At the end of our interview, crime writer Catherine Ryan Howard starts crying. Let’s be clear: she’s not sad. She is, in fact, possessed of a glorious “fever dream”, as she has already told me. The tears are a combination of jet lag from arriving back from Los Angeles less than two days previously; a week of drinking champagne; and the fact that she was in LA for the premiere of 56 Days, an Amazon Prime adaptation of her 2021 novel, streaming since Wednesday of this week.
Ryan Howard’s ninth novel, Buyer Beware, focusing on a house where it appears a murder has previously taken place, comes out this summer. Now 43, it was her fiendishly twisty and utterly addictive fifth crime novel, 56 Days, about a new couple in Dublin making a bubble of two in an apartment together during lockdown that really made her name. It’s not a spoiler to say one of the couple ends up dead. It won the Crime Fiction Book of the Year at the 2021 Irish Book Awards, and remains a bestseller. It’s this book that is now streaming in eight episodes (all eight dropped the same day.) Other novels are in development.
But back to the premiere of 56 Days in Los Angeles. The series stars Dove Cameron and Avan Jogia. Cameron has a high-profile presence on social media, and over 47.5 million followers on Instagram alone.
“They flew me first-class to LA and they sent me a car. A car picked me up from my apartment, and a car dropped me back to my apartment,” Ryan Howard says. To tie in with the blue branding of the show’s promotional photography and newly released version of the book, the carpet was blue. So was Ryan Howard’s dress.
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“I had spent the last few months wondering what to wear,” she says. “I spent an absolute fortune on various dresses. I sent them all back, and ended up wearing something I already had in the wardrobe for the last two years, because I felt so comfortable in it, and it was blue.” (From Boden, in case anyone was wondering.)
“In the book, the body is found in a shower. In the show, the body is found in a bath. When you arrived at the after party, the first thing you saw was this bath filled with bottles of champagne,” she says.
Literary agent Sara O’Keefe accompanied her to the premiere. After cocktail hour, the first episode was shown, and then there was a party. “We were the last two to leave. Our car was the last car waiting. And we said apologies on the way out, ‘We’re Irish.’ We were clutching leftover champagne bottles, as much as we could carry. It was the night of my life,” she says.
[ 56 days review: One of the worst things I’ve ever watched, and I loved itOpens in new window ]
“No matter how much fun you’re having in publishing, it’s always tainted with some sort of stress. Even if you’re having an amazing book launch, you’re worried about how many people are going to come; you’re worried if people are going to like the book; you’re worried am I going to sell copies; you’re worried you won’t get another book deal. There’s always something. And the premiere, because I absolutely had no responsibility, or anything to do with the show, it was just pure fun. Pure joy. Amazing.”
Prior to streaming this week, the trailer had upwards of 78 million views; a number that would put any writer whose work is being showcased into a fever dream. Few writers get to this point in a career, and Ryan Howard is fully aware of the fact.
“I think people have this idea once you get published that the rejection is over. It is so much more difficult to stay published than to get published,” she says. “A lot of the time, being a full-time writer means getting paid to be professionally disappointed. You are very lucky you are getting paid, but being a writer is very, very, very tough. And there is so little about it you can control. I am really proud of myself that I kept doing it. That I kept going. And that I had this experience last week that was beyond my dreams. The most important thing is to keep going. There are so many people who publish two books and then they are like, ‘This is too hard. I can’t keep going.’ I have never, ever had the thought of giving up. I’ve always kept going. Now I feel I am getting the reward for that.”
She has strong views on the reader-review sites, such as the enormously popular Goodreads, where some authors lurk regularly.
“I only read reviews of my books in newspapers, I have not darkened the door of Goodreads for years, and my life is a million times better for that. Authors shouldn’t read reviews by readers. Especially now, since there are so many of them, that it doesn’t matter what the review says, you can find another review that says the opposite. I love that anyone is talking about the book. These people are not getting paid, and they are spending so much time curating and doing these posts. But it is all for other readers. Authors should just stay out of it; it’s not a feedback situation. The book is done. I can’t change anything.”
