Book Review: ‘Run Time’ by Catherine Ryan Howard

I absolutely loved the idea of this book! A thriller that takes place on the remote set of a horror film – what a great idea. I’d read one of Catherine Ryan Howard’s previous books (’56 Days’) set during Covid lockdown so I knew that I was in safe hands…if anyone can pull off some bogglingly high concept ideas then she can!

The book focused on Adele Rafferty, an actress who is down on her luck in Los Angeles when she gets a call to join the set of ‘Final Draft’, a psychological thriller being filmed in a remote area of West Cork. Adele doesn’t have the best track record on film sets, so her last-minute call on this one is a bit of a mystery – and, she hopes, her big break. When she gets to the remote location, she finds a small and decidedly odd film crew, a very low budget production, and some very strange happenings…as if the script is coming to life! It’s up to Adele to figure out what is happening as – if fact continues to emulate fiction – her life is at risk.

It’s worth saying now that Catherine Ryan Howard writes tension well. So well that my heart was in my mouth for a lot of the time as Adele faced a whole host of creepy and unexplainable events. I felt that I was there with her during several points in this terrifying book! Adele is very cleverly isolated – both physically due to the location and also from the crew because she is the lone woman with a past she wants to keep hidden. This makes for some tense reading as she crosses the ground between the house and her (frankly scary) trailer in the woods.

The character of Adele is developed gradually as the novel progresses – we learn a lot more about her along the way and really start to question her reliability given all the crazy things happening to her. She’s a real strength in the novel – just as well given that we spend a lot of time intensely focused on her.

The book is well-plotted and engaging. raising so many questions along the way that my head was spinning and I absolutely did not want to put it down. Although I wasn’t entirely sold on the ending, I can’t dispute that it was well thought-out and made sense of all the events. I really couldn’t see where the plot was heading until we got there so I guess that’s a good thing!

If I have one niggle, it’s that there’s a lot of repeated elements – I’d have liked a bit less focus on the phone battery/reception as it became a constant cycle of hopes being raised and dashed, messages being missed, Adele being cut off. It all added to the isolation that Adele faced, but I found the events in the house, woods and cabin to be much more engaging.

If you love high-concept thrillers, this one is for you. It’s claustrophobic, intense and very scary – probably much more so than the low-budget ‘Final Draft’ film can ever hope to be!

Thanks to NetGalley for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review. I was also lucky to win a gorgeous proof copy and goodie box from the lovely people at Corvus Books.

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