Sharon Bolton and Catherine Ryan Howard Chaired by Carolyn Kirby

Two bestselling thriller writers, Sharon (formerly S J) Bolton and Catherine Ryan Howard, about their new novels The Pact, a twisty thriller set in Oxford, and 56 Days, a lockdown thriller set during the darkest days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bolton’s Pact finds six talented young friends during a golden summer looking forward to the brightest of futures. From wealthy, privileged families, they all have places at top universities and are dreaming of fabulous careers. And then, the night before their A level results, a daredevil game goes horribly wrong.

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Bolton’s first novel, Sacrifice, was voted Best New Read by amazon.uk, whilst her second, Awakening, won the Mary Higgins Clark Award (part of the prestigious Edgars) in the US.

In Ryan Howard’s 56 Days, Ciara and Oliver meet in a Dublin supermarket and start dating the same week that Covid-19 reaches Ireland. As lockdown threatens to separate them, Oliver suggests they move in together. For Ciara, it is a chance for a relationship to flourish away from family and friends. For Oliver, it is a chance to hide who and what he really is. 56 days later, detectives arrive at Oliver’s apartment to find a decomposing body. Ryan Howard is author of The Nothing Man, which went straight into the Irish bestseller charts and was a Kindle No 1 bestseller in the UK. Ryan Howard was born in Cork and her debut thriller Distress Signals was an Irish Times and USA Today bestseller.

Discussions are chaired by Carolyn Kirby, a crime writer and author of The Conviction of Cora Burns and When We Fall.

This event is part of the festival’s crime fiction programme.