BACK: A Psychological Thriller Set on Achill Island

By Katrina Gallagher

They say you can't go home again. Agnes Morgan is about to find out why.

When the truth finally surfaces, it never arrives alone.

Sixteen years away. One phone call back. Her father is dead, and the island that raised her is waiting. Visitors home for Christmas, curtains twitching, every silence noticed.

The medical records are wrong. The death certificate is suspicious. Her mother's grief is a performance.

Agnes knows how this place works. Everyone has a version. Everyone has a secret. And someone has been keeping her father's.

They're keeping hers, too.

What truth will you tell?

A haunting debut thriller set on Ireland's wild Atlantic coast. For readers of Liz Nugent, Jane Harper, and Tana French.

Set against the brooding landscape of Achill Island at Christmas, BACK is a slow-burn literary thriller about family secrets, community silence, and the versions of truth we tell ourselves to survive. Steeped in the rituals of an Irish wake and funeral - the house visits, the whispered condolences, the rosary beads, the way a small community closes around its own - the novel captures a world where grief is performed in public and truth is buried in private.

Perfect for readers who love:

Atmospheric Irish settings and authentic wake and funeral traditionsUnreliable narrators and morally complex familiesSlow-burn psychological suspense over fast-paced actionDomestic noir in the tradition of Unraveling Oliver and The Dry

Scroll up and click "Buy Now" to return to Achill Island with Agnes... if you dare.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GYP8HRYW
• ISBN13: 9798253398586
• Release Date: April 2026
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.7" x 5.3"