The Counting Game - by Sinéad Nolan (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Into the woods.
Count to ten.
Only one of us comes home again.

When a teenager disappears from her small Irish town and a therapist is brought in to break the silence of the only witness, old wounds are opened in a search that becomes a race against time.

Southwest Ireland, 1995: Two children go into the woods. Only one comes out.

When thirteen-year-old Saoirse Kellough goes missing, panic grips a rural Irish community. Saoirse is not the first girl to disappear in the forest, rumored by locals to be haunted, and the only witness--her troubled younger brother, Jack--refuses to speak. Saoirse went missing when they were playing the Counting Game, a ritual believed to ward off evil, and Jack has sworn to protect the forest's secrets.

Freya Hemmings, a psychotherapist still healing from a loss of her own, is brought in to help investigators break Jack's silence. As the race to find Saoirse alive accelerates, the search threatens to unravel a family facing the unthinkable. Everyone is a suspect, and the closer Freya and Jack become, the more danger they find themselves in.

Haunting and emotional, The Counting Game is a suspenseful debut from an unmissable new voice in crime fiction, perfect for fans of Tana French and Liz Moore.

Review Quotes

"The Counting Game takes us deep into the woods of superstition and buried secrets to explore all the ways in which we harm and save each other."
- Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of The New Couple in 5B

"An astonishing study of guilt and grief wrapped up in a mystery."
- Liz Nugent, nationally bestselling author of Strange Sally Diamond

"Tense and haunting . . . a chilling blend of mystery and dark folklore."
- Emiko Jean, New York Times bestselling author of The Return of Ellie Black

"Sinéad Nolan has written a richly layered psychological thriller that explores the long shadow of trauma and the tangled bonds of family. Atmospheric and surprising."
- Caitlin Mullen, Edgar Award-winning author of Please See Us

"A powerful debut."
- Amanda Cassidy, author of The Returned

"Clever and compulsive."
- Irish Examiner

About the Author

Sinéad Nolan grew up playing in the forests and on the beaches of leafy County Dublin, Ireland. She was a regular freelance feature writer for the Sunday World and the Irish Independent and has had short stories shortlisted for the Momaya Press Awards and the Francis McManus Awards for RTE Radio. Apart from writing, she works in private practice as a BACP Registered Counsellor seeing clients in central London.