Winnie M Li & Catherine Ryan Howard

Winnie M Li‘s novel Complicit is set in the world of Hollywood as a #MeToo story is breaking and is told from the perspective of a young producer looking back on a movie set ten years earlier. It is the compulsive, timely thriller you won’t be able to stop thinking about. It was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, Best Books of 2022 in Grazia and Glamour and Best Crime Novels of 2022 in the Irish Times and CrimeRead.

“You know what it’s like. A comment here, a closed door there, turning a blind eye to get ahead. My name is Sarah Lai. You won’t have heard of me. A decade ago I was on the cusp of being a big deal. But that was a long time ago. Now, instead of working in Hollywood, I teach students about it. And these are the two most important lessons you need to know about the film industry: 1) Those with the money have all the power. 2) Those with the power get whatever they want. Ignore these rules and the whole system will crumble. Stick to the rules and you’ll succeed. But at what cost? Ask yourself, what would you have done?”

[Complicit is] a terrific read. I flew through it. Perfectly well-written and full of insights. Ryan Tubridy, RTE Radio One

In Catherine Ryan Howard‘s Run Time, movie-making can be murder… The project – Final Draft, a psychological horror, being filmed at a house deep in a forest, miles from anywhere in the wintry wilds of West Cork. The lead – Former soap-star Adele Rafferty has stepped in to replace the original actress at the very last minute. She can’t help but hope that this opportunity will be her big break – and she knows she was lucky to get it, after what happened the last time she was on a set. The problem – Something isn’t quite right about Final Draft. When the strange goings-on in the script start to happen on set too, Adele begins to fear that the real horror lies off the page…

A book about a movie about a book: Run Time is so, so clever. An ingenious plot, a fly-through-it pace, and along with the creepiness, lots and lots of humour and delicious cultural references. A roller-coaster ride and fun in every sense, I loved it! Andrea Mara