Deputy publisher Patricia Deevy acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Marianne Gunn O’Connor, with publication scheduled for 2027.

The blurb reads: “It is 26th December 1999 in the small Irish town of Ballylea. On the cusp of the new millennium, Becca, Andy, Cian and Dreamy are going home after an alcohol-fuelled night out in their local town. In the freezing darkness, their car hits something or someone. Three out of the four 19-year-olds make a split-second decision to keep going; the fourth has already blacked out.

“The next morning, when they hear a neighbour’s body has been found on the side of the road, they decide to cover up their involvement in the fatal incident. In the years that follow, the four friends attempt to forge futures in and away from Ballylea, drifting apart though occasionally colliding. But when they start receiving hostile anonymous emails five years after the incident, it is clear that someone knows their secret and may expose it at any moment.”

Conor Griffin is from Tralee in County Kerry and lives in Dublin. His short story Captives was published in the Irish Independent as a New Irish Writing selection. His short fiction has also been published in the Irish Times and in literary journals including The Four Faced Liar, The Waxed Lemon, Crannóg and The Belfast Review. He was shortlisted in both the Máirtín Crawford Award and Wild Atlantic Words short story competitions in 2025.

Griffin said: “I’m thrilled that editor Patricia Deevy has acquired The Shackles for Penguin Sandycove, and I’m looking forward to readers engaging with the lives of the novel’s four complex characters. Huge thanks too to my fantastic agent Marianne Gunn O’Connor for her wisdom, advice and consistent encouragement."

Deevy added: “The Shackles is an astonishing novel about the corrosive toll of guilt on a group of friends. Conor’s brilliantly drawn characters are recognisable and authentic, his sense of place is impeccable, and the sustained sense of tension is off the charts. Like all the best crime fiction, The Shackles is equal parts gripping and thought-provoking, and I believe readers will be blown away by it.”