Catherine Ryan Howard is a bestselling crime writer from Cork, Ireland and is the author of several popular thrillers including “The Liar’s Girl”, “Rewind” and more recently “The Nothing Man”.
“56 Days” is her latest novel and one of the earliest to be published featuring the recent lockdown.
- No one knew they'd moved in together. Now one of them is dead. Could this be the perfect murder? -
I’ve enjoyed Catherine’s books before and was intrigued by how the lockdown focus would work in a domestic crime thriller, so I was keen to read “56 Days”. The story is told in two parts narrated in intermittent chapters; the discovery of a putrefying body and the investigation by the Dublin Guarda and then the days during lockdown when Olivier and Ciara meet in a supermarket and begin a relationship. Set out in various timelines, covering 56 days, we go back and forth in time and read the two characters differing points of view and emotions. I liked the layout and how the story was told, it keeps the readers attention and with some unexpected twists and turns, I was certainly keen to keep turning the pages. I did however, find that it took a while to endear to the guarda characters but once I became accustomed to their banter and camaraderie, I liked their approach to the investigation.
The country’s lockdown was recounted perfectly and was quite surreal that the author obviously experienced the same emotions and observations that I did during the many months of isolation. Although because of the lockdown aspect, not all readers will enjoy this if they were affected badly by the Covid virus or restrictions but this is a very cleverly thought out, multi layered story that was unique and very well written.
4 stars and I look forward to the next novel by this author in the future.
“56 Days” is her latest novel and one of the earliest to be published featuring the recent lockdown.
- No one knew they'd moved in together. Now one of them is dead. Could this be the perfect murder? -
I’ve enjoyed Catherine’s books before and was intrigued by how the lockdown focus would work in a domestic crime thriller, so I was keen to read “56 Days”. The story is told in two parts narrated in intermittent chapters; the discovery of a putrefying body and the investigation by the Dublin Guarda and then the days during lockdown when Olivier and Ciara meet in a supermarket and begin a relationship. Set out in various timelines, covering 56 days, we go back and forth in time and read the two characters differing points of view and emotions. I liked the layout and how the story was told, it keeps the readers attention and with some unexpected twists and turns, I was certainly keen to keep turning the pages. I did however, find that it took a while to endear to the guarda characters but once I became accustomed to their banter and camaraderie, I liked their approach to the investigation.
The country’s lockdown was recounted perfectly and was quite surreal that the author obviously experienced the same emotions and observations that I did during the many months of isolation. Although because of the lockdown aspect, not all readers will enjoy this if they were affected badly by the Covid virus or restrictions but this is a very cleverly thought out, multi layered story that was unique and very well written.
4 stars and I look forward to the next novel by this author in the future.