(Image from Barnes & Noble)
When Dr. Emma Sweeney happens across the dead body of a university student while crossing campus after hours, she calls the first person who comes to mind—her boyfriend, Detective Sergeant Cormac Reilly. As persona non grata at the Galway police station, Cormac never would have been assigned to the apparent hit-and-run. Especially considering his relationship with the star witness. Things get even dicier when a student i.d. in the deceased's pocket identifies the victim as Carline Darcy, granddaughter of the billionaire owner of Darcy Therapeutics, the company which funds Emma's research. Suddenly, the "accident" is looking a lot like murder, with Emma quickly becoming the biggest suspect. And, somehow, Cormac is the one in charge of the investigation.
With the case getting increasingly complicated, Cormac is torn between his loyalty to his girlfriend and the evidence mounting against her. Determined to solve a murder and finally prove himself to his colleagues at the same time, Cormac will have to risk everything he has, both personal and professional, to find the truth.
While I didn't enjoy the second installment in Dervla McTiernan's Cormac Reilly series quite as much as the first, I still really liked The Scholar. Like its predecessor, the novel is a compelling, exciting page-turner that I had a hard time putting down. I especially like the characters McTiernan has created, all of whom are realistically complicated and flawed. Although the story people in this series have already come alive enough for me to care about what happens to them, I still feel like each of them has hidden depths to be explored. That's one of the reasons I'm so excited to see where this series goes. McTiernan has impressed me so far. I'm a big Cormac Reilly fan; I can't wait to see what happens to him next!
(Readalikes: The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan; also reminds me of crime novels by Tana French, Sharon Bolton, and Jane Casey)
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for strong language, violence, blood/gore, and disturbing subject matter
It's always the characters that make a crime series worth reading for me. These sound like great ones. :)
ReplyDeleteAgreed. McTiernan's characters are very understated and she reveals their inner workings slowly, which keeps me intrigued. Her plots are good, too, which makes for nicely balanced mysteries.
DeleteSounds as if you are as big a fan of detective fiction series as I am. I love watching the characters evolve over time - and especially like discovering an older series I didn't know about so that I can binge-read them. That's what I'm doing with Peter Robinson's books right now - Netflix made "binging" seem normal and I'm all for it now.
ReplyDeleteFor sure. I can't read series (of any kind) out of order because I feel like I'm missing out on seeing characters grow and evolve over time. That's my favorite part about reading books in a series.
DeleteI love discovering new series as well, although I'm a little picky about the ones I'll read. I haven't read anything by Peter Robinson—I'll have to give him a try.
This sounds good. I don't love when the main character is the chief suspect but I love the sound of this series. I'm definitely going to have to start with the first one!
ReplyDelete