‘Haunting, fast-paced, and unforgettable.’
—Karin Slaughter, #1 New York Times bestselling author of We Are All Guilty Here
‘A lush, moody mystery. Darkrooms is gripping and atmospheric, as two women wrestle with guilt and injustice.’
—Flynn Berry, New York Times bestselling author of Northern Spy
Two unforgettable women investigate the disappearance of a missing girl in a small Irish town brimming with secrets—in this haunting debut from a new crime writing talent, perfect for fans of Tana French and Flynn Berry.
What secrets lurk in the Hanging Woods?
On the night of the Summer Solstice in 1999, nine-year-old Roisin O’Halloran marched into the Hanging Woods, the mysterious copse that had inspired fear in decades of children in the small Irish town of Bannakilduf. She was never seen again.
Twenty years later, two women are drawn together to discover the truth of what happened to Roisin: Roisin’s older sister Deedee, a rookie cop who’s barely hanging on to the appearance of keeping it all together, and Roisin’s childhood best friend Caitlin, a petty criminal who was the last person to see the young girl before she disappeared, now returned to her hometown after her mother’s death.
With old wounds made fresh after decades of mistrust, Caitlin and Deedee must reckon with their shadowy pasts, the monsters that still haunt them, and the role they each may have played in Roisin’s disappearance. The secrets of that long-ago summer rise to the surface, and they will expose the truth that many in the small town are desperate to keep buried.
The siren of the Hanging Woods rings out once more. After all, nothing can stay hidden forever.
Genre: Mystery
—Karin Slaughter, #1 New York Times bestselling author of We Are All Guilty Here
‘A lush, moody mystery. Darkrooms is gripping and atmospheric, as two women wrestle with guilt and injustice.’
—Flynn Berry, New York Times bestselling author of Northern Spy
Two unforgettable women investigate the disappearance of a missing girl in a small Irish town brimming with secrets—in this haunting debut from a new crime writing talent, perfect for fans of Tana French and Flynn Berry.
What secrets lurk in the Hanging Woods?
On the night of the Summer Solstice in 1999, nine-year-old Roisin O’Halloran marched into the Hanging Woods, the mysterious copse that had inspired fear in decades of children in the small Irish town of Bannakilduf. She was never seen again.
Twenty years later, two women are drawn together to discover the truth of what happened to Roisin: Roisin’s older sister Deedee, a rookie cop who’s barely hanging on to the appearance of keeping it all together, and Roisin’s childhood best friend Caitlin, a petty criminal who was the last person to see the young girl before she disappeared, now returned to her hometown after her mother’s death.
With old wounds made fresh after decades of mistrust, Caitlin and Deedee must reckon with their shadowy pasts, the monsters that still haunt them, and the role they each may have played in Roisin’s disappearance. The secrets of that long-ago summer rise to the surface, and they will expose the truth that many in the small town are desperate to keep buried.
The siren of the Hanging Woods rings out once more. After all, nothing can stay hidden forever.
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"A masterful, menacing debut, which neither flinches from its own integral darkness nor succumbs to it. Rebecca Hannigan is a powerful new voice in literary thriller fiction." - Anna Bailey
"A lush, moody mystery. Darkrooms is gripping and atmospheric, as two women wrestle with guilt and injustice." - Flynn Berry
"This is a perfectly executed and exquisitely layered piece of literary crime fiction with two relatable and flawed protagonists. I was completely absorbed into this accomplished debut." - Chris Bridges
"Elegant, unsettling and evocative, Darkrooms is a simmering literary thriller that got under my skin. A haunting exploration of the ties that bind us to the past, and the danger of secrets long buried - I loved it. The last chapter made me cry." - Nicci Cloke
"Darkrooms is an intricate, twisted thriller where secrets can't stay buried - and will forever haunt a small Irish town and its inhabitants. Moody and evocative, it's a dark, layered tale and a powerful debut." - Clémence Michallon
"Unforgettably unsettling, Darkrooms is a pitch-black witch's brew of small-town secrets and shadows. Hannigan's beguiling debut offers the reader so much more than merely a superbly-crafted mystery; it is an elegy to childhood trauma, beckoning us deeper and deeper into her Hanging Woods with every step, every whispered lie." - Nicolás Obregón
"Darkrooms is a powerful firecracker of a debut. It's an unflinching and brutal thriller, but a rare, bleeding and cadenced feminist story lurks just beneath. It is, in a single word, astonishing." - Lucy Rose
"I adored this simmering, tense novel. Both gripping and propulsive, yet somehow still slow burning and intensely atmospheric, it is as disorientating as a double exposure, with layers of shifting timelines, viewpoints, secrets, memories. In it, I saw the grittiness of Colin Walsh's Kala meeting the otherworldliness of Tana French, but it forges its own dark path in its twisting uneasiness. The reader is drawn towards uncovering the truth behind a young girl's disappearance twenty years ago, as the flawed, feral women most keen to uncover the truth struggle to hide secrets of their own. Haunting and brilliant." - Emma van Straaten
"A creepy, imaginative, and moody thriller that explores the rippling effects of a young girl's disappearance in the woods near a small Irish village. A chilling mystery about damaged people and the secrets they keep." - Peter Swanson
"Beautifully written and as claustrophobic as being locked in a cupboard under the stairs, brilliantly illustrating the damage that can be done by being brought up in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong families." - Trevor Wood
"A lush, moody mystery. Darkrooms is gripping and atmospheric, as two women wrestle with guilt and injustice." - Flynn Berry
"This is a perfectly executed and exquisitely layered piece of literary crime fiction with two relatable and flawed protagonists. I was completely absorbed into this accomplished debut." - Chris Bridges
"Elegant, unsettling and evocative, Darkrooms is a simmering literary thriller that got under my skin. A haunting exploration of the ties that bind us to the past, and the danger of secrets long buried - I loved it. The last chapter made me cry." - Nicci Cloke
"Darkrooms is an intricate, twisted thriller where secrets can't stay buried - and will forever haunt a small Irish town and its inhabitants. Moody and evocative, it's a dark, layered tale and a powerful debut." - Clémence Michallon
"Unforgettably unsettling, Darkrooms is a pitch-black witch's brew of small-town secrets and shadows. Hannigan's beguiling debut offers the reader so much more than merely a superbly-crafted mystery; it is an elegy to childhood trauma, beckoning us deeper and deeper into her Hanging Woods with every step, every whispered lie." - Nicolás Obregón
"Darkrooms is a powerful firecracker of a debut. It's an unflinching and brutal thriller, but a rare, bleeding and cadenced feminist story lurks just beneath. It is, in a single word, astonishing." - Lucy Rose
"I adored this simmering, tense novel. Both gripping and propulsive, yet somehow still slow burning and intensely atmospheric, it is as disorientating as a double exposure, with layers of shifting timelines, viewpoints, secrets, memories. In it, I saw the grittiness of Colin Walsh's Kala meeting the otherworldliness of Tana French, but it forges its own dark path in its twisting uneasiness. The reader is drawn towards uncovering the truth behind a young girl's disappearance twenty years ago, as the flawed, feral women most keen to uncover the truth struggle to hide secrets of their own. Haunting and brilliant." - Emma van Straaten
"A creepy, imaginative, and moody thriller that explores the rippling effects of a young girl's disappearance in the woods near a small Irish village. A chilling mystery about damaged people and the secrets they keep." - Peter Swanson
"Beautifully written and as claustrophobic as being locked in a cupboard under the stairs, brilliantly illustrating the damage that can be done by being brought up in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong families." - Trevor Wood
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