Darkrooms

Description

“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.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Author: Rebecca Hannigan
Published: 01/13/2026
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
ISBN: 9780063419599
Pages: 352
Weight: 1.08lbs
Size: 1.14″ H x 9.23″ L x 6.32″ W

About the Author
Hannigan, Rebecca: –

Rebecca Hannigan has an MA in Creative Writing Crime Fiction from University of East Anglia, graduating in 2023. She won the UEA/Little Brown Crime Prize for her dissertation. She has also been shortlisted for Virago/The Pool’s Best New Crime Writer. Born in England to Irish parents, she now resides in Essex with her husband, cat, and a variety of increasingly cat-battered houseplants. Darkrooms is her debut novel.