Darkrooms - by Rebecca Hannigan (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"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, internationally bestselling author of The Quiet Tenant

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.

Reluctantly brought together 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.

With old wounds made fresh, the unresolved events of that summer years ago rise to the surface, and the truth threatens to reshape the small town that would prefer the past remain buried.

The siren of the Hanging Woods rings out once more. After all, nothing can stay hidden forever.

Review Quotes

"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, internationally bestselling author of The Quiet Tenant

"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, New York Times bestselling author of Kill Your Darlings

"The plot's slow burn heats up at just the right pace, and the twists excite without straining plausibility. Readers will look forward to Hannigan's next outing." -- Publishers Weekly

"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, author of The Lamb

"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, author of Creep

"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, author of the The Sugar Man

"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, author of Her Many Faces

"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, author of Sick to Death

"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, author of Tall Bones

"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, author of The Inside Man

"Deeply impressive. Skillful and unexpected, Darkrooms slowly builds dread in the stomach, takes the reader through a small town, and leads them to a horrifying conclusion." -- Bonnie Burke-Patel, author of I Died at Fallow Hall

"Tense, atmospheric and unforgettable. Darkrooms is an enthralling and haunting novel, beautifully written and skillfully plotted. And the ending will leave you gasping..." -- BP Walter, author of The Dinner Party

"Darkrooms is a twisting, shifting kaleidoscope of Irish noir . . . A real page-turner that immersed me in the very dark, claustrophobic world of policing small communities." -- Nina Bhadreshwar, author of The Day of the Roaring

"A finely plotted mystery, two complicated young women and a dark, dark wood, what's not to like? I could not get enough of these characters, their unease with each other, with themselves and their small town. Darkrooms is an arresting and atmospheric debut from a striking new voice." -- Emma Styles, author of No Country for Girls