The Top Ten fiction bestseller and critically acclaimed crime debut featuring everyone's favourite new detective, Cormac Reilly
'The Ruin is spectacularly good. So CONFIDENT ... excellently written and, at times, heartachingly sad' Marian Keyes
'Corruption, clandestine cover-ups and criminal conspiracy ... as moving as it is fast-paced' Val McDermid
'Dervla McTiernan's first novel outclasses some of the genre's stalwarts making her a crime writer to watch ... fans of Ian Rankin and Tana French will feel right at home' Bookseller + Publisher (4.5 stars)
Galway 1993: Young Garda Cormac Reilly is called to a scene he will never forget. Two silent, neglected children - fifteen-year-old Maude and five-year-old Jack - are waiting for him at a crumbling country house. Upstairs, their mother lies dead.
Twenty years later, a body surfaces in the icy black waters of the River Corrib. At first it looks like an open-and-shut case, but then doubt is cast on the investigation's findings - and the integrity of the police. Cormac is thrown back into the cold case that has haunted him his entire career - what links the two deaths, two decades apart? As he navigates his way through police politics and the ghosts of the past, Detective Reilly uncovers shocking secrets and finds himself questioning who among his colleagues he can trust.
What really did happen in that house where he first met Maude and Jack? The Ruin draws us deep into the dark heart of Ireland and asks who will protect you when the authorities can't - or won't.
**
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of July 2018: Dervla McTiernan is an author whose star is on the rise. Her debut, The Ruin, reminded me of Tana French’s novels, and I think others will find the comparison apt. The Ruin begins with a young policeman responding to a call at a dilapidated house in Ireland. Two children are living in squalor and he finds their mother dead from an apparent overdose. Twenty years later a reported suicide leads Detective Cormac Reilly back to that same crime scene, and the children he’s never quite been able to forget. The Ruin is filled with questionable recollections, red herrings, and characters that get under your skin. As the case goes on, the mysteries surrounding the two deaths become enmeshed with the claustrophobia of small town history and corruption. There are many threads to McTiernan’s tale, and that can be the Achilles heel to many a satisfying conclusion; but in the end, when McTiernan pulls those threads taut, it becomes clear that she had a master plan all along. A gritty, tense, and calculated mystery, The Ruin left me eager for Cormac Reilly’s next case.—Seira Wilson, Amazon Book Review
Review
Shortlisted for The Guardian's Not the Booker Prize 2018
Named one of LitHub's Most Anticipated Crime, Mystery, and Thrillers of Summer 2018
“Addictive . . . The Ruin, set in Ireland, follows detective Cormac Reilly as he reopens an investigation from twenty years ago. He’s determined to connect Hilaria Blake’s overdose in the past to her son Jack’s recent death. Get invested now, because there are at least two more Cormac Reilly books coming in the future.” —*HelloGiggles*
“A gripping mystery set in Galway that spans twenty years. It’s a complicated page-turning story that touches on corruption, clandestine cover-ups, and criminal conspiracy. . . . A story that’s as moving as it is fast-paced.” —Daily Mail (London)
“This searing debut brings together procedural and psychological thriller for a fascinating portrait of small-town Ireland and its big-city problems. Addiction, suicide, corruption, and desperation all play their part in this intricate, unsettling noir. Ireland’s experiencing an incredible new wave of women crime writers, spearheaded by the indomitable Tana French, and Dervla McTiernan is a fine new addition to a growing scene.” —*Lit Hub*
“Dervla McTiernan’s deliciously complicated police procedural The Ruin begins when a young man jumps to his death from a bridge in Galway, Ireland—or does he? His girlfriend doesn’t think Jack took his life, and neither does the detective who knew him from another case twenty years earlier. But the harder they dig for answers, the farther the truth recedes, and the more complicated and dangerous their investigation becomes. Fans of Tana French will love McTiernan’s expertly plotted, complex web of secrets that refuse to stay hidden.” —Karen Dionne, author of *The Marsh King’s Daughter*
“The Ruin is dark and compelling, with the satisfaction of a police procedural and the atmosphere of a gothic mystery. I was gripped by it, and by the complicated, resourceful characters of Aisling and Maude.” —Flynn Berry, author of *Under the Harrow*
“Powerful . . . McTiernan neatly ties [the threads of the novel] all together in the suspenseful conclusion. McTiernan, born in Ireland but now living in Australia, is a writer to watch.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Description:
The Top Ten fiction bestseller and critically acclaimed crime debut featuring everyone's favourite new detective, Cormac Reilly
'The Ruin is spectacularly good. So CONFIDENT ... excellently written and, at times, heartachingly sad' Marian Keyes
'Corruption, clandestine cover-ups and criminal conspiracy ... as moving as it is fast-paced' Val McDermid
'Dervla McTiernan's first novel outclasses some of the genre's stalwarts making her a crime writer to watch ... fans of Ian Rankin and Tana French will feel right at home' Bookseller + Publisher (4.5 stars)
Galway 1993: Young Garda Cormac Reilly is called to a scene he will never forget. Two silent, neglected children - fifteen-year-old Maude and five-year-old Jack - are waiting for him at a crumbling country house. Upstairs, their mother lies dead.
