Burn After Reading

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard

https://www.amazon.com

Emily Joyce is a writer who can’t seem to write anymore. She wrote a bestselling novel and accepted a large advance to write a follow up book. Then, somehow, six years went by without said follow up book materializing. Now she’s surviving on a dead end job and just hoping that Morningstar, the publishing house, has forgotten about her. 

But then Morningstar decides they need a ghostwriter and that Emily is going to have to repay them by being one. So Emily ends up interviewing a famous athlete who may or may not have killed his wife. 

This was an exciting thriller with several surprises. I love this author!

I also read recently by this author: Rewind

Rewind

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Social media influencer Natalie O'Connor suspects that her husband Mike is hiding something from her after she finds a charge on his credit card for Shanamore Cottages, a seaside resort in western Ireland. He claims to have never heard of the place, but Natalie is unconvinced and sets out to go there herself on the spur of the moment. 

Meanwhile, Mike has no idea where Natalie has gone and eventually files a missing persons report. That report gets the attention of a small-time internet reporter named Audrey, who runs with the story. Will Audrey find Natalie alive? Or is it already too late?

This was an exciting mystery thriller with several surprises!

I also read recently by this author: The Nothing Man

The Nothing Man

Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

"The Nothing Man" is the name given by the Irish press to a serial killer who foils police by leaving no traces of himself behind. Although he stopped killing over fifteen years ago, people still remember that name, so when a new book comes out with that title, it draws a lot of attention.

But it especially draws the attention of the Nothing Man himself, an old guy named Jim who works as a department store security guard and who is secretly pleased with himself for getting away with his crimes. Jim becomes obsessed with the book and its author, Eve Black, a woman whose whole family he had killed. He is desperate to know what Eve remembers about the night of the murders, although she had been only twelve at the time and was hiding in a bathroom.

This was an exciting premise and a great thriller story.

I also read recently by this author: The Liar's Girl

The Liar's Girl

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of this novel, a young woman is killed by the Grand Canal in Dublin in the same manner as five women had been similarly murdered ten years ago. But Will Hurley, the man convicted of those crimes, is still locked in the city's Central Psychiatric Hospital. Is this a copycat crime? Or was Will innocent all along?

Will's ex-girlfriend Allison has been living in the Netherlands since his arrest and conviction, trying to forget she had ever known him. But then the Garda call her back to Ireland to help with the case, and she is swept up again...

This was a very exciting story with a big twist at the end!

I also read recently by this author: Run Time

Run Time

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Adele is an Irish actress, but she's trying to make it in Los Angeles after a wrong decision burned her career back on the Emerald Isle. It's not going well in the USA, so when she gets a last minute offer for a low budget horror film back in Ireland, she decides to take it. And she wants to take it quickly, before any rumor of her previous on-set breakdown gets to the new director. But when Adele gets to the remote location, it's more remote than she'd bargained for. Plus the director is giving her a weird vibe...

This was an exciting page-turner of a thriller with several surprises!

I also read recently by this author: 56 Days

56 Days

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

56 days ago, Ciara met Oliver at the Tesco and struck up a conversation. Today a dead body has been found in an apartment. In between the two events the whole of Ireland has been shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was an exciting story with several twists. I really recommend it!!

I also read recently by this author: The Trap

The Trap

Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Lucy's sister Nicki has been missing for a year, but Lucy is still searching for her. In fact, Lucy has virtually put her life on hold, all of her previous plans in a limbo state as she tries increasingly dangerous things to hunt for Nicki. Then there's an unexpected development in the case, and a renewed hope that Nicki might indeed still be alive! 

When a chance presents itself for Lucy to recapture public interest in her sister's disappearance, Lucy resolves to take it, no matter what the risk. And the risk is pretty high!

This was an exciting thriller with several surprises and a twist!

I also read by this author: Distress Signal

Distress Signal

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Adam takes his girlfriend Sarah to the airport in Cork, Ireland, for a quick business trip to Barcelona. He is supposed to be working on his writing, so he isn't alarmed when he doesn't hear from her at first. But then her parents call him, worried that she isn't answering her phone Then Sarah doesn't come home as scheduled. 

Adam discovers that Sarah actually called in sick to work, and lied about the purpose of her trip. So why did she go to Barcelona? And where is she now? The police seem to think she left of her own accord, but Adam is determined to investigate. He may not survive finding the truth...

This was a great story with several surprises! I will look for more by this author.

Normal People

 Fiction by Sally Rooney

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the story of Connell and Marianne, a pair who should just fall in love (and live happily ever) after on about page twenty-five, but instead meander all around in unpleasant ways until the unsatisfyingly ambiguous end of the book, by which time you no longer like them any more and have stopped caring.

Yes, I actively disliked this book. I disliked it even more so because I liked it at first, and then the author spoiled it, slowly, like milk turning bad. AND it's an award-winner with the "smart-person-book" pretension of not using quotation marks when someone is talking. Ugh.

The Day that Never Comes

 Fiction by Caimh McDonough

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the second book in a trilogy of five. (See below.)

