The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan

Publisher's Synopsis

When Dr Emma Sweeney stumbles across the victim of a hit and run outside Galway University late one evening, she calls her partner, Detective Cormac Reilly, bringing him first to the scene of a murder that would otherwise never have been assigned to him.

A security card in the dead woman's pocket identifies her as Carline Darcy, a gifted student and heir apparent to Irish pharmaceutical giant Darcy Therapeutics. The multi-billion-dollar company, founded by her grandfather, has a finger in every pie, from sponsoring university research facilities to funding political parties to philanthropy - it has funded Emma's own ground-breaking research. The enquiry into Carline's death promises to be high profile and high pressure.

As Cormac investigates, evidence mounts that the death is linked to a Darcy laboratory and, increasingly, to Emma herself. Cormac is sure she couldn't be involved, but as his running of the case comes under scrutiny from the department and his colleagues, he is forced to question his own objectivity. Could his loyalty to Emma have led him to overlook evidence? Has it made him a liability?

My Review of The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan

The Scholar is the second book in the DS Cormac Reilly series. Set in Ireland, this is a police procedural thriller that is rich in intrigue and mystery. Reilly’s still being slowly accepted by the other detectives of the Galway office, having only recently been transferred from Dublin. As we saw during the events of The Ruin, becoming a part of the team is not the simple task it should be and, up until now, he’s been consigned to picking through cold cases.

Cormac Reilly’s girlfriend, Emma, calls him in distress. She has come across a hit and run victim lying in the street. The injuries are extensive, as if the car not only hit her but then backed up to have another go. Partly to protect Emma but also to find some justice for the dead woman, Reilly takes on the case himself, believing it to be a murder case rather than an accident.

The identification found on the dead woman tells Reilly that her name is Carline Darcy. But when Reilly calls on her room-mate to break the news, it turns out Carline, who is the grand-daughter of the owner of the powerful multinational Pharmaceutical company, Darcy Therapeutics is still alive and well and this raises a whole slew of new questions. 

Emma works as a consultant for Darcy Therapeutics, she found the dead body and she has a troubled history that might be construed wrongly by anyone willing to dig into her past. All of this puts Reilly into a tricky situation as the lead detective looking into the case. The question is raised, can he put his personal feelings aside and run the investigation completely dispassionately?

There’s no doubt that this case will become a deeply personal one for Cormac Reilly and will test him both physically and emotionally.

The Scholar is a brilliantly plotted mystery that reveals several complexities as it begins to unfold. The identity of the victim is only the first troubling piece of the puzzle. How she’s linked to Darcy Therapeutics and how she could afford to live in her apartment are the next questions that arise. The tragedy of a young life lost is only the jumping off point in this deeply involving murder mystery.

Given that this is the second book in the Cormac Reilly series, we have the benefit of becoming reacquainted with some returning characters, colleagues of Reilly’s from the detective unit. Their growing familiarity and a deepening awareness of their backstories helps to provide a greater understanding of each detective, giving them a richer and more meaningful role in the story. This had the effect of making them more familiar and sympathetic to me as I got to know them.

This is a story of ambition, power and unremitting expectation, all of which created the need to take drastic action with disastrous consequences. The reasons behind the murder are shocking yet sadly understandable and another example of how just about anybody can turn to corruption given the right (or wrong) circumstances.

Another exceptional entry in the Cormac Reilly series, this is a thriller that was entertaining, compelling and, at times, emotionally harrowing.