The Hanford Necklace

A Novel

by Shannon St. Hilaire

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Pub Date Oct 6 2026 | Archive Date Oct 15 2026

She Writes Press

Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction | Women's Fiction

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Description

Gilmore Girls meets Oppenheimer in this dual-timeline family saga, set in a Manhattan Project town, about a granddaughter who uncovers her grandmother’s nuclear-age secrets and her own toxic inheritance.

What is the half-life of O’Toole family secrets?

In 2013, Saige is stuck living with her Granny Rosamond in her beige wasteland of a hometown. Desperate for a diagnosis and cure for her mysterious ailments, she uncovers more than she bargained for—a hot rock that shouldn’t exist and a past Rosamond refuses to explain.

That past takes place in the 1940s, when 50,000 people move to an eastern Washington town that doesn’t exist to build something they can’t name. Rosamond is one of them, eager to do her bit for the war effort—and find a husband. When she falls for a charming engineer, she envisions a perfect life. But as the hot war turns cold and her ever-expanding family becomes increasingly troubled, she discovers this nuclear town is no utopia, and she must decide whether to cling to the destructive facade of domestic bliss or face the truth that could save them all.

When Rosamond’s past collides with Saige’s search for healing, half-buried secrets—from the most contaminated place in the Western Hemisphere to the wounds within their own family—can no longer be ignored. Can Saige discover the truth and heal herself without destroying her grandmother’s life?

Advance Praise

“A visceral page-turner about a granddaughter uncovering the plutonium-laced secrets of her grandmother’s past and a complicated family legacy created at the intersection of science and patriotism, secrets and lies, violence and love, and what happens when home is the thing that’s slowly killing you.”

—Ellen Baker, author of The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson

"Historically riveting, narratively addictive, and truly disturbing."

—Kirkus Reviews

“The Hanford Necklace is an absorbing and haunting novel—one that will linger long with readers . . . A truly heart-rending, revelatory work.”

—Maryka Biaggio, author of Gun Girl and the Tall Guy and Margery and Me

Available Editions

EDITION	Ebook
ISBN	9798896361671
PRICE	$12.99 (USD)
PAGES	256

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