Dervla McTiernan’s first novel, The Ruin, which introduced Galway based Gardaí sergeant, Cormac Reilly, was published last year to almost universal acclaim. I very much enjoyed it on a first read, but was less certain a second time round. I thought McTiernan started too many hares and that as a result the central narrative line got lost. I was also concerned about the number of members of the Galway force who were at best incompetent, at worst corrupt. I have friends living in Galway and I feared for their safety. I came to The Scholar, the second in the series, therefore, with a certain amount of trepidation. Fortunately, this novel is more tightly plotted and, while there are still one or two members of the force who clearly have issues, I suspect that is true of any group of police and this time round there is, thank goodness, a sense that as a whole they do actually want to see justice done.

Cormac Reilly has transferred from Dublin to Galway to be with his partner, Emma Sweeney, who has secured a five year funded position at a medical research lab. The two met after Emma was charged with a murder from which she was later exonerated and the experience, unsurprisingly, has left scars on both of them. When, therefore, Emma rings Cormac and tells him that she has found a dead body in the University car park he is concerned not only for her well-being but also that she may be seen as a suspect in what turns out to be a particularly vicious, and clearly deliberate, hit and run. When it becomes apparent that the victim has links to the facility in which Emma works Reilly’s involvement in the case becomes questionable however, he is determined to hang on to the investigation not only to ensure that Emma is not unduly pressured but also because this is the first real test of his ability in his new posting.

At the heart of the case are two seriously dysfunctional families. Carline Darcy is the granddaughter of a man who has made billions through the development of medical advances. John Darcy is a seriously nasty piece of work, who has no time for Carline despite the fact that she seems to crave his approval. To that end she has enrolled on the Bio-Pharmaceutical Chemistry degree at the University and is seeking to prove by her work that she is worthy of a place in Darcy Pharmaceuticals. Here she encounters and works alongside Della Lambert, the eldest daughter of a family struggling to make ends meet after the financial crash causes her father to lose his business. On the face of it, the two girls have nothing in common, but there is one thing that Della can apparently offer Carline: a way to gain her grandfather’s approval.

To anyone who has worked in the University sector, Carline’s plan is obviously flawed, but at eighteen you think you can order the world to run in line with your scenario. Sooner rather than later her scheme would have come crashing down around both girls heads. However, there is one member of Darcy Pharmaceutical who can’t afford to wait for that to happen and, with Emma Sweeney on hand to be offered up as the obvious suspect, that individual decides to take deadly action.

I think this is definitely a more tightly written book than The Ruin and McTiernan has given greater definition to more of her characters, especially Emma, Cormac’s fellow sergeant, Carrie O’Halloran, and Garda Peter Fisher, who is clearly ripe either for promotion for using his own initiative or dismissal on the grounds of overstepping the mark. While she isn’t yet rivalling Claire McGowan or Tana French in respect of Irish crime writing, I will certainly be coming back for more.

I was a huge fan of “The Ruin” so was very much looking forward to reading this, the follow up due in March 2019.

Once again this author immediately sucked me into Cormac’s world, the beautifully descriptive sense she brings to both character and place is gorgeously immersive, the challenges faced here different but still utterly compelling.

Money talks, the rich are different, in The Scholar this finds Cormac once more fighting a political minefield as he tries to solve a most horrific murder – whilst protecting his girlfriend Emma, caught up accidentally in the aftermath. Or at least he hopes accidentally…

The Scholar is a brilliant literary mystery set in the world of big pharmaceuticals, of research and secret projects, a foreign world to most of us and one that challenges Cormac in his search for the truth. It is also a very human story, of family and connection, of love and the lengths we’ll go to in order to protect what is important to us.

It is unpredictable and beautifully plotted, with twists of story and character, I loved every minute.

Fascinating, emotional and completely addictive, The Scholar just confirms my view that Dervla McTiernan is one to watch, not only in 2019 but beyond.

Highly Recommended.

Having thoroughly enjoyed Dervla McTiernan’s first novel ‘The Ruin’, I looked forward to following the fortunes of her intelligent, thoughtful detective Cormac Reilly in ‘The Scholar’. Set in present-day Galway, the prologue takes us back to Dublin 2006 in which young, lonely rich girl Carline Darcy learns of her father’s death in a skiing accident and is horrified at the thought of having to live with her unreliable mother. She visits her millionaire grandfather, John Darcy, CEO of Darcy Therapeutics, to beg for a different life.
Fast forward to 2014 and we read that she appears to be the victim of a hit and run accident outside her grandfather’s research laboratories in which Cormac’s partner Emma holds a prestigious research position. However, she is found safe and well in her penthouse flat and we learn that the girl who was carrying Carline’s lab pass was genius, impoverished drop-out student Della Lambert. Much of the novel centres on working out why Della has been killed and, without giving away the reason, this narrative is just about plausible if the reader is prepared to believe that Della is as clever and intellectually mature as she would need to be for this storyline to work.
However, the main reason why this novel is a good read is because of the way that McTiernan builds the relationships between the police and their partners. Carrie O’Halloran and Peter Fisher are properly fleshed out characters rather than stereotypical side-kicks to Reilly and there must be more developments due for Moira Hanley, a workshy, unpleasant colleague. Why is she as she is? The team can only grow more interesting as the series progresses.
Nevertheless, the Henderson case which Cormac is working on initially, linked to the main crimes only by its theme of dysfunctional families, could have been developed further. Focusing on the topical subject of coercive control, the author makes the situation both horrifying and very believable. Likewise, Della Lambert’s family circumstances were worse than depressing and it would have been interesting to have seen their impact in more detail. Whilst police procedural is used well in ‘The Scholar’, characterisation is McTiernan’s greatest strength.
My thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.