Author: Dervla McTiernan
ISBN: 9781460754214
RRP: $32.99
Publisher: Harper Collins
Copy: Courtesy of the Publisher
I am fast running out of month and am still looking at this one longingly, but I know that some of our readers are loving it.
The Rúin is another debut novel, also highly anticipated and with hotly contested rights.
Cormac Reilly is an Irish detective at the centre of this small-town mystery and that lends me to hope that it may just be the beginning. A detective novel could well become a series following the cases of a detective and that prospect excites me.
Young Garda Cormac Reilly responded to a call at a decrepit country house, when he arrived he found two silent children and their overdosed mother. Twenty years later, after years working in Dublin, he is back in Galway and tasked with re-investigating the case.
A body surfaces in the freezing waters of the river Corrib and the police rule Jack’s death a suicide, until his sister returns crying foul play with a determination to prove it.
The two deaths are linked and the story unfolds to tie the two together. This is a story of betrayal and the small town laws that live unwritten alongside the law. A story that takes us deep into the heart of Ireland and explores who will protect you when it’s the authorities you aren’t sure if you can trust.
I look forward to sinking my teeth into this one soon, and I really look forward to reading what our members have to say about the book.
Dervla McTiernan can be found on Facebook, Twitter and her Website.
The Rúin is published by Harper Collins and is available now from Angus & Robertson Bookworld, Booktopia and where all good books are sold.
Thanks to Harper Collins 20 of our Beauty and Lace Club Members will be reading The Rúin so please be aware there may be spoilers in the comments below.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
Thanks Beauty & Lace for the chance to read The Ruin & special thanks to Dervla McTiernan for such a brilliant read
This was a great read from beginning to end
With a good strong character like Cormac & an intriguing plot that glided from past to present with no effort & easily followed this captivated me from start to finish & was left wanting more
I do hope there is a sequel to follow
Highly recommend
Disappointed to finish this book, but so excited to get a hint of the next book and know that there is more to come for us – a new part of Cormacs life for us to be a part of.
The Ruin was never predictable and is an enthralling read. The character development of both Cormac and Aisling was indepth but not over done, and to be honest I wasn’t really sure whether Maude was trustworthy or not until the end. The twists and we are taken on keeps us guessing right from the start and it was a ride I was grateful to be a part of!
Thank you for passing this on for me to read!
Was a gripping read and an amazing debut novel!! All the best to Dervla! Get that next book written! I want more!!! hahaha
The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan had me hooked from the beginning. Lucky I am retired because I did not put it down until I had finished the whole story.
In 1993 Cormac Reilly is called to a crime scene involving two young children in an old house with their mother dead upstairs. 20 years later a body is found in a river, and Cormac Reilly finds himself looking for links between the two deaths.
The story is extremely well written, no problems moving back and forth between the two time spans, a thoroughly enjoyable read. Great first book by Dervla and I am looking forward to her next one.
Thank you to Beauty and Lace, and Harper and Collins for the opportunity to read this book.
Well what more can I add to the previous comments? I totally agree with all the above –I loved this crime story, It was intriguing, the characters were well developed and the story of 20 years ago was heart wrenching. I always like to understand what motivates people to act in certain ways, Dervla has definitely given depth to the characters and even though there are some who have committed serious criminal acts there is room for compassion when we are shown their history. Well done Dervla, I look forward to the next case for Cormac.
A different type of crime story, starts with the death of a mother and tow now orphaned children … fast forward 20 years and now the son who was a child is also found dead… presumably a suicide and then another seemingly unrelated death of a young girl. A web of story lines that somehow manage to weave a story and show the links as it unfolds. A sad story really showing how people who are going about normal life can sometimes be caught up in something that has nothing to do with them, A good read worth sitting and just enjoying the story-line. Well written with a good character backgrounds. I would recommend this book to anyone who like as good suspense crime story.
The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan was given a lot of media attention prior to release and I immensely enjoyed an interview with the author just before receiving the book, so therefore feel a little let down with the actual novel, which has left me with more unanswered questions about both the storyline and the characters involved.
Cormac Reilly began his career in in 1993 at Mayo, Ireland as a young Garda, when he is called to a crumbling country house he finds two silent and neglected children – 15 year old Maude and 5 year old Jack – their mother is lying upstairs dead, this haunts him for many years.
Moving forward 20 years and Cormac moves to Galway and is placed at Mill Street Garda Station, working cold cases and this is the part where I got lost – where did the last 20 years go? There are references throughout the book of Cormac’s past BUT not the whole story which has left me with more questions than answers. As I have heard there is a second book will this answer my questions or will it leave me with more?
As Cormac goes through his cold cases he is assigned the case that was his first ever as a rookie Garda, and when a body surfaces from the icy black waters of the river Corrib, Cormac comes face to face with Maude, the sister of Jack (who supposedly has committed suicide). Maude pushes relentlessly for police to try and find out who killed her brother and again I struggled to follow this thread.
In the meantime what I thought was another smaller storyline in the book becomes huge at the end leaving me even more confused and left me again with a lot of unanswered questions. Am I looking forward to the next book featuring Detective Cormac Reilly? Not sure. Will it answer some of my questions from the first book or will it be a totally different storyline altogether? Again, not sure but I will be on the lookout for when it is released.
Thank you to Beauty and Lace and Harper Collins Australia for allowing me to read The Ruin.
I found that when I re-read the book, things were even clearer. Because I was more familiar with the characters and the storyline, I appreciated just how brilliant Dervla is in the way she can “string the reader along” – unraveling a bit more information, keeping the level of interest and intrigue up.
Is it a truly realistic novel ? No, I dont think so. However, it’s a great form of entertainment mingled with lots of challenging social dilemmas that add a thoughtful, human element to the characters.
The Ruin is the first novel in the Cormac Reilly series. Twenty years ago, Cormac Reilly attended a call out to a woman found dead in her home. Her two children, Maude and Jack, are found neglected, and they are taken in to care. Now, Jack has been murdered. And it’s up to Cormac to solve the murder.
I really enjoyed this novel! Some of the characters certainly rubbed me up the wrong way, but they are characters that I love to hate. Some of them gave off a bit of a shady vibe, and some felt much more wholesome. This worked really well for the story.
The book is very well written. I spent the entire novel wondering who had done what. I kept leaping between blaming different characters, and the end result really took me by surprise!
There aren’t a lot of books that I could read over and over again, and this is definitely one of them. As I write this, I found myself wanting to read it all over again – I might read it again over Christmas!