Catherine Ryan Howard is an award-winning, #1 bestselling thriller writer from Cork, Ireland. Her work has been shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Novel, the UK Crime Writers Association John Creasey/New Blood and Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Awards, and the An Post Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year multiple times. Her novels have been included in The New York Times Best Thrillers of the Year, The Washington Post’s Best Mysteries and Thrillers of the Year, and The Sunday Times Best Thrillers of the Year. She is published in twenty languages, and a number of her titles have been optioned for the screen. Catherine’s fifth novel, 56 Days, won the An Post Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year and was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, the world’s most valuable annual literary prize. A screen adaptation starring Dove Cameron and Avan Jogia will debut exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in early 2026. Prior to writing full-time, Catherine worked for a travel company in the Netherlands and in Walt Disney World, Florida. She lives in Dublin.

First, tell us about Buyer Beware. What inspired your most recent book?

My agent sent me an article with a headline that read something like, ‘Could you live in a house that had been the scene of a murder?’ and my first thought was, well, does it have parking? But then I fell down an internet rabbit hole about ‘stigmatised properties’ aka homes with bad histories and the idea for Buyer Beware began to form. It opens with a woman moving into the first home she’s ever owned, alone, but all is not what it seems—except for the stain she finds on the floorboards upstairs, which is exactly what it seems…

Did you face any unique writing hurdles or wins with Buyer Beware?

I remember very clearly a moment where, a few drafts in, one small comment from my editor, Tim, that he’d left in the manuscript cracked everything open for me. It’s hard to explain but it was as if, up until that point, I had been seeing the book like a 2D map but suddenly it was 3D and topographical—I could see the relief and knew exactly what I needed to do.

This year, you also brought a book to the screen. What was it like seeing 56 Days come to life?

It already feels like some distant dream I had–it’s hard to believe it actually happened. The whole thing was honestly the most fun I’ve ever had. What was really fun about it is that throughout the process, which takes years, you’re just thinking of the show itself and how fun it’s going to be to see your work come to life on screen. But there was so much more to it than that. For example, the marketing around this show was incredible. The day I arrived in LA for the premiere (she says casually), I got to go to a coffee shop that had been completely taken over by 56 Days and have a ‘Ciara’, a latte named after my character. I doubt I’ll ever have a more surreal experience than that.

What was your role in the development of the TV show?

I was a co-executive producer on the show but I was very hands off. My attitude—which, unless you have desires to become a screenwriter or otherwise work in TV, is the only attitude for a novelist to have, in my own opinion—is that I don’t know anything about how to make TV and so I’m more than happy to leave it to the professionals. I was also very clear-eyed about what it takes to get anything made and getting the show made was my priority, so when things like the pandemic or Dublin setting had to go, I fully supported those decisions.

Can you talk to us about what the process was like for you from option to premiere?

I think we got a call in 2022, the year after the book had been published, to say that Lisa Zwerling and Karen Usher were interested in adapting the book for TV. I’ve had many things optioned in the past that never made it to screen, so I was probably a bit blasé about it all, even when scripts came in. I just put it out of my mind and concentrated on writing my novels. But by the end of 2023 we had, amazingly, a series order from Amazon. In actual fact, I mis-read the email that told me that and thought they were saying we were going to make a pilot, so they must have thought I was very nonchalant in my response!

Filming started in Montreal in the summer of 2024 and I got to visit the set, which was the most surreal experience of my life until it was superseded this past February with the premiere in LA. There was a long wait then while all the episodes were locked and loaded but Amazon waited for the best possible moment to stream the show. I don’t think I really believed it was going to happen until that date was set and announced—and that’s when things really started getting exciting.

Even though by then I’d seen all the episodes, the release of the trailer made it real. Dove Cameron recorded a version of ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ especially for the show so, in the lead up, I was listening to it on repeat in my car. Then it was off to LA for the most fun I’ve ever had: the premiere. Truly an incredible evening and a fantastic event. My agent and I were the last to leave, which is basically mandated by law when you’re Irish. I woke up the next morning wishing I could do it all again. And then, to top it all off, the show was released and became no.1 on Prime Video worldwide. Not just the no. 1 show or movie, but no. 1 overall. I was so happy for everyone involved.

