Trinity graduate Catherine Ryan Howard nominated for Edgar Award

The bestselling author graduated from Trinity in 2018

Trinity graduate Catherine Ryan Howard’s second thriller “The Liar’s Girl” has been nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel 2018.

Ryan Howard graduated with a BA in English Studies from Trinity in May 2018. She is a founding member of The Inspiration Project along with with bestselling authors Carmel Harrington and Hazel Gaynor. Originally from Cork, she began her writing career self-publishing non-fiction and delivered workshops on the subject for Faber Academy, the Irish Writers’ Centre, and others.

Celebrating the nomination, Ryan Howard tweeted: “So, this cold, grey Tuesday afternoon has taken a turn – #TheLiarsGirl is nominated for an Edgar!!!!!!”

The award-nominated novel tells the story of Will Hurley, a student in an elite Dublin college turned serial killer who was convicted for murdering five girls. An investigation into a copycat murder brings Alison Smith, Will’s old flame, home to Dublin over a decade after she fled to the Netherlands.  

The Irish Independent praised the novel, noting “in this, only her second book, Catherine Ryan Howard has certainly pulled off, with remarkable confidence, the notoriously difficult task of surpassing a debut novel that was met with critical acclaim and garlanded with awards”.

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, for which Ryan Howard’s second novel is nominated, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America in New York City. They honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television, film, and theatre published or produced in the preceding year.

Ryan Howard’s third novel, “Rewind”, is expected to hit shelves in September 2019.