The Scholar

I flew through “The Scholar”, and it felt like McTiernan sharpened everything that already worked in The Ruin, the pacing, the mounting pressure, and the uneasy sense that every answer creates a worse question.

Cormac Reilly is pulled into the death of a young woman linked to Galway University and a pharmaceutical dynasty with money, influence, and far too many reasons to want the truth managed. The investigation is the kind I love, official interest, media heat, colleagues second-guessing every move, and the creeping suspicion that the system is designed to protect itself first.

What really sells the suspense is how personal it becomes. Cormac’s relationship with Emma Sweeney adds an edge of emotional risk to every decision, and show more the novel keeps nudging you into uncomfortable questions about bias, loyalty, and what “objectivity” looks like when the stakes are human. The atmosphere is crisp and chilly, even when the prose stays clean and fast, and the supporting cast feels like people rather than plot furniture.

»Being brilliant has never been this dangerous ...«

It is twisty without being gimmicky, tense without becoming melodramatic, and it sticks the landing with the sort of momentum that made me reach for a palate cleanser afterwards (hello, Bridgerton), and then immediately start eyeing Cormac book three.

Five stars out of five.

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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam show less

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 show more 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. show less

I solved the mystery long before the characters, but that didn't take away much of my enjoyment of the story. I liked watching the politics of the police department about as much as I did watching them collect clues. And I'm feeling more attached to the three main detectives as the series goes along.

Despite hearing wonderful things about The Ruin, like so many other great debuts it never did find its way to my reading pile. So when the opportunity arose to read McTiernan’s second novel featuring Detective Cormac Reilly, I jumped at it. But early on, I found myself wondering what all the fuss was about. In The Scholar the writing was simple, the scenes felt disjointed, and where was Reilly? This crime novel is definitely a slow burn and some of the decisions made with regard to policing seem questionable. As a bigger picture coalesced and McTiernan’s series lead entered focus, I came to appreciate the storytelling approach more. Read full review >>

This is a good follow-up to The Ruin in many ways. Cormac Reilly is now finding his footing with the Galway Garda, slowly building on relationships he can trust and figuring out who is there to do him in. Carrie, too (whose "origin story" is in The Sisters, has come into her own, and they both negotiate the enigmatic behavior of superintendent Murphy. Outside the station, the dark world of academia and scientific research rears its ugly head, full of jealousies (petty and not-so-petty) and desperation.

The connection between the two major deaths in the story becomes fairly clear -- for most readers probably long before Cormac and/or Carrie put two and two together. But do not fret...McTiernan knows how to write a plot twist, and this one show more is plausible for the most part. She artfully keeps us guessing with a lot of possibilities, and for those who wished we had more character development of Emma in The Ruin, this is the story you've needed. Also receiving more attention is Fisher, who actually plays a fairly significant role in the end.

As was the case with previous books, I sometimes felt there was too much emphasis on the "procedure" of procedural (e.g. details about zooming into video footage), but overall a really good balance of characterization and plot. Aoife McMahon delivers a convincing reading, although occasionally her male characters start to blend a bit. show less

Second outing for my new favorite Irish series, and just as well done as the first. Cormac is now in Galway, still relegated to cold cases and cold shoulders. All that changes when his love Emily finds a young woman who has been run over and is obviously dead. Cormac will pick up this case, which will almost cost him everything he holds dear.

The writing and the storyline are both smooth, almost seem effortless. Cormac and his sense of rightness even when he knows things might be better left undone, unsaid. The entitlement of the wealthy, their ruthlessness to protect what they consider theirs, no matter what it takes, or whose life. Drugs, legal drugs, and the big money they can bring, the pressure to create the next wonder drug. An show more explosive situation that only gets bigger. Good stuff here.

ARC from Edelweiss. show less

Once again McTiernan has delivered a great police procedural. She's combined the always popular theme of a ridiculously wealthy family headed by a ruthless patriarch with cutting edge scientific research, and set it against internal politics in the Galway policy department.

The plot easily held my attention and continued to unfold wrinkles until the very end. The ongoing cast of characters developed just enough to leave me wanting to discover what lies down the road for them in future entries in the series.

Although I'm typically not a fan of extended explorations of the romantic relationships of the main characters in a crime novel, in this case there was a tie-in to the plot so I'll let it slide. :-)

Rating this against other police show more procedurals, it's a solid 5 stars for me, with engaging narration by Aoife McMahon. show less