Burn After Reading

Claustrophobic and menacing, Burn After Reading is a taut thriller that makes for breathless reading as Ryan Howard masterfully takes us from the picture postcard Sanctuary into an ever-tightening knot of scorching hot lies. From the first page to the last satisfying twist, don't pick this book up if you have an early start the next morning!

Sam Blake, bestselling author of Little Bones

In Burn After Reading, Catherine Ryan Howard delivers yet another pulse-racing, nerve-jangling masterpiece that grips tight and never lets go. Ingeniously plotted, daring and darkly original

Amanda Cassidy, Irish Times Bestselling author of The Perfect Place 

Catherine Ryan Howard has once again delivered the perfect thriller. Superbly paced, effortlessly elegant writing, and complex characters who keep you on your toes throughout the narrative. I loved it!

L. V. Matthews, author of the Richard and Judy Book Club pick The Twins

Catherine Ryan Howard is one of the most exciting writers working today. In Burn After Reading, she delivers another fascinating, thrilling and truly unputdownable book. I devoured it in a single sitting

Catherine Kirwan, author of A LESSON IN MALICE

Burn After Reading is a scorcher . . . It. Has. Everything. The setting, the characters, the inside-publishing chit-chat, the echoes of real-life cases, the athlete mentality and most of all the heart-stopping tension. I will always drop everything to read a new Catherine Ryan Howard novel and you should too

Jane Casey, bestselling author of A STRANGER IN THE FAMILY

Tense, atmospheric . . . A couldn't-put-it-down psychological thriller

Andrea Carter, author of DEATH WRITES

In Burn After Reading, Catherine Ryan Howard uses her mastery of perspective to craft a brilliant jigsaw puzzle of a story. Sea-soaked and eerily perfect, small-town Florida never felt more claustrophobic

Ande Pliego, author of You Are Fatally Invited

Once again, CRH has upped her game and come up with the most devious plot yet. The relationship between a ghost writer and her subject is separated by the thinnest of veils, especially when he is a murder subject, in this ingeniously twisted, intriguing and entertaining mystery. Bravo!

Liz Nugent, bestselling author of Strange Sally Diamond

Burn After Reading is scary and surprising, a tightly-plotted thriller with an unstinting sense for guilt and complicity. Catherine Ryan Howard is brilliant

Flynn Berry, author of Northern Spy and Under the Harrow

I’ve been turning the pages like mad on Catherine Ryan Howard’s book Burn After Reading, which will be out in the new year. It’s a cracking story… I was lucky to get a preview copy and it was perfect for the morning train journey

Ryan Tubridy, Irish Mail on Sunday

Catherine Ryan Howard will glue your eyes to the page with Burn After Reading! This is one red hot thriller that boasts a vivid, true-crime authenticity at its molten core. A psychological cat-and-mouse game between a potential wife-killer and his reluctant ghost-writer is played out with a host of brilliant twists, all delivered in Ryan Howard’s lively, effortless style. Five sizzling stars.

Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The Appeal

A cat and mouse game of the most intricate nature, this is a novel which spins you around and back again. You don't know who to trust until right at the end, when all the answers cleverly fall in to place. So gripping the pages turn themselves

Araminta Hall, author of One of the Good Guys

Opening with the most nail-biting scene I’ve ever read, Burn After Reading rollercoasters its way through beautifully unexpected twists and turns right to the blistering finale. Sharp, clever and wonderfully tense – an outstanding one-sitting read, I adored it

Andrea Mara, bestselling author of Someone in the Attic

Tense, chilling and extremely well-plotted

Sarah Turner, 'The Unmumsy Mum', bestselling author of Stepping Up

Ryan Howard, a master of twisty tales (56 Days, The Trap) may pin us to the mat again with this yarn

RTE, 'The best new Irish fiction coming in 2025'

Queen of the plot twist Catherine Ryan Howard always guarantees her reader a great time. In her latest book, a ghostwriter is tasked with writing the memoirs of a celebrity widely suspected of murder, but it turns out she has a guilty secret of her own… you’re in great hands here as Ryan Howard takes you on another twisty-turny journey into human behaviour.

The Journal, '22 Irish books to look out for in 2025'

An addictive, twisty read

Irish Country Magazine

An utterly gripping read. Burn after Reading gets its hooks in right from that memorable first scene, not letting go as it builds an exquisite tension

Mary Watson, author of THE CLEANER

Burn After Reading is a masterclass in suspense, utterly addictive, intelligently crafted, and impossible to put down. Catherine Ryan Howard somehow channels both Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark. This is a triumph

Clémence Michallon, internationally bestselling author of The Quiet Tenant

A craftily constructed and genuinely sinister thriller

Mail on Sunday

A pulse-pounding read

Woman's Own

A gripping read and addictive thriller

That’s Life

Shocks and twists loom

Peterborough Telegraph

Twisty, suspenseful and gripping

Edel Coffey, The Gloss

A clever set-up . . . Catherine Ryan Howard's chilling novel has parallels with the case of OJ Simpson

Sunday Times

[Catherine Ryan Howard] excels in twisty-turny thrillers that you're willing to relinquish sleep for

Irish Examiner

A real can’t-put-it-down read

Bishops Stortford Independent

One of the joys of Catherine Ryan Howard's books is her high-concept plotting . . . [A] twisty read

Belfast Telegraph