No one knew they were together. Now one of them is dead.
56 DAYS AGO
Ciara and Oliver meet in a Dublin supermarket queue, just as COVID-19 begins creeping across Ireland. A spark. A chance. A distraction-from everything they’re trying to outrun.
35 DAYS AGO
With lockdown looming, Oliver suggests they move in together. For Ciara, it feels like a rare opportunity to let a relationship bloom in total privacy. For Oliver, it’s the perfect way to keep his past-and his true nature-hidden.
TODAY
Detectives force their way into Oliver’s apartment and find a body decomposing inside.
As they untangle a relationship built on secrets and half-truths, they face the ultimate question: Did lockdown give birth to love-or the perfect murder?
Book Info: 389 pages. Publisher: Corvus. Publication Date: 19th Aug 2021
I tend to avoid books written about Covid 19/lockdown/worldwide pandemic just because it was bad enough living through it that I have no intention to read about it again.
However, when I saw that this book had been turned into a TV series, the FOMO in me had to read it because I love to sound smug when I tell my hubby that the book is always better than the tv version.
So, let’s discuss 56 Days. This is an atmospheric, claustrophobic, tightly plotted psychological thriller. The story follows two strangers who met by chance in Ireland. Ciara and Oliver are instantly attracted to each other and despite both having dark pasts they are eager to escape and hide from begin a relationship just before Covid-19 causes the world to shutdown.
With circumstances beyond their control they decide to move in together and their secrets are slowly revealed which result in murder.
The story is clever told in dual timelines – 56 days prior and 56 days after when the police discover the grisly decomposing body, but who is dead and what really happened behind closed doors?
Once again my amateur detective skills failed me as I didn’t see any of the clever twists coming and was blind-sided several times throughout the book.
I absolutely loved the relationship/banter and humour from the police detectives, kept intrigued throughout trying to work out who Ciara and Oliver really were and what they were hiding from each other.
Overall I thought this was a clever, claustrophobic, and expertly crafted thriller—one that captures the unease of lockdown while delivering a compulsive, twist‑filled read.
Note: I haven’t actually seen the TV series yet because a) it’s not even set in Ireland or Covid and b) it looks more like 50 Shades than 56 days. Have you seen it yet?
