Oh I did like this book. It was very well written and very atmospheric. It was set in Ireland and was very much a police procedural but I like that. The story moved well and I would definitely want to read more by this author.

I very much enjoyed this book. It has a good story and excellent main characters. I would definately recommend this book.

I loved Dervla McTiernan's last book and was delighted to get the opportunity to read her newest book, The Scholar. Detective Cormmac Reilly, returns as the central character and this time the case hits close to home. I have a particular affection for this series of books as it is set in my home county of Galway, I can't wait to read more from the author in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC

The Scholar By Dervla McTiernan
This book is the follow up book to The Ruin. I enjoyed both books equally. This book is a good police procedural set in Ireland.
Great plot with a few unexpected events which kept it interesting until the end.

Die 12 jährige Carline erfährt bei einer Freundin aus den Nachrichten, dass ihr Vater, der zukünftige Erbe des Firmenimperiums Darcy Therapeutics, bei einem Lawinenunglück getötet wurde. Trotz ihrer Ängste und Entfremdung zwingt ihr Großvater sie, ab dann bei ihrer leiblichen Mutter zu leben.

Wie im Vorgänger Teil ist Cormac Reilly immer noch nur auf Cold Cases angesetzt. Seine Kollegin Carrie beschwert sich, da die Hauptlast der aktuellen Fälle auf ihr liegt obwohl sie erst frisch Sergeant geworden ist und eine junge Familie hat. Trotz erster Gegenwehr verteilt der Chef dann drei Fälle auf Reilly um. Carrie will ihn am späten Abend noch schnell zum aktuellen Henderson Fall informieren, da die Verhöre am nächsten Tag schon weitergehen. Doch da meldet sich Reillys aufgelöste Freundin Emma. Sie hat auf dem Weg zum Labor eine grausam entstellte Tote gefunden. Die Frau wurde anscheinend überfahren und der Täter ist geflüchtet.

Bei den ersten Fragen von Carrie nach den genaueren Umständen verfängt sich Emma zu Reillys Schreck sofort in einer Lüge. Man ist direkt in die Geschichte geworfen und fiebert gleich mit.

Schnell besteht der Verdacht dass es sich bei der entstellten jungen Frau um Carline handeln könnte. Die Tote wurde zunächst nur angefahren, aber dann absichtlich überfahren. Emma arbeitet in einem der Labore von Darcy Therapeutics. Reilly ist im Jahr zuvor mit ihr nach Galway umgezogen, damit sie ihrer Forscherkarriere dort durchstarten konnte. Reilly informiert den Chef sofort über die prominente Verknüpfung, auch wenn er nicht viel von ihm hält und glaubt dass er korrupt ist. Aber dann stellt sich heraus, dass es eine Verwechslung gibt und Carline noch lebt. Trotzdem verstrickt sie sich ihren Freunden gegenüber schnell in Widersprüche.

Mit Tempo und bewährten Herangehen nimmt das Team die Ermittlungen nach dem unbekannten Opfer auf, während der zweite Fall einige Tage wird warten müssen. Emma soll wie eine normale Zeugin behandelt werden. Auch der Chef der anliegenden Universität wird befragt.

Zum zweiten Drittel erfährt man dann auch, was hinter Emmas altem Trauma steckt. Tempo und Spannung nehmen deutlich zu. Langsam kommt ein Verdacht auf. Doch dann wird Reilly der Fall abgenommen. Aus Reillys und Carlines Sicht wird dann einiges schon mal klar gestellt. Doch kurz darauf kommt es zu einem plötzlichen unerwarteten weiteren Todesfall. Man ist überrascht und folgt gefesselt. Dann kommen wir zu dem Teil der leider schon im Cover Text verraten wird, dass Emma selber in Verdacht gerät. Aber es fehlt weiterhin das entscheidende Puzzlestück.

