*Book of the Month #1 July 2021 Pick*

*A Washington Post Best Thriller of August*

*A PopSugar Best Book of August*

*A Brit + Co Best Summer Read*

*CrimeReads Most Anticipated Crime Book of the Summer*

*Women.com Hottest Thrillers of the Summer*

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.

TODAY
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?

There’s plenty of suspense in this wonderfully atmospheric and paranoid psychological thriller – The New York Times

Timely, surprising, emotionally alive, this is about as good as suspense fiction gets ― Washington Post

56 Days, Catherine’s newest crime novel, is without a doubt my favorite book of hers yet — and destined to be one of my top favorite books of the year. This clever and claustrophobic domestic thriller utilizes the pressure cooker of Ireland’s strict COVID lockdown policies to amp up the tension between a newly dating couple who decide to move in together rather than be forced to stay apart when COVID lands on Ireland’s shores. This book is masterfully plotted, deliciously entertaining, and brimming with the kinds of clever twists and reveals that you really won’t see coming. — Crime by the Book

56 Days is definitely one for thriller lovers that crave suspenseful story lines. Catherine Ryan Howard is a mastermind with this one. — Fresh Fiction

56 DAYS is pure perfection and a psychological thriller of the highest order. – Book Reporter

56 Days is a terrific novel written by an author who is certain to become a distinguished voice in crime fiction. You won’t want to stop reading until the very end. — Karin Slaughter

This book is splendid. The lockdown thriller you DO want to read. — S J Watson, No. 1 bestselling author of Before I Go to Sleep

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

I was surgically attached to this twisting lockdown thriller. Clever, tender and all too convincing, it’s the kind of book you read in one breathless sitting to get to the truth, and then again, slowly, to see how the author did it. — Erin Kelly

A terrific, chilling premise, elevated by the plot’s sophisticated architecture … a first-rate thriller ― Sarah Pekkanen

Addictive and very smart — Sarah Vaughan, bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal

56 Days? I read it in 24 HOURS because it was so compulsive, intriguing and fantastically entertaining. I could not let it go. ― Liz Nugent

Dark and dazzling, funny, sinister, and oh-so clever. I read 56 Days in a breath held right up until the final, mesmeric pages. Catherine Ryan Howard is ridiculously talented. — Chris Whitaker

Catherine Ryan Howard has become my go-to writer for utterly absorbing, original stories with a killer twist and 56 Days delivers all this and more. If you read one thriller that captures the start of lockdown in all its surreal and terrifying uncertainty, let it be this. Just remember to breathe! — Jo Spain

Absolutely faultless … 56 Days is crime-writing perfection and Catherine Ryan Howard is a seriously talented writer ― C.L. Taylor

An absolute belter from the high priestess of high concepts. Claustrophobic, thrilling and fiendishly clever in both its structure and its twists. ― Sarah Hilary

Magnificent. A high-concept thriller executed with panache and heaps of emotion. ― Caz Frear

Catherine Ryan Howard takes on one of the most disturbing types of crime we know about and treats it with both intelligence and sensitivity. ― Literary Review

The lockdown thriller you didn’t know you needed. An utterly brilliant and completely satisfying pageturner — Catherine Kirwan

Written and plotted so well and left me guessing up to the end. Brilliant! ― Patricia Gibney

A tense, edgy and compulsive read – 56 Days is brilliantly plotted, darkly humorous and utterly unexpected. This is Lockdown, but not as you know it. ― Sam Blake

A timely, twisted thriller ― Image

Don’t want to read a lockdown novel? Neither did I. Then I read 56 Days and changed my mind. Absolutely brilliant! ― C S Green

Mind-blowingly brilliant ― Irish Examiner

A bravura piece of storytelling … immediate and timely ― The Quietus

Howard is brilliant at creating high-concept crime plots with killer twists …The plot is riveting, the writing seamless and the characters very convincing … the perfect – despite the pandemic setting – escapist novel ― Sunday Independent

Ryan Howard’s plotting is second to none. The novel also has the virtue of precise, vivid and efficiently delivered prose – Ryan Howard writes with an economy of style that brings to mind the work of Lee Child … highly recommended ― Sunday Business Post

Staggeringly accomplished … its sustained emotional power raises it to the first rank ― Irish Times

I first fell in love with Howard’s writing in The Nothing Man and I jumped at the chance to read her latest. Even though I had a rough idea of what was going on with Ciara, I was still able to be surprised by the twist. I enjoyed the timeline jumps and the same story being told from both Ciara and Oliver’s perspectives. It gave a really rounded experience and reminds you that you don’t always get the whole story from one person. Perfect addition to your reading list! — San Francisco Book Review