I’ve read quite a few books by this author, so was delighted to get a copy of her latest novel, Burn After Reading. The cover appealed to me and fits quite well with the story and title.

Emily is living in fear of paying back a €25,000 advance to her publisher as she’s been unable to write a second novel. When she gets the opportunity to write off her debt by being a ghost writer, she jumps at the chance. Jack Smyth has been suspected of murdering his wife and covering it up by setting a fire. He wants to write a book to tell his side of the story. They head to a development in Florida that’s still under construction. Emily feels like she’s being followed and watched, but by who?

The book switches between timelines and different characters points of view and this disrupted the flow of the story for me and made it feel a bit disjointed. Normally this author writes pacy, thrilling books that you can’t put down, but this one felt slow. It does pick up a bit in the last section but not enough to redeem itself I didn’t think.
I didn’t connect with the characters and maybe this contributed to why I felt it was so disjointed.

There are some serious issues dealt with in this book, such as sexual assault, coercion, domestic abuse, but in a way these felt skimmed over.

The ending was underwhelming and a damp squib for me.

This book was OK overall but I think this author definitely has more gripping and pacy books.

2.5 stars rounded to 3.

I really loved how unpredictable the book was! The atmosphere was weird and a bit scary and I had the urge to make sure my front door was definitely closed.

Burn after reading by @cathryanhoward

This book gave me the serious chills. It’s not often a book moves me that way (given how many thrillers I’ve read) but reading this in the house alone at night gave me a few chills

The writing is so atmospheric and tense and creeps the reader out. Jack is a weird character and the weird things that keep happening in the holiday home. The remoteness; the weird behaviour and then there’s the fact that Jack could be a killer. You would not find me ghost writing his book.

I enjoyed the story within a story aspect of this book and I always do find that this authors writing style is very unique and one I enjoy reading

This book is a great thriller for reading round the pool. It’s out on Thursday and highly recommend from me.

Thank you so much to the publisher for gifted finished copy

i've been singing catherine ryan howard's praises for the past few years and i was v excited to get early access to her latest

this book explores morality, ghostwriting, the true crime industry, all set in an eerie new community in florida. so compulsively readable, very tense and unsettling, and again i really liked the ending

Wow! This book pulled me in from the start. It's full of twists that keep you guessing right til the end. Highly recommend.

My first read by this author and I must admit, I struggled with it. The premise was so good that I decided to keep going but I just couldn't have any connection with the characters, and the chapters, although short, were all over the place and I had to keep going back to keep track.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review

This was as you would expect from this author a book full of twists and turns most of them. I just didn’t see coming making it one heck of a good read. I liked the character of Emily and enjoyed the rapport between her and Jack and how it changed as the book progressed. This is one that I would recommend to all lovers of crime fiction perhaps it could’ve been a little shorter as towards the end as it seemed to drag a bit but that’s my only gripe. All in all it’s a book I enjoyed a lot as it kept me guessing.
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Bantam for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Another cracking read from Catherine Ryan Howard, Burn After Reading is full of plot twists and suspense.

Emily is a successful debut novelist, struggling to write her second book. Summoned to a meeting with her publisher, she is asked to ghostwrite a memoir for famous cyclist Jack Smyth.
After agreeing, Emily is flown to Sanctuary, a partially built town in America, where she is staying next door to Jack.
It turns out that the memoir she is being asked to write is actually a “non-confession “ from Jack, regarding the death of his wife, previously thought to have died in a house fire, but is now known to have been dead before the fire started.

This was a challenging read, told from multiple pov and timelines. I loved the twists.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy in return for my honest review.

If you like your thrillers darkly clever, and just a little bit unhinged, Burn After Reading is your next obsession.

Catherine Ryan Howard delivers a wild ride through the world of true crime, fiction, and the blurry lines in between. It’s a story within a story—where the author’s manuscript might just be confessing to a real murder.

Catherine Ryan Howard knows how to write a twisty thriller - and this is is another well-crafted and compelling read.

Emily is a writer who, after a successful debut novel, is struggling with second book syndrome. In order to placate her publisher she agrees to ghostwrite the memoir of former professional cyclist Jack, who lost his wife Kate in a house fire. With evidence suggesting Kate was dead before the fire, Jack is the prime suspect - and the book is his opportunity to put his side. Emily flies to Florida to spend a week interviewing Jack - and things take some unexpected turns. What really happened - and what secrets is Emily herself keeping?

This is a story that keeps you constantly off balance, never quite knowing who to believe or who to trust. The fact that it all takes place in Sanctuary, a still under construction new town, adds to the sense of unease and isolation. Told in a mix of timelines and from multiple points of view, this is a book that keeps you guessing as details are slowly revealed - and keeps you turning the pages eager to get to the truth.

I was more disappointed than anything else by this book. Having enjoyed previous work from Catherine Ryan Howard and then whist it was on my tbr list I seemed to constantly be reading encouraging reviews and recommendations of it but the reality wasn’t as good as the anticipation
So going against what evidently is the majority view I thought the characters were leaden and despite a very original plot the story just dragged for me. The forward by the author was enticing so maybe just overall I heard and read too much so it was almost an inevitable fail.
It’s the book of the month for discussion in one of my book groups so I will be interested to see if anyone shares my opinion…

Emily is offered a chance to ghostwrite the autobiography of professional cyclist Jack Smyth who lost his wife in a house fire the year previous. She really wasn’t in a position to turn down this offer as her 2nd book was overdue to her publisher and she wasn’t in a position to pay back the advance.
She heads to Florida to interview Jack but with a lot of restrictions and this is when things start going wrong.

