56 days by Catherine Ryan Howard @AtlanticBooks @CorvusBooks @cathryanhoward #56Days #NetGalley

 

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

Published by Atlantic Books

Publication Date: 19th August 2021

Genre: Crime, Mystery & Thrillers

My sincere thanks to the publisher for approving my request to read this title ahead of publication via NetGalley.

Book Description:

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.

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?

My Thoughts:

56 days is the book which has had me most invested in a book so far this year,  It is contemporary, intriguing and full of mistrust between the characters. 

Ollie and Ciara meet in the queue at Tesco, the beginnings of the covid19 restrictions meaning they are both a little wary of one another due to social distancing and all the other new rules being enforced by the supermarket. But is it just the restrictions which make them cautious of getting too close or is there more to their backgrounds which makes them so?

The chapters are told from the different characters' point of view and at various times between when Ollie and Ciara meet and the present day, 56 days later when it's obvious something awful has happened behind the closed doors of Ollie's apartment at The Crossings.  But where are all the characters now? And more importantly - WHO are they?

I loved trying to work out which of the characters was the bad guy, who had what information about the other -and what did the mysterious woman across the courtyard have to do with all of it?

The reader gets snippets about each of the characters drip fed throughout, just enough to raise even more questions rather than answer any of the existing ones.  The time switching set up won't suit everyone as you do need to keep track of the the chapter headings to keep with the story, but I found it extremely clever and intricately woven. I do hope people don't let this put them off though as it is SO worth working with. You can really feel the discomfort of the detectives as they attend the scene, including the very green (literally!) pair of newly qualified PC's who are first on the scene. The writing is descriptive enough for the reader to really imagine being on scene, and at times maybe even wish that they weren't! 

About the Author:

Catherine Ryan Howard's debut novel Distress Signals was published by Corvus in 2016 while she was studying English literature at Trinity College Dublin. It went on to be shortlisted for both the Irish Crime Novel of the Year and the CWA John Creasey/New Blood Dagger. Her second novel, The Liar's Girl, was published to critical acclaim in 2018 and was a finalist for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Novel 2019. That same year, Rewind was shortlisted for the Irish Crime Novel of the Year and was an Irish Times bestseller. She is currently based in Dublin.