Review: The Scholar

Title: The Scholar

Author: Dervla McTiernan

Publisher: 18th February 2019 by HarperCollins

Pages: 384 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: mystery, fiction, crime

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

From the author of the critically acclaimed bestseller The Ruin comes a compulsive new crime thriller featuring DS Cormac Reilly. Being brilliant has never been this dangerous ...

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 Thoughts

As a follow up to her most successful ‘The Ruin’, author Dervla McTiernan delivers a sensational second story in the Cormac Reilly series. Not having read the first book, I did not feel that I missed out by not doing so. ‘The Scholar’ is a complex and captivating thriller that confirms Dervla to be a wonderful crime writer.

I raced through this book completely captivated by the murder mystery playing out before me. Dervla does provide some of the backstory to Cormac from the first book which helped in understanding some main characters. There is also a range of supporting characters that are so well presented, particularly Peter Fisher and Carrie O'Halloran who I loved and would love to learn more of in future stories.

This is a fabulous crime novel full of intrigue and corruption with a well developed plot. You will follow along with the investigation and learn of cover ups, deception and much police ‘politics’ on when to follow procedure and when to follow your instinct. The story was so well woven that not until the very end did I have an inkling of the perpetrator. The twists and turns will certainly keep you guessing and you will become most invested in well rounded and developed characters.

All up this is an addictive and fascinating journey and if you are not on the Dervla McTiernan crime train, I suggest you hop aboard for some well written thrillers.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.