Es spielen sehr interessante Nebenfiguren im Ermittlerteam mit, besonders auch Peter Fischer. Einiges vor dem Ende kommt es schon zur finalen Konfrontation. Emotional wird das für Reilly und sein Team als Ganzes ein großer Durchbruch. Aber auch nach der ersten Verhaftung ist noch viel zu tun, um den Fall mit genügend guten Beweisen handfest zu machen.

Emma und Reilly können als Paar in Nöten überzeugen. Trotz einem langsamen ersten Viertel, in dem die Umstände und Figuren eingeführt werden, ist dieses Buch ein sehr guter zweiter Teil der Serie. Ich bin gespannt und werde dem Team auch sicher wieder beim nächsten Fall folgen.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I hadn't read the first following the same detective but I had seen it become a hit and was intrigued to find out more.

The crime had enough layers that while I figured out a lot early on there were still surprises, I enjoyed the style and tone and found myself invested in the characters' lives.

Definitely looking forward to reading more of her work and might just have to go back and read the first one.

The Scholar - cannot recommend this book highly enough. For lovers of a good murder-investigation thriller with a good story backdrop this is it. This is a new case for DS Cormac Reilly (whom we were introduced to in D McTiernan's previous book The Ruin). This author knows how to make her characters and their personalities jump off the page and come to life.

The story centres on a girl who has been killed in a hit and run outside a college campus - she is wearing another girl's cardigan and also has her college ID in her pocket - they need to first find out who she is. Cormac's girlfriend Dr Emma Sweeney who teaches at the college is first at the scene and therefore a witness. The team set out to solve the case with Cormac at the helm. Most of the team are supportive of the Detective apart from Moira Hanly another detective on the case who tries to block progress, outsmart and gossip about him to anyone who will listen.

Great writing, brilliant storyline and plot which will keep you guessing all the way til the end. I am really looking forward to her third novel which is out in 2020! Five stars

This is actually the second book in the series. The first one of course is the multi award winning The Ruin – the first novel in the Cormac Reilly novel.

So gripping was the story in this second novel The Scholar, that apart from a few niggles about information I felt was being kept from me (well if you’d read the first novel you’d have known silly) I read it in three settings. Fast, beautifully written, intriguing and insightful. Dervla McTiernan definitely has a way with words

Surprises, false trails and intrigue in big business, this time in the pharmaceuticals industry. After a spell working on cold cases, resentment towards Cormac from within his own team and a senior officer threaten to stymie the cases he is currently working on.

Cormac Reilly I felt was a character with integrity and I found the police procedural workings of the Guarda, the Irish police force to be especially interesting.

Set in Galway, Ireland, a county and country I love, the local setting added to the atmosphere.

Now I have to wear a hair shirt and walk over hot coals as penance for not reading The Ruin first! Shame, shame, shame

With thanks to the publisher via NetGalley for my copy

I'm clearly in the minority with this but I just did not enjoy this book. I did enjoy the Ruin previously and was looking forward to this one but unfortunately for me they are miles apart. I didn't feel here was enough going on within the actual story to keep me interested and felt it was more a story about Cormac himself rather than the case. I sadly found it a bit predictable and really had to push myself to finish it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review and feedback.

D'S Cormac Reilly returns in this atmospheric, suspenseful mystery. Well plotted with credible and engaging characterisation and an intriguing storyline. The writing flows well from the first page to the last. If you have read the very compelling first book in this series - 'The Ruin' - then you are sure to enjoy this second book and if you haven't then this works equally well as a standalone. A thoroughly good read.

