was 11 when her mother died after a botched tummy tuck procedure performed by a doctor who was on probation at a plastic surgery clinic in San Francisco. The youngest of four, Lieu later made revenge her mission — but when she discovered that the doctor who had performed the surgery was dead, her mission morphed into another: to know her mother. It was a mission made impossible by her family’s unwillingness to speak about her mother or the circumstances of her death.

“It wasn’t until I went to college that I learned words like ‘capitalism,’ ‘exploitation,’ and ‘intergenerational trauma,’” Lieu recalls. Her parents were from Chinese families that had fled persecution into Vietnam, and from there to America. Lieu was the first child born in the United States, so her mother decided to give her an American name. It was also the name of the first nail salon her parents opened, Susan’s Nails, over which her mother presided like a general. When Lieu went to Harvard, students shared their parents’ careers: surgeon, professor, lawyer. “My dad does nails,” Lieu told them. “He’s a man-i-curist.”

Unsurprisingly, Lieu had a hard time finding her way in life. Her father remarried, her aunts moved out, she fell prey to a yoga cult run by a White woman who demanded money in exchange for spiritual detoxing. Her family’s running commentary on her weight was relentless: “You look fat,” one aunt flatly said. Lieu was driven by some force to keep pushing to learn about her mother in the face of her family’s stonewalling.

“What was she like?” Lieu said in the second iteration of her one-woman show. “No,” her director instructed, “say it like you’re in Viet Nam and you’re shouting across the ocean to America.” Lieu’s foray into theater proved to be a healing balm, not only for her but for her siblings and father as well. “As I inhabited their words, their gestures, their voices, my perception of them began to change,” Lieu writes. “My energy toward them shifted, and so did their communication with me.” Two of her siblings joined her for a Q&A after a performance. “We were children who had tragically lost our mother. Two decades later, I could finally stop because we had found her, through one another.” Maybe. In reality, “The Manicurist’s Daughter” shows that Lieu did the heavy lifting herself. (Celadon, $30)

Jessica Ferri is a writer based in Berkeley, Calif., and the author, most recently, of “Silent Cities San Francisco.”

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56 Days Audio CD – CD, August 17, 2021

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''Bloody good.'' -- The New York Times

''Timely, surprising, emotionally alive, this is about as good as suspense fiction gets.'' -- Washington Post

No one even knew they were together. Now one of them is dead.

56 DAYS AGO

Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin and start dating the same week COVID-19 reaches Irish shores.

35 DAYS AGO

When lockdown threatens to keep them apart, Oliver suggests they move in together. Ciara sees a unique opportunity for a relationship to flourish without the scrutiny of family and friends. Oliver sees a chance to hide who -- and what -- he really is.

Detectives arrive at Oliver's apartment to discover a decomposing body inside.

Can they determine what really happened, or has lockdown created an opportunity for someone to commit the perfect crime?

Distress Signals

The Liar’s Girl

The Nothing Man

• Print length 1 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Blackstone Publishing
• Publication date August 17, 2021
• Dimensions 5.91 x 1.1 x 5.67 inches
• ISBN-10 1982693797
• ISBN-13 978-1982693794
• See all details

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Product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Blackstone Publishing; Audio CD edition (August 17, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Audio CD ‏ : ‎ 1 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1982693797
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982693794
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.1 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.91 x 1.1 x 5.67 inches
• #33,861 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
• #46,081 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
• #64,772 in Books on CD

About the author

Catherine ryan howard.

CATHERINE RYAN HOWARD is the author of 56 DAYS, which was a no. 1 bestseller in her native Ireland and named a Thriller of the Year by the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Irish Times. It won Crime Fiction Book of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards 2021, was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2023 and is currently being developed for screen by Amazon Studios and Atomic Monster. Her other work has been shortlisted for the CWA's Ian Fleming Steel and John Creasey/New Blood Daggers and the Edgar Award for Best Novel. Her seventh thriller, THE TRAP, inspired by a series of real-life disappearances in Ireland in the 1990s, will publish in August 2023. She is based in Dublin. Find out more on www.catherineryanhoward.com

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Book of Donald: Trump hawks special ‘God Bless the USA’ Bibles for $60

Former president sells Trump-endorsed Bible in concert with Lee Greenwood, country singer whose music is played at his rallies

Patriotic, prayerful and rightwing Americans are being offered the chance to purchase – for a mere $59.99 – a Bible endorsed by Donald Trump , in the latest example of the former US president touting wares to the American public.

In a post to his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, the current presumptive Republican nominee and 88-times charged criminal defendant said : “Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless the USA Bible.”

In an accompanying video message, Trump said : “I’m proud to be partnering with my very good friend Lee Greenwood – who doesn’t love his song God Bless the USA? – in connection with promoting the God Bless the USA Bible.”

Greenwood, a country singer whose signature tune is played at Trump rallies, is offering the Bibles for sale through a website, GodBlessTheUSABible.com.

The site features a picture of Trump smiling broadly and holding a Bible in front of his red-and-white-striped club tie. The cover of the Bible is embossed with the words “Holy Bible” and “God Bless the USA” and a design based on the US flag.

Greenwood’s website says the Bible is the only one endorsed by Trump, counsels buyers on what to do if their Bible has “sticky pages”, and answers the important question on many peoples’ minds: “Is any of the money from this Bible going to the Donald J Trump campaign for president?”

“No,” the site says. “GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign. GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J Trump, the Trump Organization, CIC Ventures LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates.

“GodBlessTheUSABible.com uses Donald J Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.”

CIC Ventures was established in 2021 by a former Trump aide and a Trump-linked lawyer in Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump has lived since leaving power. Its principal address is that of Trump International Golf Club. The company has also been involved in Trump-themed money making schemes including digital training cards and gold sneakers.

