Catherine Ryan Howard

Get ready to be addicted to the page-turning new mystery thriller from the no. 1 bestselling author of The Trap and 56 Days, in which two women's shattered lives come crashing together around a house whose secrets could bury them both. If these walls could talk, they’d scream… When Ellie moves into 1 Delaney Row, all she has to her name is the house, a small suitcase and the terrible secrets she’s desperate to keep. But what she doesn’t know is that her new home is already hiding someone else’s secrets – and the people determined to keep them are watching her. When a grim discovery prompts Ellie to find out more about the house’s past, she unwittingly puts herself on a deadly collision course not just with her new home’s history, but with her own as well… Inspired by so-called ‘stigmatised properties’ – houses with dark and violent pasts – Buyer Beware is an intricate puzzle-box of a thriller with a pulsing emotional heart, from an author at the very top of her game. Coming from @bantambooksuk July 16 🇮🇪🇬🇧 and @simonbooks July 28 🇺🇸 #ad (for my own book so, like, obvs?!)

Could you live in a house where someone had been murdered? How sure can you be that you don't? If these walls could talk, they'd scream... From the internationally bestselling author of 56 DAYS, a page-turning thriller about two women whose shattered lives come crashing together around a house whose secrets could bury them both. When Ellie moves to 1 Delaney Row, she hopes to find a fresh start: a place where no one knows her name, her history, or her secrets. But what she doesn’t know is that her new home is already hiding someone else’s secrets—and the people determined to keep them are watching her. As Ellie starts to unravel the house’s disturbing backstory, coming closer to the shocking mystery at its center, she unwittingly puts herself on a deadly collision course not just with her new home’s history but with her own past as well. A puzzle box of a thriller full of mind-boggling twists and turns, BUYER BEWARE is a chilling exploration of the dark secrets that any house can hold—and of the lengths we’ll go to when we are forced to start over. Coming to 🇺🇸🇨🇦July 2026 from @simonbooks and available to pre-order now (UK/Ireland cover coming soon!)

Did I dream it?! #56days

While I was offline (read: not posting but lurking, always lurking...) a trio of lovely trade reviews came in for BUYER BEWARE - including a ⭐️ from Library Journal! You can move in on July 16 with @bantambooksuk and July 28 with @simonbooks

Strictly speaking I wasn't on holiday - I know it looks like I was but not pictured: me and my laptop for hours on end - but I did get a *lot* of reading done... I tore through THE NOWHERE GIRLS and SUCH A NICE GIRL ie. proofs written by good friends of mine that I'm only getting to now, after they've been published, because I'm a bad one. Really enjoyed the publishing snark in THE ENDING WRITES ITSELF and trying to spot the whopper of a twist in DISSECTION OF A MURDER. Californian heat + the 60s + a serial killer made THE SECRET LIVES OF MURDERERS' WIVES ideal poolside reading, and woah, THIS STORY MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE turned out to be a *far* darker book than I was expecting?! Really enjoyed it though and loved the voice. SAOIRSE was spellbinding; I devoured it in two gulps. In NEVER TO BE FOUND, Jo Spain's flair for plotting turns a killer premise into a breathless thriller. It's being developed for TV by Amazon and it's so easy to see why. GOOD PEOPLE was brilliant, original, thought-provoking and *masterfully* constructed. A literary crime novel for grown-ups who don't need everything spoonfed and timestamped and labeled and explained - rejoice! It's going straight onto my Books of the Year list. Also going on it: THIRST written and read by John Robins, an "alcobiography" - his word - which was funny, moving, insightful, thoughtful, honest and lots of other good words. Impossible not to root for him and impossible not to have some insights about your own life/mind/choices while listening to him have his. And LONDON FALLING is, unsurprisingly, another stellar outing from Patrick Radden Keefe; the audiobook is worth the time commitment to hear him pronounce 'Salt-N-Pepa' alone. Off home now to stare down the barrel of a deadline and (probably) not read another book for, like, 3 months... 😫

