Darkrooms

In Hannigan’s somber debut, pickpocket Caitlin Doherty leaves London for her hometown of Bannakilduff, Ireland, after learning that her alcoholic mother, Kathleen, has died. Though Caitlin is happy to reconnect with Colm and Maureen Branagh, the amiable couple who rented their gatehouse to Kathleen, she’s less enthused to cross paths with the gruff Deedee O’Halloran, a rookie cop whose sister, Roisin, vanished 20 years earlier. The last place nine-year-old Roisin was seen was in the notoriously creepy Hanging Woods, where she was playing with Caitlin—a fact that has long convinced Deedee that Caitlin is hiding something major about the case. Returning to Bannakilduff forces Caitlin to relive traumatic childhood memories and reignites her irrational fears of a monster that haunts the Hanging Woods. Hannigan renders the downward spirals of Caitlin, Deedee, and Kathleen with gut-wrenching specificity, though the proceedings become almost overwhelmingly bleak. Still, 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. Agent: Gráinne Fox, UTA. (Jan.)