Darkrooms

Book of the Week 12.15.25
The disappearance of nine-year-old Roisin O’Halloran on the night of the summer solstice in 1999 has haunted two emotionally damaged women for 20 years. Deedee, Roisin’s grieving older sister, has joined the Gardai in her small Irish town of Bannakilduff so she can more easily investigate what happened after Roisin vanished into the mysterious Hanging Woods. Although she’s engaged to Sean, scion of the prominent Branagh family, DeeDee is barely holding it together, drinking too much and having a casual fling with a fellow officer. Caitlin Doherty, Roisin’s childhood friend and the last person to see her alive, is also living a chaotic life, surviving as a petty thief in London and trying to escape painful memories. But the death of her estranged mother forces her to return to her hometown and her dark past. As Caitlin and DeeDee warily circle each other, they gradually uncover secrets that expose long-buried shocking crimes. Winner of the UEA/Little Brown Crime Prize, Hannigan has written a twisty, atmospheric debut that captures the claustrophobic small-mindedness of a community willing to close ranks against the innocent to protect the guilty.