The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan

Publisher's Synopsis

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.

My Review of The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan

As a young constable - called out on his first job, Cormac Reilly arrived at a ramshackle old house where Maude and Jack Blake live with their alcoholic mother. Upon arrival at the house he’s led up to the mother’s bedroom where he finds her dead of a heroin overdose. 5 year old Jack has clearly been injured, probably abused by someone and Reilly takes him, along with his sister to the hospital where he’s treated. While waiting at the hospital, Maude slips out and disappears. Reilly never hears from either again, but it’s a case that stays with him through his career.

Twenty years later Jack has gone missing from the house where he and his girlfriend, Aisling, had been living. After a couple of days Aisling is informed by the Garda that Jack has been found, dead from an apparent suicide. It’s devastating news and the suicide part is proving even more difficult to believe. 

Maude, who has spent the past 20 years living in Australia is on the scene and is demanding the Garda take a closer look at the case, refusing to believe her brother would kill himself. Between the two of them, Maude and Aisling do some investigating of their own.

For his part, Cormac Reilly has transferred into the Mill Street Garda Station as a seasoned detective. His reasons for moving from the higher profile Dublin station centered around his wife and her blossoming career. But Reilly has virtually been shelved at his new posting, restricted to going through cold cases and consistently being overlooked for any recent crime cases.

He has the distinct impression that something within the Garda Station is being covered up. His exclusion is pointed, whispers about a couple of ranking officers can’t be ignored and apathy towards cases is concerning.

When he’s given the task of looking into a possible 20 year old murder case involving Maude Blake his interest is piqued, not least because he remembers her from all those years ago. Someone in the police force has something to hide and working this case could be a way to get to the bottom of possible police corruption.

Cormac is a completely likable character who is far from the perfect cop but is definitely blessed with common sense and a pragmatic nature that he uses to great effect when on the trail of a case. Maude was a similarly impressive character, tough and smart and afraid of no-one. She managed to lift every scene she was part of.

The Ruin is an outstanding murder mystery set in Galway, Ireland and benefitting from a deeply atmospheric mood that weighs a heavy veil of hopelessness over much of the story. The death of a young man who survived a tough childhood is merely the starting point. The fact that Maude has returned from overseas only to find she had barely missed reuniting with her brother before he died. And then she finds herself facing a murder charge from 20 years previously. 

There is a lot going on here and Dervla McTiernan has done a wonderful job in bringing a range of seemingly disparate storylines together to form a tragic and moving tale. I found it to be a dramatic and completely engaging mystery and was very pleased to be surprised by several revelations as the story reached it’s conclusion.