The Ruin
The gripping Irish-set crime thriller you won't want to miss
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3.9 • 23 Ratings
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- £0.99
Publisher Description
Shortlisted for the Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year
Shortlisted for the RTE Listeners' Choice Award
Shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker Prize 2018
'As moving as it is fast-paced' VAL McDERMID
'Spectacularly good' MARIAN KEYES
'Beautifully drawn characters' LAURA MARSHALL
*****
February 1993
On his first week on the job, Garda Cormac Reilly responds to a call at a decrepit country house to find two silent, neglected children waiting for him - fifteen-year-old Maude and five-year-old Jack. Their mother lies dead upstairs.
March 2013
Twenty years later, Cormac has left his high-flying career as a detective in Dublin and returned to Galway. As he struggles to navigate the politics of a new police station, Maude and Jack return to haunt him.
What ties a recent suicide to the woman's death so long ago? And who among his new colleagues can Cormac really trust?
This powerful debut will draw you into the dark heart of Ireland and ask who will protect you when the authorities can't - or won't. Perfect for fans of Val McDermid, Tana French and Susie Steiner.
*****
Praise for THE RUIN:
'Brilliantly crafted . . . an absolute treat!' SUNDAY MIRROR
'An exciting new voice in Irish noir' SUNDAY TIMES
'Corruption, clandestine cover-ups and criminal conspiracy . . . as moving as it is fast-paced' VAL McDERMID
'Absolutely brilliant. Wonderful characters, authentic setting, and a sublime, twisty plot' IRISH EXAMINER
'A compelling story with beautifully drawn characters I really cared about' LAURA MARSHALL
'Heartbreaking and heart-stopping' CAZ FREAR
'As convincing as it is multi-layered, as compelling as it is complex . . . Dervla is a future star of the genre' CHRIS BROOKMYRE
'Fans of Tana French will love McTiernan's expertly plotted, complex web of secrets that refuse to stay hidden' KAREN DIONNE
'There are not many books that will keep me reading from start to finish but THE RUIN did just that . . . An excellent story, very well written . . . this one was a winner for me!' ALEX GRAY
'Loved every page . . . Cormac Reilly is a brilliant new character, so real you can hear his footsteps on the stairs. Utterly gripping, brilliantly executed story' SAM BLAKE
'Intelligent, compassionate and believable' SINEAD CROWLEY
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
