Darkrooms by Rebecca Hannigan

Darkrooms, a debut crime novel from Irish author Rebecca Hannigan is, as the name suggests, fairly dark. The story revolves around two damaged women and in doing so exposes a damaged community. Some readers may have trouble sticking with the two extremely unlikeable leads but there is a purpose to their characterisation and a depth and poignancy as their pasts confront them in the present.

Caitlin is a mess. When Darkrooms opens she is living in London, engaged in theft from her colleague and then from a stranger. Caitlin is clearly haunted by something as she thinks she sees someone called Roisin who “stopped having birthdays twenty years ago” and reflects that “[horrors] are always waiting”. Meanwhile in the small Irish town of Bannakilduff, Deedee has joined the police force late in life but is finding the transition difficult. Deedee has joined the force as a way of investigating what happened to her sister Roisin as she blames herself for the disappearance. After a particularly bad day, Deedee has an encounter with Caitlin’s alcoholic mother Kathleen and the next day Kathleen is found dead. This brings Caitlin back to Bannakilduff, opening further wounds for both women.

As already noted, neither Caitlin nor Deedee are particularly likeable. But they are both clearly carrying some trauma related to Roisin’s disappearance, each blames both themselves and the other. Things are made more complicated by the fact that Deedee is almost to be engaged to Sean who is the son of the Branaghs, the wealthy family who would often look after Caitlin when she was young. Kathleen (and previously Caitlin) lived in the gatehouse of the Branagh estate which backs onto the woods where Roisin disappeared.

Hannigan drops in some flashback chapters from a young Caitlin’s point of view, slowly filling in a dark and disturbing picture. Meanwhile, in the present, as the two women snipe at each other, the truth about what happened slowly starts to emerge.

Darkrooms is a disturbing but compelling debut. It will force readers to stick with two damaged characters to discover the source of their pain and trauma. It also once again exposes a dark stain on Irish history, and the lengths that communities went to pretend everything was fine, and the impact that had on those affected.

Darkrooms by Rebecca Hannigan

7.5

7.5/10