Was there anything about the adaptation process that surprised you?

I would say no—but other people’s ideas about how the adaptation process works certainly did. I think, in general, people are quite naïve about how TV gets made and what needs to happen in order for it to get made and what an absolute miracle it is that anything gets made at all. I also find it odd now, having come out the other side of this, that everyone’s first question is always, ‘Were you involved?’ I was at a book festival recently where an author teased a TV adaption and when they said they were involved, the audience cheered and applauded. I find that so weird…?! If I booked a dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant and the host came out and said, ‘Tonight, it’s not the chef preparing your meal but someone who’s never cooked before but really enjoys watching MasterChef’, would you cheer? People obviously have this idea that if the author is involved, they can ‘protect’ the book—but adaptations aren’t supposed to just be a visual companion to the book and I think making TV and film is probably best left to the people who actually know how to make TV and film.

Did you go into it with any expectations or misconceptions that shifted?

I was very clear-eyed about everything from the get-go so no, I don’t think I had any misconceptions. As for expectations, they were utterly exceeded. I just wanted the show to be made. That was all I cared about because what I care about is my books and being able to write more of them, and having a TV adaptation would help enormously with that. The fact that I loved what they did with it, that I had an incredibly positive experience, and that Amazon launched the show with the fanfare they did—all of that was a beautiful bonus.

What was your favorite part about seeing the book translated to television?

Honestly, just how joyous it was. Publishing is a very hard business to be in. This was a way to enjoy something I’d created without any of the bad stuff. There was no pressure on me, no downside to it, no disappointment or stress whatsoever. It was just fun—and I’m really glad I made the absolute most of it. The week it came out, for example, I had three watch parties and despite the hangovers, I regret nothing! Amazon serving French 75s—my favourite cocktail and a plot point in the book—at the premiere has to be a very close second, and then there is also the beginning and end of my career as a background actor, which you might catch if you keep your eyes peeled in episode 4.

If you have another adaptation opportunity, would you do anything differently?

Not a thing. Maybe even more watch parties?

Has adaptation changed anything about how you write?

No and I think it’s very important that it doesn’t. For instance, in Buyer Beware, there’s a plot twist that would be very difficult to film, but I did it anyway because that’s what was best for the book. My job is to write books. I feel very strongly that authors shouldn’t be thinking of anything else but that—especially because it’s truly a fool’s errand to try and second-guess what Hollywood wants.

Do you feel there is anything writers can do to try to capture Hollywood’s attention?

Get yourself a great TV and film agent. We could get into all sorts of discussions about killer concepts and being able to make something for a price and trends and all that jazz, but none of that will matter if the people who are looking for IP to adapt don’t see yours. Get a great TV and film agent, write the best books you possibly can without thinking at all about the screen, and then put it completely out of your mind. That’s my advice.

What are some of your favorite adaptations and why?

Well, anyone who knows me knows my favourite novel of all time and my favourite movie are one and the same—Jurassic Park—so we have to start there. The Silence of the Lambs is that rare thing where (in my opinion) the movie is better than the book. Gone Girl is my gold standard of a modern thriller adaptation because it manages a miracle: the movie very much captures the atmosphere of the book, they feel the same. All Her Fault, which was based on my fellow Irish crime-writer Andrea Mara’s novel, was excellent, a worthy successor to Big Little Lies. I’m also a big fan of Silo on Apple TV and I’m really glad now I only read the first book in the series so I have no idea what’s going to happen next. I thought The Perfect Couple on Netflix was so fun—that opening credits dance sequence!—so I loved it even though I hadn’t read the book at all. A great adaptation, in my book (pun intended), is just a great TV show or movie and not necessarily something that’s beholden to the source material.

Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard

Ellie moves into a new home seeking a clean slate, but quickly discovers the house harbors dark secrets—and that someone is watching to keep them buried. As she digs into its unsettling past, she becomes entangled in a dangerous mystery that begins to mirror her own hidden history. What starts as a fresh start turns into a deadly confrontation with both the house’s secrets and her own.

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