‘The Counting Game’ by Sinéad Nolan

Published by HarperCollins,
23 April 2026.
ISBN: 978-0-00866901-0 (PB)

Sinéad Nolan’s first novel is set in rural Ireland during 1995. Nine-year-old Jack is playing in woods near his home in Drumsuin with his sister Saoirse (who is 13) when she goes missing. The village goes once again into mourning as this is not the first time that a girl has disappeared from the forest. No traces of these previous girls have been found, and there are no clues as to what has happened to Saoirse. 

The children come from a broken home. Their father left to live in Dublin some time previously, their troubled mother died more recently and they are looked after by their older sister Kate. Their father’s disabled sister Aunt Bronagh lives close by, but she has her own problems which can make her appear unsympathetic and is away when Saoirse goes missing. Kate has a history of self-harming. There are secrets between Jack and Saoirse. The family is looked on with suspicion by the locals. 

One-eyed Garda Walter Morris heads the investigation, and Freya Hemmings is summoned from Dublin. She is a former journalist and semi-pro singer who has retrained as a psychotherapist and who has, in the way of contemporary crime novels, her own back story, including the loss of a daughter and a failed relationship which led her to the bottle. She is needed because Jack, the one person who was present when his sister went missing, has been traumatized by his mother’s death and finds it difficult to talk to anyone. He knows things but doesn’t – or can’t - tell. The word ‘erase’ crops up many times when Jack’s memories come to the surface. He finds it easier to express his emotions by painting pictures. 

The forest, in which the children play their counting game (it appears to be like hide and seek), looms malevolently over the whole story. It was the site of one of the infamous Magdalene laundries and is a source of terror for some people. Kate says: ‘Everyone in the village knows the forest makes people pay for disrespecting it. The evil forces in that forest stem from the Magdalene Laundry and the horrors back then – the forest felt desecrated by these atrocities – so that’s why we don’t mistreat the forest now. You mess with that forest and you’ll end up involved. ..... The game ... it’s not just a game, it’s a curse you can’t escape.’ And later: ‘People think the rumours about that forest are a joke, but they’re not. The forest knows how to punish people who don’t respect it.’ As a consequence Freya is reluctant to enter the forest when curiosity gets the better of her. There are also claims that an intimidating figure, ‘The Creature’, lives there. 

There are a number of inter-personal relations which add to the problems encountered by the investigation into what has happened to Saoirse, but the story opens up as time goes by, particularly after the remains of one of the earlier missing girls are found. The plot moves swiftly and keeps us guessing. The characters are well-drawn and the conclusion is convincing. It is a welcome and impressive debut.
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Reviewer: David Whittle 

Sinéad Nolan grew up playing between the forests and beaches of leafy County Dublin, Ireland. She holds a degree in Creative Writing from University of Derby and a Masters in Newspaper Journalism from Nottingham Trent University. She has been a regular freelance feature writer for the Sunday World, 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, her other profession is Counselling and Psychotherapy. She works in private practice as a BACP Registered Counsellor in central London. In the moments she is not writing, she enjoys watching true crime documentaries, travelling and reading. She lives with her husband in London. 

David Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about whom he gives talks now and then.