BACK

by Katrina Gallagher

Some houses remember what you did. Some mothers never forget.

Agnes Morgan hasn't set foot on the island in sixteen years. Now her father is dead, and she has to go BACK. The medical records are wrong. The death certificate is a lie. And her mother is performing grief like she's been rehearsing for years.

The island thinks Agnes is paranoid. Her mother thinks she's broken.

Agnes thinks someone killed him.

A twisted psychological thriller about poisoned love, family secrets, and the one person who knows every weakness you your mother.

268 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 24, 2026

About the author

Katrina Gallagher trained as a chef, earned a Master’s in Professional Practice, and now writes psychological suspense, a career path that makes sense to absolutely no one, including her. She also works as an onboarding specialist, which is excellent training for fiction about people making terrible choices.

Her debut novel, BACK, explores grief, memory, and the hazards of rural life.

She lives on Achill Island, where nothing ever stays where you left it, least of all the plot.

Reviews

[Carla Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. This book was written well. Lots of secrets in a family that was already disassociated from one another. The main character escaped from an island in Ireland 16 years before. She ran from the Island with her two twin toddlers escaping all the lies from her hometown. Now her father has died mysteriously out of nowhere. She believes foul play is involved. She starts asking a lot of questions about her father's life while she's been gone. She uncovers some bad things she doesn't want to believe. Her hard cold mother won't give her any answers, she's no help at all. In fact she keeps causing interference and leading her astray on the investigation. As she gets closer to the truth her life becomes in danger as well. She should never have come back to the island, it may cost her her life. A good read. Very different.

[Shaari Oolong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Atmospheric and consuming

This book was intriguing. I was drawn in by the heavy cold atmosphere that made me feel like I was actually on the rainy cold Irish island where most of the story took place. The author has also done a wonderful job of bringing you into the main character's psyche and pulling you into the drama she's going through. Keeping secrets is never clean.