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56 Days - Catherine Ryan Howard

 


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?

Review

This book was just pure genius.

From word one this book had me on the wrong footing. I decided to play amateur sleuth and turn my assumptions on their head. This is much better I thought I've got the measure of this book. Except I really hadn't at all...

Ciara and Oliver have a chance meeting in a supermarket queue and strike up a conversation which leads to them dating. At first we read it as seen through the eyes of Ciara, but then the book reverts back to the same events, but this time told by Oliver. Not expecting this,  at first I didn't understand why the book was repeating events. Then it begins, maybe all is not as it seems when seen through the eyes of the other person.

Meanwhile we have the present day and the Detectives investigating the discovery of a decomposing body. The Detectives were great characters with their own little backstory and of course we get to see the story through their eyes too.  Initially the report of the body is ignored. As it is phoned through by someone who is constantly ringing to report people not observing the lockdown rules. Because, this is when the book is set, during beginning of Covid 19. 

The descriptions of life under lockdown were spot on. The deserted streets, the joy of an open shop, re-examining the current rules to figure out where and for how long you could go. It's also why Ciara moves in with Oliver even though they have only just met, after all who wants to be alone in a strange city?

About half way through the book I could not put it down and read it until the end. Once the truth dawned on me I started to figure out what had been happening. Not knowing that the author had led me to believe what I wanted to believe and so when the truth came out again, and again I was just left reeling by the ingenuity of the plot.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Readers First for this book.

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