Twenty years later, a body surfaces in the icy black waters of the River Corrib. At first it looks like an open-and-shut case, but then doubt is cast on the investigation's findings - and the integrity of the police. Cormac is thrown back into the cold case that has haunted him his entire career - what links the two deaths, two decades apart? As he navigates his way through police politics and the ghosts of the past, Detective Reilly uncovers shocking secrets and finds himself questioning who among his colleagues he can trust.
What really did happen in that house where he first met Maude and Jack? The Ruin draws us deep into the dark heart of Ireland and asks who will protect you when the authorities can't - or won't.
**
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of July 2018: Dervla McTiernan is an author whose star is on the rise. Her debut, The Ruin, reminded me of Tana French’s novels, and I think others will find the comparison apt. The Ruin begins with a young policeman responding to a call at a dilapidated house in Ireland. Two children are living in squalor and he finds their mother dead from an apparent overdose. Twenty years later a reported suicide leads Detective Cormac Reilly back to that same crime scene, and the children he’s never quite been able to forget. The Ruin is filled with questionable recollections, red herrings, and characters that get under your skin. As the case goes on, the mysteries surrounding the two deaths become enmeshed with the claustrophobia of small town history and corruption. There are many threads to McTiernan’s tale, and that can be the Achilles heel to many a satisfying conclusion; but in the end, when McTiernan pulls those threads taut, it becomes clear that she had a master plan all along. A gritty, tense, and calculated mystery, The Ruin left me eager for Cormac Reilly’s next case.—Seira Wilson, Amazon Book Review
Review
Shortlisted for The Guardian's Not the Booker Prize 2018
Named one of LitHub's Most Anticipated Crime, Mystery, and Thrillers of Summer 2018
“Addictive . . . The Ruin, set in Ireland, follows detective Cormac Reilly as he reopens an investigation from twenty years ago. He’s determined to connect Hilaria Blake’s overdose in the past to her son Jack’s recent death. Get invested now, because there are at least two more Cormac Reilly books coming in the future.”
—*HelloGiggles*
“A gripping mystery set in Galway that spans twenty years. It’s a complicated page-turning story that touches on corruption, clandestine cover-ups, and criminal conspiracy. . . . A story that’s as moving as it is fast-paced.”
—Daily Mail (London)
“This searing debut brings together procedural and psychological thriller for a fascinating portrait of small-town Ireland and its big-city problems. Addiction, suicide, corruption, and desperation all play their part in this intricate, unsettling noir. Ireland’s experiencing an incredible new wave of women crime writers, spearheaded by the indomitable Tana French, and Dervla McTiernan is a fine new addition to a growing scene.”
—*Lit Hub*
“Dervla McTiernan’s deliciously complicated police procedural The Ruin begins when a young man jumps to his death from a bridge in Galway, Ireland—or does he? His girlfriend doesn’t think Jack took his life, and neither does the detective who knew him from another case twenty years earlier. But the harder they dig for answers, the farther the truth recedes, and the more complicated and dangerous their investigation becomes. Fans of Tana French will love McTiernan’s expertly plotted, complex web of secrets that refuse to stay hidden.”
—Karen Dionne, author of *The Marsh King’s Daughter*
“The Ruin is dark and compelling, with the satisfaction of a police procedural and the atmosphere of a gothic mystery. I was gripped by it, and by the complicated, resourceful characters of Aisling and Maude.”
—Flynn Berry, author of *Under the Harrow*
“Powerful . . . McTiernan neatly ties [the threads of the novel] all together in the suspenseful conclusion. McTiernan, born in Ireland but now living in Australia, is a writer to watch.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)