Rachel Ryan Books In Order

Publication Order of Rachel Ryan Standalone Novels

Rachel Ryan
Author Rachel Ryan was born and grew up in Dublin, Ireland. She can typically be found hanging around libraries, writing in coffee shops, or walking through the streets of Dublin, making stories up.

Before she wrote thrillers for a living, Rachel worked various day jobs and would write at night. As she wrote the first draft of “The Woman Outside My Door” (also known as “Hidden Lies”), she worked as a nanny. After shifts spent singing songs to kids and changing diapers, she would go home, fire up her laptop, and write, many times until the early hours of the morning. All of those hours spent tapping away at her keyboard paid off once her debut was published.

Rachel found being a childminder and writer are rather complementary to one another. If you just sit at your desk all day, you are probably pretty tired by the time the evening comes around. She personally would have found it much tougher to write after that. Being outside and having an active job was great, the rhythms of being out in the world, and being out in Dublin.

The setting of this novel was very important to her, and Dublin is a very vivid place, to Rachel, and the setting and the story are very powerfully linked. Having this job where she was out in the playgrounds, and noticing things like how gorgeous the park was, was a major help to her. She probably would not have been able to do this if she’d not been a childminder.

She has wanted to be a writer since she was a little girl. She wrote these ‘novels’ in school copybooks from a very young age. She still has this one novel that she wrote at about ten years old. It is about a girl named Alana that finds a magic pearl on a beach and winds up visiting underwater world filled with interesting sea creatures.

She knew that she wanted to read a compelling and atmospheric suspense novel that was set in modern Dublin. Rachel is a big walker, and will walk around the city at night for hours, and there can be something truly eerie about urban streets in winter especially.

Part of the inspiration behind the book was a desire to write this thriller in such a setting. Rachel was inspired by authors like Daphne du Maurier, Ruth Ware, and Stephen King, authors that showed her just how powerful sense of place can be, and how to get the spooky creeping feeling down onto the page.

The idea for the plot of the novel was inspired by a conversation that she had with her mom. She was walking home from her house at night, thinking about the stories that her mom had been telling her, and she had this light-bulb moment, a spine tingling moment when the story came to her in an instant, and she actually saw the opening pages of the novel actually take shape in front of her. So she rushed home and wrote down the opening pages, almost exactly like they appear in the book, on the spot.

Not all of the novel came so easily for her. There were scenes she had to grapple and fight with, force into shape, and these strands of story and plot points that were difficult to untangle. During the editing, the notice board up above her desk was covered in green, pink, and orange post-its, scribbled with these notes to herself.

The book is a domestic thriller, about love, family, and secrets, and so the plot deals with some rather heavy themes. However at the same time, it is also a page turner. She knew that when she sat down to actually write it that she wanted to write a page turner.

Rachel’s characters tend to walk right into her head fully formed. She is always able to see them vividly, it is like meeting somebody mentally. Then she has to spend some time with them, getting to know them better. Most of what she will learn about her characters does not wind up down on the page.

She loves reading in her spare time. Picking up a book and being transported into another place and time. It’s that feeling of getting transported is what makes reading time magic. She loves film, loves theater, but she just doesn’t find any other narrative art form as utterly immersive as reading is. That is why, despite all of her varied hobbies and interests, when somebody will ask her what she enjoys doing, ‘reading’ is the very first which springs to her lips.

“The Woman Outside My Door” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2021. All kids have imaginary friends, at least that’s what Georgina tells herself. It is perfectly normal, and they will all grow out of it in the end. However when Cody, her seven year old son, tells her about New Granny, the new friend that he’s met in the park, Georgina is immediately suspicious. Something, you can call it maternal instinct, tells her that he is not making any of this up.

However maybe Georgina is losing her mind. And with her own mom’s recent death leaving her bereft and attempting to cope with life as a busy working mom, it is no wonder that she feels paranoid about Cody inventing a “New Granny” to replace his beloved grandma.

Bren, her husband, becomes the voice of reason, and assures her that this is only a game, the product of their son’s overactive imagination. However what if Cody’s imaginary friend is not all that imaginary after all?

Rachel Ryan is a bright new voice in psychological thrillers. This is a muscular and atmospheric thrill to read, as it is an outstanding mix of personal drama and suspenseful thriller. With a strong sense of place and an easily confident style. Rachel delivers a twisty thriller with hidden depths in her chilling and creepy debut novel. Readers found this to be an unsettling read that kept them on the edge of their seat the entire way through. The pacing is great throughout and had a dramatic ending which caught them by surprise.

3 Responses to “Rachel Ryan”

1. Elizabeth E.: 1 year ago

   I just read “Someone You Trust”. WOW!!!!
   Amazing suspense. Couldn’t put it down.
   Rachel, when is your next book coming out???

   Reply
2. Frank Bell: 2 years ago

   Your book The Woman Outside My Door has captivated me, and I will finish it despite having a puzzling problem with it. I predict you will have a huge fan base, many of them Christians like me. Why do you insult them by using Christ’s name as a cuss word when it is so unnecessary? Don’t you find it strange that so many do this? How do you explain it? Are there evil spirits in the world behind this profanity that if followed will lead you down the wrong road? To insult part of your fan base to me is just stupid. Your writing is too good for that callousness. I hope this gets to you. Using God’s name as a cuss word on page 47 in such a page-turning novel sickened me. I hope this reaches you.

   Reply
   • Jeff: 2 years ago

     Why don’t you get a life, Frank. Jesus Christ! It’s only a book.

     Reply