Given Trump’s status as a thrice-married legally adjudicated rapist and billionaire New York property magnate nonetheless dependent on evangelical Christian support , his true relationship with and knowledge of the Bible has long been a subject of speculation.

In June 2020, towards the end of his presidency, he memorably marched out of the White House, across a square violently cleared of protesters for racial justice, and posed outside the historic St John’s church while holding a Bible in the air.

A reporter asked: “Is that your Bible?”

Trump said: “It’s a Bible.”

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In his video on Tuesday, Trump said: “Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country and I truly believe that we need to bring them back and we have to bring them back fast. I think it’s one of the biggest problems we have. That’s why our country is going haywire. We’ve lost religion in our country. All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many.”

In response, Gregory Minchak, of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, commented : “There’s not a cross nor a picture of Jesus on the page, but plenty of photos of Trump. Who do you think this $60 Bible is for? It sure isn’t for Jesus.”

Sarafina Chitika, a senior Biden campaign spokesperson, issued a stinging statement.

“The last time the American people saw Donald Trump hold up a Bible,” she said, “it was for a photo op after he teargassed American citizens demonstrating against white supremacy.

“He can’t be bothered to leave Mar-a-Lago to meet with actual voters, but found the time to hawk bootleg sneakers, sell cheap perfume and promote his ‘new’ product to line his own pockets.

“It’s classic Donald Trump – a fraud who has spent his life scamming people and his presidency screwing over the middle class and cutting taxes for his rich friends.”

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By the BOOK

Morgan Parker Says ‘Poetry Is Under Everything’ She Writes

Crafting the arguments in “You Get What You Pay For,” her first essay collection, “felt like pulling apart a long piece of taffy,” says the author of “Magical Negro.”

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What books are on your night stand?

The craft anthology “How We Do It,” edited by the great Jericho Brown, and Shayla Lawson’s astounding “How to Live Free in a Dangerous World.”

Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).

Probably on the smoking patio of a wine bar at happy hour on a sunny day, with a pencil in my hand and Dorothy Ashby or Ambrose Akinmusire playing through noise-canceling headphones. Or just a quiet morning on my couch with coffee, so engrossed I forget to flip the record.

What’s the last book you read that made you laugh?

“Erasure,” by Percival Everett . I picked up a used copy at Shakespeare & Company recently — after seeing Cord Jefferson’s brilliant adaptation , “American Fiction” — and even on a reread, it made me laugh out loud from the first page.

The last book that made you cry?

Weird or obnoxious if I say my own? Before that, it was probably Y.A.

Do you count any books as guilty pleasures?

That category’s filled to the brim and beyond by reality TV.

How do you organize your books?

Loosely or not at all. This is much to the horror of my Virgo pals, and while I used to take pride in navigating my shelves on familiarity alone, it’s something I’ve vowed to work on. Still, I doubt I’ll ever be an alphabetical type, and clearly I find genre segregation constricting. I do group things thematically, or even interpersonally — music biographies, Black Panthers, Harlem Renaissance; Jessica Hopper is next to John Giorno, and Chase Berggrun’s “R E D” is next to “Dracula”; Julie Buntin’s “Marlena” is beside her husband Gabe Habash’s “Stephen Florida”; Alison C. Rollins is next to her partner Nate Marshall is next to his bestie José Olivarez. At some point Hilton Als’s “White Girls” ended up next to “Male Fantasies,” and I don’t think I’ll ever separate them.

Which genres do you avoid?

There’s an essay in “You Get What You Pay For” where I mention reading a self-help book (as recommended by my now-former psychiatrist). I’d never read one before and have not since.

How does your poetry relate to your essay writing?

The truth is that poetry is under everything. It’s the lyric and sensory backbone. It’s what drives the sound, pace and imagery. (Everyone knows the best prose writers write and read poetry.) But while a poem strives for precision of language, the essay strives for precision of thought, even argument. In a poem, you can build (or approximate) an argument by plopping two images next to each other. It persuades by pointing. Writing these essays felt like pulling apart a long piece of taffy — I found myself reiterating a lot of what I’ve already expressed in poems, so it almost became a project of stretching out each poetic line, breaking down each concept to its root. The process is about asking, pondering, searching — and letting language take part in the answering.

You have a knack for terrific book titles. How did you name your new collection?

Thank you! I love a good title, but I also acknowledge the high bar I have set for myself. With this one, I struggled a bit, I think because it took me a while to understand the book myself, let alone how to introduce it to the world. The essays encompass a lot of seemingly disparate themes and even tonal registers, so framing the overall collection was daunting. I’d been tossing around a couple of options, including “Cheaper Than Therapy,” which appears as an essay title, when Jay-Z made the choice for me. I was in Italy at a residency, grieving the recent loss of my aunt and watching the “Big Pimpin’” video over and over as I worked on an essay about it for the book. I’d left my heavily tabbed copy of “Decoded” at home in Los Angeles, but was scrolling a PDF for details about the video shoot when I came across the line: “If the price is life, then you better get what you paid for.”

You describe yourself as foolish for believing “words could be the pathway to empathy and writing an active resistance against hate.” Might publishing this book change your mind?

Honestly? It’s my only hope.

What’s the last book you recommended to a member of your family?

“Heavy,” by Kiese Laymon, to my mom; Blair LM Kelley’s “ Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class,” to my dad; and “A Is for Activist,” to my 8-month-old cousin.

What do you plan to read next?

Phillip B. Williams’s “Ours” was just published, and I’ve been excited about it for literally years. Vinson Cunningham’s “Great Expectations” came out the same day as my book, so I plan to make that my tour read.

You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

June Jordan, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin — but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t get just as much fun and fulfillment from a night with Angel Nafis, Danez Smith and Saeed Jones.

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