This is a decent read and will certainly keep the pages turning but not up to the author’s usual high standards. Somewhat disappointing.

Thanks to NetGalley.co.uk and the publishers for this ARC.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I did not know who to believe in this book and thought the ending was really satisfying

I don’t tend to read crime or thrillers because I am a massive wuss, but I make an exception for Catherine Ryan Howard because she has the most brilliant ideas. The concept for Burn After Reading - inspired by OJ Simpson’s own apparently fictional confession - blew me away and I couldn’t wait to read it.

There’s something almost comforting in CRH’s writing, even when she’s writing about horrible events, I think it’s knowing you’re in safe hands with a writer totally in control of the material. I was gripped by this book from the opening pages and read it in a day. Towards the end I thought it got a bit convoluted and convenient, but not so much that it spoiled my enjoyment. Also the setting is fantastic and unlike anything I’ve read before. 4.5/5

Thoroughly enjoyable book. Engaged with me from the opening page to the closing chapter. It gives the reader plenty of opportunity to second guess what could possibly of taken place that fateful night.

Really unique story a good book to curl up with and enjoy

Successful author Emily is struggling to start her second novel when she is tasked by becoming a ghostwriter for Jack, and Olympic cyclist who has high hopes for clearing his name after he is accused of murdering his wife, Kate.
As Emily spends days cooped up in an isolated house in Florida with Jack, getting all the information she needs for his book, the lines between innocence and guilt start to become increasingly blurred.

This was my first book by Catherine Ryan Howard and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The dual timelines and POVs always hook me in. Not a book with many twists, but a book that will keep you guessing and wanting more long after you put the book down.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Burn After Reading is the new crime thriller from Irish author Catherine Ryan Howard. In multiple narratives, it focuses on the story of former Olympic cyclist turned entrepreneur Jack Smyth, who is the prime suspect in the death of his wife, Kate.

Kate narrates some chapters too, recounting her days in the run-up to the fire that claimed their County Clare home. Autopsy results showed that Kate had been beaten to death before the fire started.

Most of the book is narrated from the perspective of Emily, a Dublin writer who has been tasked with ghostwriting Jack's memoir, in which he hopes to clear his name. Emily has one successful book under her belt but is struggling with her sophomore effort. Instead of returning her author's advance to her publishing company, they've asked her (forced her) to take on this project.

Emily spends a week in Florida with Jack; put up in a brand new house in a partially finished, purpose-built new town. There are very strict rules imposed around their interactions, so there are no leaks about Jack's memoir.

While the concept of Burn After Reading is an intriguing one, and it has a very gripping opening section that will certainly hook its readers, I found it lost pace beyond its early chapters. Ryan Howard is well known for her clever plot twists and derailing red herrings, but unfortunately, I found there were too many in this book, and they were either repetitive or they got tangled up in one another.

While it is expected that a reader must suspend some disbelief with thrillers, sometimes having too many narrative strands can mean that characters end up doing things that are hard to accept based on what we've learned about them. It can also mean we don't get a satisfying ending.

I thought Emily lacked substance and depth as a character, and I do feel the multiple plots got in their own way. However, I don't think that will stop many readers from enjoying this thriller, and I have no doubt it will be a very popular read.

The concept of this book is so good! I had no idea that OJ Simpson wrote a book about "how he would have done it if he did" - a false confession of sorts. What a crazy idea! So I love that CRH has used that as the basis of her story here.

From the start, you're made to question Jack's guilt/innocence. Would an innocent person really make a false confession to prove their innocence?! Or is he using this as a means to confess his guilt and get away with it?

It's very clever and obviously allows for many twists to work their way in, especially when it comes to other players in the game.

I wish the impact of the twists were slightly bigger, but I enjoyed this all the same. It's a fast-paced and gripping thriller that explores some great themes around our consumption of true crime.

Burn After Reading is a tense and suffocating psychological thriller which kept me hooked right to the end.

I found the pacing a little changeable, which meant some of the characters didn’t have quite the impact they could have, and the story lagged in places. However I was sucked into the story even before it started. Howard’s author note at the start of the book set just the right sinister tone for this book, grounded in reality. Emily’s experience in the first chapter firmly cemented that eerie feeling and I just had to know what was going on. The ending was satisfying, and I would have loved to read more about what happens after the closing scenes.

Overall a compelling, creepy and captivating read, one I would highly recommend.

Thank you Random House UK for a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed are my own.

Burn After Reading by Catherine Ryan Howard was full of tension and suspense from start to finish, it was an excellent psychological thriller that will have you hooked. It is fast paced throughout with lots of twists and turns Especially as it will have you questioning every characters motives especially the main character Jack Smyth!

A year ago, Jack Smyth was a former professional cyclist, lost his wife in a fire at their home. His life fell apart around him. But the nation’s sympathy turned to anger when it emerged that she had died before the fire started, in a violent attack. Although Jack has never been charged in connection to her death, a suffocating cloud of suspicion hangs over him and he’s become convinced that the only way out is to tell his side of the story.

Emily Joyce is a ghostwriter and she is offered the job to write Jack's side of his story, her main motivation for saying yes is the payday and it will also be a great career move. She flies out to the eerie, empty, master-planned town of Sanctuary, Florida, to hole up with Jack for a week, getting his story down.

But the story Jack tells isn’t the one she expected. . . . . Soon Emily is thrown into a dangerous plot twist that she may not be able to write her way out of. . . . . . .

This book is so good and I highly recommend Burn After Reading. . Great holiday read.

Big Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers | Bantam for my ARC.