Darkrooms
The must-read debut thriller of 2026! Dark, twisty and shocking
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Narrated by:
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Clara Harte
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By:
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Rebecca Hannigan
About this listen
'Astonishing' LUCY ROSE
A chilling thriller' PETER SWANSON
A masterful, menacing debut' ANNA BAILEY
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Two girls went into the Hanging Woods. Only one returned.
Twenty years ago Caitlin vowed never to return to her small Irish hometown. Now she drifts from temporary jobs to temporary men, trying to escape memories of the Hanging Woods. Of what happened to Roisin there.
But with news of her estranged mother's sudden death, Caitlin is forced to return home, back to the town where everyone knows each other's business and old resentments run deep.
Roisin's sister Deedee, now a Garda, has never given up on finding the truth of what happened in those woods. And Caitlin's return makes old wounds fresh, threatening to exhume secrets that have lain buried for two decades - while the Hanging Woods begin their siren call to Caitlin and Deedee once more . . .
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FIVE-STAR READER REVIEWS OF DARKROOMS
'Honestly this is one of the best books I've ever read' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'the novel grips you with its atmospheric tension and emotional resonance' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'No matter what theories I formed, I was still no where close to figuring out the final twists' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Hannigan has gone above and beyond in building astonishingly raw, brutal, real characters' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'If you like dark twisty mystery thrillers you have to keep an eye out for this one' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'This is a gripping, masterfully written debut' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐©2026 Rebecca Hannigan
Critic reviews
Haunting, fast-paced and unforgettable (Karin Slaughter, author of WE ARE ALL GUILTY HERE)
Impressive . . . A well paced story of shame, guilt, misplaced loyalty and generational trauma, the conclusion of which has a heartbreaking inevitability
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)
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, author of KILL YOUR DARLINGS)
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)
Darkrooms possesses some of the most piercing, haunting character work since Tana French (Tom Benn, author of OXBLOOD)
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
Rebecca Hannigan is a brilliant new voice and I loved Darkrooms. It is hard to believe this is a debut novel because the story is so assured, sophisticated and complex, with brilliant characters and a really cleverly constructed plot that had me hooked from the first chapter. It also felt really fresh and contemporary, while also having all of the elements I love in a mystery novel. An utterly gripping and modern novel
Tense, atmospheric and unforgettable. Darkrooms is an enthralling and haunting novel, beautifully written and skilfully plotted. And the ending will leave you gasping (B. P. Walter, author of THE GARDEN PARTY)
A lush, moody mystery. Darkrooms is gripping and atmospheric, as two women wrestle with guilt and injustice (Flynn Berry, author of TRUST HER)
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 . . . Haunting and brilliant (Emma Van Straaten, author of THIS IMMACULATE BODY)
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