56 Days – Catherine Ryan Howard
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: Ciara and Oliver meet cute in the grocery story right as the world enters COVID-19 lockdown. Rather than live apart and potentially destroy the fledgling relationship, they decide to move in together. A few weeks later one of them is dead.
Expectation: A whodunnit cashing in on COVID-19.
Reality: A surprisingly clever, sometimes shocking and utterly enjoyable mystery thriller that used COVID-19 as a logical plot point.
Recommended For: Both fans and detractors of the mystery thriller genre.
Why I Read It: Highly recommended from a friend whose opinion I trust.
My Take:
As Emily St. John Mandel reminded readers in “Station Eleven,” art can help us process shared trauma. While she used the works of Shakespeare — who wrote in the shadow of the bubonic plague — will COVID-19 be the catalyst for future generation’s most-beloved literature?
Time will tell if Catherine Ryan Howard’s “56 Days” makes that list, but it does have the distinction of being one of the first novels published with the COVID-19 lockdown as a central plot point.
You may wonder if reading about an event that you lived through — and likely did not enjoy — is worth it, and, ultimately, that decision will likely vary by person. I did, however, find something cathartic in reliving the confusion and fear of March and April 2020, now that I know we survived it.
“56 Days” is not “Station Eleven” in the respect that it will make you think about humanity and fate, it’s simply what it is intended to be: a distraction from reality.
I’m not a fan of mystery thrillers — they are often trite and full of tired characterizations and obvious plot twists — but I was pleasantly surprised here and found it reminiscent of “Gone Girl,” my gold standard for the genre, even though the text lacked the sardonic bite of Gillian Flynn.
Well plotted and written with a realistic voice, I was truly surprised by several reveals and found myself only mildly annoyed by the characters (the detectives) and decisions by our main characters, Ciara and Oliver.
Even if you removed the COVID-19 angle — although it does make the story seem more plausible — this is a mostly solid effort that I would recommend to both fans and detractors of the genre. Trust me, this is high praise!
There’s no point in rehashing the plot, as the Goodreads description does a good job of that, but once all the reveals are out on the table, I found myself wanting to go back to the beginning of the story to see how Howard manipulated us. Time jumps (forward and back in this case) don’t always work, but they are used to great effect here and aided in the mystery in a meaningful way.
I didn’t love the tidy ending or a few of Ciara’s reveals, but this was a solid effort and puts Howard on my radar as an author to watch.
Rating (story): 4/5 stars
Rating (narration): N/A
Formats: eBook (personal library)
Dates read: March 20 – March 30, 2022
Multi-tasking: N/A