This is the second book in the Cormac Reilly series and I really enjoyed it.
Reilly is working cold cases but when DS Carrie O’Halloran asks that he is assigned some current cases, he gets more than he bargained for.
Cormac receives a call from his partner Dr Emma Sweeney who is working at Darcy Laboratories and discovers the body of young woman who is the victim of hit and run.
Another body is soon found but as Cormac is close to the investigation, due to his partner finding the body, Carrie takes over the case.
It soon becomes clear to both of them that the key to solving these murders lies somewhere within Darcy laboratories, but where do they start?
This book is fast paced and had me racing through the pages.
Thanks to Little Brown Book Group and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I cormac Riley #2

In the prologue we learn that Carline Darcy is the granddaughter of John Darcy, the founder of the family business Darcy Pharmaceuticals. Carline is only twelve when her father, Eoghan Darcy dies in a skiing accident. The story then eight years later. Carline is now twenty and she's studying and working in scientific research. A woman is found dead outside the university. It looks like it been a hit and run accident. The security card found in her pocket identifies her as Carline. It was Cormac Reilly's girlfriend, Emma Sweeney who found the body. As Cormac's investigation progresses the evidence is building and there's definitely a link to Darcy Laboratory.

Cormac and Emma have moved to Galway. He's been assigned cold cases to work through. Mma has a new job in a Pharmaceutical company that's attached to the university. When Emma discovers the body, it sets in motion a trail of events that have devastating consequences for Carline's friends and family as well as for Cormac and Emma. I got caught up quickly in this story. A police procedural that covers deception, police politics, malpractice and gut instincts. This is a well written story that I thought I knew where it was going, then it would change direction completely. A terrific read.

I would like to thank Netgalley, Little, Brown Book Group UK and the author Dervla McTiernan for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I downloaded this and realised I had bought it on kindle! oops ! Sorry but here is my review:

This really is turning out to be a cracking series set in Ireland. Cormac and his girlfriend once lived in Dublin and are now living in Galway. You’d think the smaller city might have less dramatic cases but, oh no, this one takes you right into the heart of the world of the drug giants - well the pharmaceutical giants.
Someone linked to the biggest player has been found dead and Cormac’s girlfriend might have some kind of link to the case. Oh it doesn’t get much closer to home than this. A cracking premise from the off and Galway comes across loud and clear. Most is set in the pharma company itself and it’s a shocking insight and impression in to how these places might well operate in the real world, how much power money really does have and how absolute power really does corrupt absolutely.

This is a strong second book after The Ruin and it should be on your TBR pile asap. IT’s what Cormac would want. And we like him, so do the right thing.

The second book in this series & again it did not disappoint. From the beginning it is heartwarming to know that I was going to enjoy this easily read story, engage with the characters & be held together until the final chapters. The best though about this was when completed there were 2 more chapters to engage with for the next novel. Just wonderful to know there is more in store for these characters set in ireland.

When DS Cormac Reilly gets a late night phone call from his girlfriend he has no idea it will lead to him being first on the scene of a murder that he wouldn’t normally be investigating. The dead girl is carrying the ID if Carline Darcy, heir to Ireland’s biggest pharmaceutical company. It soon becomes clear that there is much more going on here that DS Reilly first thought, and that Emma might be closer to the death than he is comfortable with. With his colleagues becoming increasingly suspicious the race is on for Cormac to find out what is really going on, and prove Emma is innocent once and for all.

This is the first book I’ve read by Dervla McTiernan, but it certainly won’t be the last. I was sucked into the story immediately, and read the whole thing in less than 24 hours.

The plot kicks off almost immediately, with Emma discovering the body within the first few chapters. The pace is kept up right throughout the book, and McTiernan does a great job of depicting the pressure that the detectives are under to get results.

Cormac Reilly is a genuinely likeable character. He’s a hardworking detective who is smart, knows how to read people and put them at ease, and knows how to get results. I liked that he wasn’t the stereotypical damaged police officer we often see, and that he wasn’t the sort of character that breaks the rules as he sees fit in order to get what he wants. It was a refreshing change, and it worked well. There was a few supporting characters that I liked too, mainly Fisher and O’Halloran, and am looking forward to reading more about them in other books in the series.

Although I had an inkling about some of the aspects of the story, I hadn’t worked out who the killer was or how things all pieced together. This isn’t the sort of book that has major plot twists as such, but the story unwinds bit by bit, so it feels like the reader is putting things together at the same time as the police. It works really well, and it’s not until the last chapter where the full picture is revealed.

