Ruth Hannigan

Illustration by Chris Bodily

Rory Hannigan (son, deceased)

Peter Lambrecht (father, deceased)

Trina Lambrecht (cousin)

**Ruth Hannigan** is a resident of Pacific Glade and widow to homicide detective Mark Hannigan. She has a counterpart in the Everglades named Ruby Herringbone.

## Overview

### Zombie Radio

* Ruth is taking Stephen and Rory Hannigan out for ice cream when Mark calls to warn her about the dangers of the radio. The entity Mark is chasing takes on Ruth's voice to try to manipulate him and melt his brain.

### Remember Me

* Ruth prepares dinner for the Inspector when he comes to visit. She is just as swept up in Marcy McKenna's delusion as the rest of her family.

### Purple Moon

* Behind the rift, Ruth's life energy manifests as a glowing, dripping orb of purple light, just like the other residents of Pacific Glade.

### Lucid Dreams

* Ruth's father, Peter Lambrecht, is killed by a runaway driver while getting the morning paper. During the wake, Ruth consoles the other guests but is quiet and composed herself. She is one of the many people Mark hallucinates floating in the depths of Lake Lucid.

### Devour

* In the quake, Ruth's son Rory is struck by falling debris and killed. Even though she is deeply grieving, Ruth tries to put aside her tears and help her surviving neighbors get to safety and tend to their injuries. She makes Mark promise to stay safe, but he sacrifices himself to seal the rift before she can see him again.

### Fallen Night

* In the aftermath of the quake, Ruth and Stephen have moved in with Olivia Marconi and Janine Zimmerman. Ruth joins other mourners in Locklear Cemetery to lay Mark and Rory to rest. When she is left alone by their graves, she finally allows herself to cry.

### A Neverglades Halloween

* Ruth attends the Inspector's Halloween party when the Semblance appears to her in the guise of Mark Hannigan. The entity teases her by hinting that it's spoken with Mark, and that a bit of her husband may still be alive. It tries to bring her costume (the Neverglades itself) to life, but Marconi is able to subdue it long enough for Ruth to behead the entity and neutralize it.

### Family Plot

* The Semblance disguises itself as Ruth's cousin Trina and plans to kill her when they visit the family plot at Locklear Cemetery. Although she sustains an injury in the struggle, Ruth survives and is taken to a hospital by the Inspector.

### Temple of the Moon

* Ruth flies out to Connecticut to see Stephen off to college. When students start committing suicide, she stays with Stephen to protect him, and ultimately helps Marconi and Janine get the rest of the hypnotized students to safety so they can't be used by Richard Temple to blackmail the Inspector.

### Checking Out

* Ruth convinces Sheriff Marconi to take a vacation to clear her head after Janine's death. The two take a road trip to the Cerulean Shores Hotel, where they learn about the missing tourists and get sucked into a bizarre dimension by the Backwards Woman. Ruth uses a paperweight to strike the entity and give Marconi time to throw it off a tall skyscraper. She supports Marconi's decision to return to the Neverglades after they get back to the real world.

### Fear No Evil

* Ruth partners with the Inspector to confront the Semblance in the world behind the doors (the only civilian to join the police force in doing so). Together with Marconi, she is able to subdue the Semblance long enough to allow the Inspector to seal it away in its prison of darkness again. Ruth accompanies the other two to the edge of the Ghost Highway, but says she doesn't feel the pull to walk down it, and chooses to return to Pacific Glade instead to help clean up after the Semblance's mess.

### Ghost Highway

* When Marconi says that she wants to rescue Mark Hannigan from beyond death, Ruth refuses to join her, saying that she doesn't believe death can be reversed and that trying to do so will only cause more pain. She stays behind when Marconi and the Inspector enter the world beyond the doors.

### The Third Man

* In the year following the disappearance of the Inspector and Marconi, Ruth forms a friendship with Zachary Atwater and begins to take online classes for her psych degree. She is a source of comfort for the aspiring detective as he tries to cope with their friends being gone for so long.

### Man of the Law

* Ruth accompanies Sheriff Abigail Shannon and Atwater as they head to St. Florence Hospital as backup against the Ender. However, upon arriving they find themselves engaging in a standoff with FBI agent Norman Clancy. Ruth tries to convince Clancy that the Inspector is benevolent, although her reasoning doesn't seem to sway him. She agrees to enter the multiverse with the rest of the rescue team to find the missing pieces of Marconi and the Inspector.

### Dark Side of the Moon

* Ruth, Atwater, and the Ferryman arrive in the Moonverse years after it has been destroyed by a cataclysmic event. They end up falling in with alternate versions of Mark Hannigan and Rory Hannigan, who survived the events of "Devour" in this timeline as opposed to their counterparts. Ruth helps the group fight against the Lurkers who are trying to hunt down Mark and Rory, then tries to convince the duo to return home with her; however, Mark refuses, arguing that his version of Ruth may still be out there, and he can't abandon her. Ruth is sad, but she understands, and chooses to go home without them.

### Journey's End

* Together with the Inspector and Marconi, Ruth returns to the Moonverse one last time to ask Mark to come home with her. Rory finally convinces him that there's nothing left for them in this world, so they decide to follow the group into the prime timeline. Ruth tries to help her new husband and son settle back into a normal life, and even though there are many sleepless nights and unfamiliar things to adjust to, the family ultimately finds happiness together.

## Multiverse Incarnations

### Dark Side of the Moon

* After the Inspector’s sacrifice and the subsequent monster invasion in the Moonverse, Ruth was captured by monsters, her fate unknown. Mark and Rory eventually accept that she’s most likely dead and decide to stop their futile search for her, returning to the prime timeline with its version of Ruth.

### Murder Mystery

* In this story’s universe, Ruth got the detective job instead of Mark. During a work dinner event, she is forced to investigate her husband’s murder over and over again, and eventually learns that the Chronicler has been trying (and failing) to write her and Mark a happy ending.

### All Things End

* In this story’s universe, Ruth becomes distant from her husband when he is miraculously revived after his fatal accident, having already accepted his death. She ends up convincing Mark that he needs to move on and face death peacefully.

### Tourist Trap

* In this story’s universe, Ruth is transported behind the rift (along with the rest of Pacific Glade) in the Inspector’s effort to quarantine the town and keep the swarm of time-eaters from escaping. She is killed when the Sightless razes their dimension into nothing.

### The Old Block

* In this story’s universe, Ruth organizes an annual family memorial lunch to remember her husband’s sacrifice. She ends up staging an intervention when Rory’s obsession with his job proves to be harmful to his physical and mental health.