The Ruin

Starred review from May 21, 2018
McTiernan’s powerful first novel has the authentic feel of its Irish setting. In 1993, police detective Cormac Reilly is called to a house in Kilmore, County Mayo, where he finds 15-year-old Maude Blake and her five-year-old brother, Jack, alive; in an upstairs bedroom lies the body of their alcoholic mother, dead of a drug overdose. In 2013, Jack’s body turns up in a Galway river after an anonymous caller claims he saw Jack jump in. Jack’s girlfriend, Aisling Conroy, is sadly willing to accept the obvious conclusion that it was suicide. But Maude, newly back from Australia, is convinced it was murder. Based on new information, Cormac investigates the now 20-year-old death of the mother, while Maude and Aisling try to figure out what actually happened to Jack, since the police seem unwilling to. Various other threads in the tightly woven plot lead to rape, child molestation, drug dealing, police corruption, and more murders. McTiernan neatly ties them all together in the suspenseful conclusion. McTiernan, born in Ireland but now living in Australia, is a writer to watch. Agent: Faye Bender, Book Group.

May 15, 2018
The ruin here is a decaying Galway, Ireland, mansion where an Anglo-Irish family is hanging on by a thread. An alcoholic single mother, who has long since run through her family's fortune, is drinking away her final days there while her young children, Maude and Jack, fend for themselves. As a new policeman, Cormac Reilly is sent to the home for what he believes is a minor domestic; instead, he finds the woman dead, and the children in squalor. Years later, the case comes back to haunt Reilly when Jack is found drowned. Jack's girlfriend, Aisling, and Maude believe Jack may have been murdered and push for a thorough investigation despite police insistence that Jack killed himself. The story that unfolds shows the worst of Irish society and its police force, and includes compelling, unexpected twists and a hold-your-breath standoff. Debut author McTiernan should find success with this start to a promising series. Hand this one to readers of Tana French and to police-procedural fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from June 1, 2018

Maude and Jack Blake's mother died of a heroin overdose in 1993. Twenty years later, the detective who investigated the death, Cormac Reilly, is reintroduced to the siblings' case because of Jack's suicide and Maude's suspicious behavior. Aisling Conroy, a medical resident and Jack's partner, does not believe Jack killed himself; she takes it upon herself, with urging from Maude, to find out what really happened. As secrets from Jack's past are uncovered, Cormac learns that his original case is connected to a tangled web of other crimes as well. Rich characterization is revealed through the alternating points of view from Cormac, Aisling, and eventually Maude; there is also a strong sense of place as the characters weave through the often rainy Irish landscape. VERDICT With police drama reminiscent of Tana French's "Dublin Murder Squad" series and parallels to the close-to-home, quieter suspense of Ruth Ware's The Lying Game, McTiernan pens an intricate story of impossible decisions, family bonds, and police politics. Avid mystery readers will be enthralled with this intricate, mysterious, and edgy debut.--Natalie Browning, Longwood Univ. Lib., Farmville, VA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 25, 2018
The Ruin is as much a morality tale as it is an incendiary page-turner. This superior, haunting novel of murder, deception and ethical dilemma is set in Galway, on Ireland’s west coast, and introduces Cormac Reilly into the fold of tough, outsider detectives who take crime in their city as a personal affront. And this case is particularly resonant for D I Reilly. Twenty years ago, during his first week on the job, he responded to a call at a decaying country house and found two young, mistreated children abandoned downstairs—15-year-old Maude and five-year-old Jack—while upstairs their mother, Hilaria, lay dead from a heroin overdose. Jack was funnelled into foster care, Maude disappeared and Reilly moved on. Now, Jack is dead—the victim of a suicide—and Maude has reappeared in Galway. Jack’s girlfriend suspects foul play and begins a private investigation while Reilly, amid chaotic departmental politics, reopens the decades-old investigation into Hilaria’s death. For a debut, The Ruin is remarkably sure-footed, every scene building to a fine crescendo of tension, ratcheting perfectly for the explosive conclusion. Dervla McTiernan’s first novel far outclasses some of the genre’s stalwarts, marking her as a crime writer to watch, and Cormac Reilly a cop to follow to hell and back. Fans of Ian Rankin and Tana French will feel right at home. Simon McDonald is a bookseller at Potts Point Bookshop