I really enjoyed this book, and have already added books 1 and 3 to my reading list. For anyone who likes police procedurals this is a must read.

Thanks to NetGalley, Sphere and Little Brown Book Group UK for an arc in exchange for an honest review

This was my first read by Dervla McTiernan having been recommended her by a friend. SOLD! I loved it, scientist Emma is on her way to the Lab located at Galway University when she discovers the body of a young woman, panicked, she phones her boyfriend, Det Cormac Reilly. It looks like a case of simple hit and run, however, upon closer examination by Reilly, all is not what it seems and the ID on the body determines that the body of the young girl is that of Carline Darcy, granddaughter of the owner of multi billion euro pharmaceutical company who owns the Lab at Galway. They must thread carefully in detangling all the strings to this case.

This story was full of twists and really drew you in, I loved the characters and the storyline, I lived in Galway for years and it was nostalgic reading all the places, road names etc and I was able to identify the exact locations which I really enjoyed. This author is being added to my list and I am going back now to read the Ruin.

I received a digital ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to #netgalley and Harper Collins for this opportunity.

Wow. This was my first Dervla McTiernan book and I’m officially a fan. The Scholar was fast paced, intelligent, and original. McTiernan also spent more time on the “whys” and by that I mean not only the why of the central crime, but the reasons behind all of the characters actions, allowing the reader to glimpse each person’s comments internal world and thus understand each of their motivations. Many “psychological” thrillers are too focused on shocking the reader or created a villain with an unexpected psychosis, but McTiernan is a better writer than that and her book is actually more interesting for her choices. I didn’t feel I was missing critical information having not read the previous book in this series, which helped as well. Bonus points for a book set by NUIG, which Gabe me nostalgia as a former student there.

I loved the Ruin and I also loved this!!! I couldn’t put it down!!! I can’t wait for the next book from this author!!! Brilliant book! Five stars from me!!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Dervla McTiernan for the advanced copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

When on a late evening scientist Emma finds a young woman dead on the university premises, it looks like a hit and run without any connection to the place. But then, the police find out that she had the ID of another student with her and also wore her clothes. Carline Darcy, first presumed the victim, reacts very harshly to the police showing up at her apartment, but her behaviour makes her even more suspicious, especially since Carline comes from a very rich family owning the institute close to which the body of the still unidentified woman was found. As Cormac Reilly and his team investigate, more and more evidence pops up linking the rich girl to the murder. But also the scientist who found the victim is doubtful – wasn’t she connected to another murder just a couple of months before? And what about the fact that Emma is the leading sergeant’s partner?

Dervla McTiernan’s thriller is a highly complex police investigation that I thoroughly enjoyed to read. It moves at a high pace and on every new page, new evidence appears that leads to another thread that you could follow. To fully understand to extent of the case, it takes some time and you as a reader investigate along the police all the time. The fact that sergeant Reilly himself is personally involved gives it all a bit of an extra that made the whole story even more interesting.

There are two aspects in the novel that I found wonderfully elaborated. First of all, the ways dysfunctional families find their own modus operandi in which they proceed and which can never be penetrated by somebody from outside. It was mainly in a side plot that this a deeply developed, but it was also true for the protagonist’s family, just with a slight shift of interest. The second was the question of how far people are willing to go for success and recognition. These are highly valued in our times and often the main feature to define a person. If you cannot compete, you are nothing. With this attitude, to we dig our own graves in putting people under so much pressure that they cannot see a way out?

All in all, very gripping and real page-turner.

I just love books with a setting in Ireland, and I happen to work at a university ;-) so I was attracted to this title.
I'm not disappointed and were it not for the fact that the story is sometimes a bit too slow for my liking, I would have given it 5 stars.
I appreaciate that this book can be read without having read the first book in the series. There is just enough information to relate to the main character Cormac Reilly and what happened to him in the first book. And how he came to meet Emma.

Thanks to Netgalley for my digital review copy.