Wait, isn't a trilogy supposed to be only three books? Well, yes... The "Dublin Trilogy" is a set of quirky and funny mystery novels. And it's so quirky that there are more than three books...

In this story, detective Bunny McGarry himself is missing, and his amateur sleuth friend Paul is going to have to find him. But Paul is having trouble because his girlfriend Bridget isn't speaking to him, and she's really the brains of the operation.

I also read recently by this author: A Man with One of Those Faces

A Mother’s Secret

Amazon Kindle Prime Fiction by Caroline Finnerty

https://www.amazon.com

Rowan Whelan asks her old college boyfriend James to meet her one day because she has something to tell him. When a car accident interrupts them, it seems Rowan will never get to reveal the secret she had meant to tell James. But then it seems the secret will come out on its own: a secret that could devastate Rowan’s husband and three children, as well as James’s wife Helena. 

This was a pretty good book but a little more predictable than I’d have liked. 

I also read (for free!) from Amazon Prime Kindle recently: The Stillwater Girls

A Man With One of Those Faces

 Fiction by Caimh McDonnell

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Paul Mulchrone is the eponymous “man with one of those faces”; he often gets mistaken for someone else. But things go a bit too far when someone tries to kill him, not once but twice! 

Now Paul has a mystery to solve, and he’d better get it figured out before it’s too late!

I also read by this author: The Quiet Man

I Have Sinned and The Quiet Man

 Fiction by Caimh McDonnell

https://www.amazon.com//https://www.amazon.com

These two books are sequels to Disaster, Inc, and they were just as enjoyable. I think I actually felt that the third book was the best, which is unusual.  

This trilogy (which seems to be longer than a trilogy, as it appears at least one more book is planned) is following an Irish ex-policeman called Bunny McGarry in his quest throughout the USA to find his long-lost love, Simone. 

But that's not the best description; it's more like the reader is following the crazy antics of this ex-copper as he gets himself into --and out of-- one dangerous situation after another. It's fun reading!

Disaster Inc

 Fiction by Caimh McDonnell

https://www.amazon.com

At the beginning of this novel there is a New York diner with a motley late-night crowd. In addition to the cook and waitress, there's a half-asleep homeless man, a terrified-looking Hispanic woman with a young son, an Irishman who has lost his wallet, and a young woman who keeps checking the door as if she's expecting a date. Then a pair of gunmen burst into the scene, but it's not robbery they're really after. Can the reader guess which of these people are they here to capture or kill? And what craziness will get set in motion this night?

This was a fun little caper story by an Irish author I hadn't heard of before. I will look for more of his books.

Big Girl Small Town

 Fiction by Michelle Gallen

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Majella O'Neill lives in a small town in Northern Ireland and works in a fish and chips shop. Her mum is an alcoholic, her dad disappeared long ago, and her grandmother has just been murdered. It's been a bad week, especially for a girl like Majella who hates changes (and pointless conversation, and loud noises, and a lot of other things).

I really liked Majella, but I didn't love this book. I felt disappointed by the ending, the story didn't really go anywhere, and it wasn't funny, despite the promises of humor on the cover. Still, the author created a great character, and that's worth something.

The Outside Boy

 Fiction by Jeanine Cummins

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story is set in 1959 Ireland and is about the Pavee, a race I'd never heard of. They are sort of Irish gypsies, although they are not related to the European Roma people, ones typically called "gypsy."

Anyways, the Pavee family in the story are travelers who live in wagons, and the main character is a 12-year-old boy called Christopher. I really enjoyed the story and the characters; this was a good book, although not as good as Ms. Cummin's more recent novel American Dirt. It's still well worth reading.

I also read recently by this author: The Crooked Branch

The Crooked Branch

 Fiction by Jeanine Cummins. 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Ginny Doyle wakes up in the mid-nineteenth century to the potato blight and an Ireland just beginning its descent into ruin. Over a hundred and fifty years later, her descendant Majella wakes up in New York City with a difficult case of postpartum depression. The women are linked by sorrows of different kinds, and although it may be tempting to say that Majella’s is the the lesser trouble, that is definitely not the author’s point  

Ms. Cummins really gets the reader into the mind of her characters and draws you into their worlds. This was a really good story.

I also read by this author: American Dirt. 

Sheltering Rain

Fiction by Jojo Moyes.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

A good inter-generational story about a daughter, mother, and granddaughter, this book reminds me of Maeve Binchy in its Irish-ness. This is an early novel by JoJo Moyes, so she had not established her style completely yet, I guess. Better stories she wrote later are: Me Before You, The Girl You Left Behind

A novel worth reading, still.

Chestnut Street

Fiction by Maeve Binchy.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

I really like Maeve Binchy. In the last post I wrote about her (see A Week in Winter), I mentioned that I was sad she would be writing no more books now that she's passed away.

Well, I was wrong.

Here's a new book.... from beyond the grave....

Actually this is a collection of short stories she wrote before she died, some of which had been previously published in other places. They were all good stories, but I like full novels better. Just when I get interested in the characters, the story ends.

In other words, the problem with short stories is that they are short.