A review by pumpkinpie20
56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

4.0

What a twist on the classic love story drama! Two main characters falling in love right at the dawn of the global pandemic and fighting not only for a chance at being open to love but also for the privacy of their own secrets. 56 days ago Ciara bumped into Mr. Right while on her lunch break and, with the help of the pandemic, moved in with him after only a few weeks. However, present day tells a different story when a body is found decomposing in one of their apartments. The questions becomes not just who does the body belong to but, more chillingly, what secrets are worth dying for?

Ciara comes across as your average tech girl who just moved to Dublin but after you read encounters from varying points of view, it becomes clear that things are not what they seem. Combined with the journey of a female police officer who is trying to solve the case in present day, everything unravels into a pile of spaghetti at first. The trick is in the details. With more than one plot twist and a rollercoaster of emotions, this book immerses you in a world that seems so similar to our own yet so unimaginable.

I enjoyed the way the Catherine Ryan Howard went back and forth along the timeline, with each chapter pealing back a layer of the truth until there was nothing but a pool of lies on the ground. It took a while to get the ball rolling and the story had a slow start but sticking along for the ride was absolutely worth it!

If you like atypical love stories mixed with murder mystery and tied up in a neat little bow of you own detective work, this book is the one for you.