Beautiful copies of Italian BURN AFTER READING ("Burn the Secret") arrived here in Dublin today - and in a repurposed Nespresso box, which @fazieditore might not have known were the main unofficial sponsor of me writing this and ALL my books. So much so that I was a little disappointed it wasn't 50 capsules of Intenso... 😂 BRUCIA IL SEGRETO and 56 GIORNI are out now 🇮🇹

My writing essentials: 1. My favourite mug + coffee 2. @theheadplan timer which, fun, I bought 3 of, one for myself and one for @hazelgaynor and @happymrsh for Christmas and Hazel did THE EXACT SAME THING 3. As far as I'm concerned, Apple's noise cancellation is the greatest invention in the history of civilization for those of us who write and live in apartment blocks 4. To quote (paraphrase?) Alison Spittle, I'm motivated mainly by money and spite 5. My "editing" wine - even though I'm first-drafting - but it used to be 9% by volume and then one day with no explanation it was 6%? What are you trying to say, @marksandspencerireland , eh?! 6. After we write and after we wine, we buy things with books on them from Sezane This post is brought to you by the fact that all I am doing right now is writing, sleeping and online shopping after wine because deadlines #notanad omg Instagram you are OBSESSED

Not all festivals are created equal and I hope everyone involved in @rushfestivalofwriting knows what a truly incredible job they've done in their very first year! @andreamaraauthor and I spent a lovely sunny afternoon getting expertly grilled by @tiredmammybookclub on plotting vs pantsing, book-to-TV adventures and what's coming next. Thanks to everyone who came and congrats to Lauren, Sean and your team. Also, how amazing is this author gift bag?!

3 great books I read recently, which are also the *only* books I've read recently, aside from some research-y stuff... Anyone who has ever talked to me about books knows how much I love @jessicaknollauthor 's BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN. (I even included it in my talk at @crimefictionweekend last summer.) If she writes it, I'll read it. There's just something about her writing, her voice, her characters - the pages of her books seem to crackle with electricity and, when it comes to subject matter, she's utterly fearless. Maybe never more so than in HELPLESS, a dark, daring, sexy, twisty tension-fest that roars Knoll's steadfast refusal to ever write the same book twice. Out in July from @simonschusteruk You probably know this already because YESTERYEAR is everywhere but: a raw-milk drinking tradwife influencer with a farm (whose real-life counterparts you've almost certainly encountered online) wakes up one morning seemingly in the reality of the pretend life she was myth-making on Insta, ie. the 1850s. I cannot think right now of another book I've gleefully enjoyed as much as this one. It's funny, dark, smart, shocking, moving - but at one point, dread set in. Surely, the reveal was going to let me down. I braced myself for a who shot JR?/they've been dead since season 3-esque reconciliation of the 2 strands, but there was no need to fear. It was the perfect ending, surprising but inevitable; I hadn't guessed but the truth had been there on the page all along. Horrifying and brilliant. (And a debut?!!) Out now. Things UNDERSTORY is about: McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Fungi. Particle physics. Climate change. Parents. Children. Love. Loss. Life. Death. Time. List not exhaustive! This novel is somehow mind-bending speculative fiction, family saga, a page-turning love story *and* a meditation on the meaning of life. Think THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE via ARRIVAL, but with mushrooms and bigger ideas. I didn't want it to end but I took comfort from the fact that in the antiverse, CRH 2 was just starting it (IYKYK). Out in September, all the dazzling stars. Thanks @hachetteireland !

Spent a lovely couple of hours today talking to the Creative Writing MA class at @universitycollegedublin about making a living as a writer and brought out my Figaret x @messynessychic shirt for the occasion. (Already back in sweats, fear not.) Thanks to @chennessybooks for the invite, the coffee and a great excuse not to write this morning. Also don't we love how I got my unmade bed into the mirror selfie and the BIN into the actual one?! So profesh

Behold, the recent purchases of a woman who manages to read one book during the entire time she's writing one but somehow still thinks she'll have the time for all these (but I hope I do!)

My favourite book-child and my youngest are both available to download on Kindle (🇬🇧🇮🇪) for mere sofa change this month and those flowers are fake because I kill *everything*