Mysteries and secrets coil through Ryan Howard’s books like snakes. “What I love about mystery is how quickly it goes away with information,” she says. “If you look at the Nicola Bulley case [the British woman who accidentally drowned in Lancashire in 2023, when out dog-walking; which drew countless amateur sleuths to the scene], and all the speculation about what happened to her. All that went when the woman’s body was found, tragically. What had happened is that she had slipped and fell in the river. Increasingly, we can’t accept simple explanations. Even when she was found, there were people who wouldn’t accept that was what had happened. For me as a writer, I find that fascinating.
“As a writer, you can take something simple. The explanation for 56 Days is actually quite straightforward. But you couldn’t tell that at the beginning of the novel, because I hide it in all the smoke and mirrors and distractions. That’s what I love about writing novels. I start at the end. I take the really simple thing that happened, usually for a simple reason, and then walk backwards.”
She talks about the myriad ways women feel “a low-level awareness of our personal safety at all times”. She gives an example from her own life. “I stopped getting my groceries delivered, because the drivers were too chatty and inquisitive. I had one [delivery driver] one day saying, why do you have so many books by the same person? They were my own books. And then afterwards, when he left, I was thinking: if he ever comes across me in a public way, he knows where I live. And he could guess that I live alone. A man would never have that thought.”
Do you seriously think I am going to lose sleep – apologies to all the Ciaras – that the pronunciation is wrong? I’m not precious
— Catherine Ryan Howard
She writes a book a year. I ask whether she knows her sales figures, and she says she doesn’t. “I am more concerned about advances. If you have a really good agent, you will rarely see royalties, because you will have been paid a good amount.”
Her writing process, like many writers, is to write several drafts. Unlike most writers, each draft is a completely new one. “Every single draft is a different book, apart from the last draft, which is tweaking. Otherwise, I start with a new blank document and start the whole book again. That’s the only way for me to do it. To me, it’s the best way to get it smooth. I genuinely don’t understand how people go in and edit drafts; that to me is harder.”
So how did 56 Days make it all the way to our screens?
“The book was out there for about a year,” she says. “I do have a film and TV agent in LA, who did her best and sent it out to everybody. But no one was interested in a Covid story. I had had other things optioned at that point, but nothing was coming to fruition. All these things begin with an email out of the blue, which is what I got one day. Two showrunners had just picked up the book at random after walking into a book shop.”
It sounds like the format of a classic joke, but this was no joke. Her book was about as swiftly greenlit for production as these things can be, and next thing, Ryan Howard was visiting the set in Montreal. The series is neither set in Ireland – it’s set in Boston – nor during Covid. Dove Cameron’s character, named Ciara, is pronounced See-ara, which will definitely annoy a few Ciaras.
“I don’t care,” she says. “I have a TV show. I have been incredibly well compensated. This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me. Do you seriously think I am going to lose sleep – apologies to all the Ciaras – that the pronunciation is wrong? I’m not precious. I love TV as much as I love books, but I haven’t made 10 seconds of television, so what could I possibly say or do to help make this? My attitude was, leave it to the professionals. When they were breaking it to me that it wouldn’t be set in Dublin, I said: ‘I don’t care if you set it on the moon. All I care about is having the best TV show possible’.”
Ryan Howard is a named co-executive producer of 56 Days. What does the role mean?
“Literally nothing. Just accept the cheque. And be in the big photo on the blue carpet. There are executive producers who are instrumental to making the show, but when the author is named that, they’re usually not doing anything.”
Ryan Howard has made a point in previous interviews about the fact she is still renting. Most casual observers would deem her career a successful one, and thus she should be able to afford to buy a property.
“I am self-employed in a creative industry,” she says. “I would be purchasing a home by myself. Am I in a position to buy a house? No. Hopefully in the next couple of years. The reality of the situation is, I won’t get a mortgage, even though I’ve been paying exorbitant rent for nearly 10 years. But they don’t care about that. The reality of the situation is, I would have to be a cash buyer. There’s talk of a season two of 56 Days, with an original story. If I buy, I would probably be buying back in Cork. Which I would love; somewhere by the sea in east Cork. That’s the dream. Where I can just hide out and write my books.”
56 Days is now streaming on Amazon Prime
