Burn After Reading by Catherine Ryan Howard

 

Five years on from her best-selling debut novel, writer Emily Joyce is struggling to even get started on her second book. When her publishers approach her to ghostwrite a memoir as a means of paying back her debut it looks like all of her problems have been solved until she discovers that Jack Smyth is the subject, the man everyone is convinced is guilty of murdering his wife.

Catherine Ryan Howard is one of those writers who ties your mind in knots, to the extent that once you've finished a book you want to go back to the beginning and spot all the little clues you missed the first time around. Burn After Reading didn't give me quite the same urge as the narrative reveals the hidden story bit by bit as we approach the conclusion.

The book opens with a foreword from the author, giving a brief explanation of how she comes up with some of her ideas. She then explains that O. J. Simpson had a book deal to write a confession, the story of how he committed the murders if he'd actually carried them out. All hypothetical obviously. Such a tantalising opening for a story.

As if the foreword wasn't enough to grab your attention, the terrifying first chapter grips you and doesn't let go. Things slow down a little then, just to give your heart a chance to return to normal, as we meet Emily. Given a two-book deal and a hefty advance on the basis of her first novel, she's struggled to even start the second book. A call from her publishers requesting a meeting fills her with apprehension as she's sure they'll ask for the advance to be returned, money she simply no longer has.

The publishers, however, suggest something different, they'd like her to ghostwrite a memoir of retired athlete Jack Smyth. Jack became famous as a professional cyclist and infamous following the suspicious death of his wife in a house fire eleven months earlier. Everyone is convinced Jack murdered his wife but he's never been charged. Jack wants to give his side of the story, even explain how he hypothetically carried out the murder, and then reveal it's all a work of fiction. Emily is nervous about the whole endeavor but understands it's her only way of clearing the debt she owes the publishers.

What follows is a multi-layered story that fills you with unease, unsure of who can be trusted, who is telling the truth, and what secrets are being hidden. The setting, a new town being constructed on the Florida coast, adds to the creepiness as it is isolated and has no residents, meaning that for a lot of the time Emily is alone with Jack. You constantly get a feeling of being watched, that someone is lurking and not knowing if they are friend or foe. As the tension builds, layers are peeled away and we slowly begin to glimpse the true, horrifying story.

Burn After Reading by Catherine Ryan Howard will be published on 10th April 2025 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Transworld Publishers for a review copy.

Author Details

Catherine Ryan Howard is the author of eight novels including the no. 1 bestsellers The Nothing Man, 56 Days and The Trap. Her work has been shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Crime Writers Association New Blood and Steel Daggers, and Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year multiple times. The screen adaptation of her lockdown thriller, 56 Days, is currently in production and will debut on Amazon Prime Video this year. She lives in Dublin.