Amazon.com.au:Customer reviews: The Ruin

Reviewed in Australia on 25 February 2018

As a former UK cop I don't usually like crime novels. Too much detail is usually wrong and the tone of interactions between police officer an colleagues is rarely accurate.

In "Ruin", Dervla McTiernan has managed to craft an intriguing and pacy storyline, while at the same time creating credible characters I now feel I would recognise if I passed them on the street. I could see the DS Reilly's squadroom, and taste the tension in that Galway police station.

I am looking forward to the next installment. Perhaps Cormac Reilly could find himself in Australia - it worked out pretty well for Harry Hole.

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Brilliant debut novel

Reviewed in Australia on 16 April 2018

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Dervla McTiernan's The Ruin is (insert favourite superlative here). I think I came across this as a recommendation from Adrian Mckinty and was engrossed from the beginning. Cormac Reilly, formerly of an elite Irish anti-terrorist unit, has returned to Galway to support his partners career and finds himself practically starting again in a new station. He finds himself working the cold case of a woman whose death from a heroin overdose never really seemed to be of her own doing and Jack, the orphaned little boy he took from the house, has just turned up dead from an apparent suicide. The thing is Jack's partner and his sister are convinced he wasn't suicidal but the police don't believe them and don't want to investigate it.

McTiernan's portrayal of the characters is masterful and the way they develop across the book leaves you wondering where this is all going to go. Who do you believe and who can you trust? Her portrayal of places paints a picture for the reader, and while it be a slightly dark and depressing painting, it carries a certain romance and works on so many levels.

I can comfortably give this book 5 stars as I really couldn't put it down and found myself second guessing my second guesses about the plot direction. If, and I suspect she will, McTiernan can back this novel up then there will be one serious new player in the crime fiction field.

9 people found this helpful

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Awesome Crime Thriller

Reviewed in Australia on 10 February 2019

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An awesome crime thriller, set in Ireland, that sees a young man named Jack commit suicide, for apparently no reason. Jack had everything going for him, then suddenly one night he seemingly decides to jump off a bridge, or does he? Detective Cormac Reilly , is taken back to the past, 20 years ago, when he was sent out on his own to a scene in a crumbling old house, where a mother had overdosed on heroine, leaving her two traumatised children alone. The younger child was Jack who was taken to the hospital, while the older girl Maude, disappeared into the night, only to resurface for Jack's funeral twenty years later. Maude realises things don't add up about Jack's death and with the help of Jack's girlfriend Aisling, sets about investigating on her own. She soon finds footage from the bridge that proves that Jack was never there that night but the police just brush the two young women off. Cormac, who has just transferred to the police station at Galway, is very much on the outer, and is being assigned only cold cases. One that ends upon his desk is the suicide of Jack and Maude's mother all those years ago. He soon realises all is not as it seems in that case, and it could well prove to be something from then has triggered the current events surrounding Jack and his family. Tensions are running high amongst the Guarda, and as an outsider Cormac can feel it, but doesn't know the source, and how it's affecting the events of today. How he will get to the truth?
All in all The Ruin is an intricate tale of deceit and lies. It's gripping and exciting, and I found I didn't want to put it down until everything was resolved, which kept me up well into the night. Recommended for all lovers of crime and mysteries.

5 people found this helpful

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Excellent debut novel

Reviewed in Australia on 2 June 2021

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I’m not sure how I found this author on Amazon, but can I say I’m delighted I did. I connected with Cormac Reilly immediately. An intelligent detective saw change coming in his high flying career in Dublin, and it clicked with his partner Emma’s success in a research grant so, they move to Galway. The local constabulary is less than welcome and set about offering him every dead-end cold case available. Cormac is an intelligent player and keeps his frustrations to himself.
Meanwhile, he reconnects with a case when he first started as a policeman. The story is told from three different points of view, which is where the author demonstrated real skill. It could have been so confusing, but each character had different motivations that, as a reader, I grasped. I would love to say more about this book, but the plotting was so interesting I won’t spoil it for readers who might discover this author.

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BruceMc

Great first novel from an Irish writer to watch

Reviewed in Australia on 8 May 2020

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After a good career with a special squad in Dublin, Detective Sergeant Cormac Reilly has followed his girlfriend to Galway. He is put onto a cold case from twenty years before when he had been the attending guard (policeman). Tragically, the son of the dead woman from all those years ago has died in what appears to have been a suicide. But Cormac is being marginalised all around, so much so that other people are interfering in the case, even the man he thought was his best friend. It seems that his career is on the skids. Can he overcome all of the restraints and solve the case? Or will someone else take credit? Or will the guards (police) work together to solve it?

I thought this was a well-crafted story. The descriptions of the settings made me feel I was present and witnessing the events as they unfolded. The characters are well-drawn and believable. Although the story was a little slow to start, the suspense soon rose high enough to make it difficult to put the book down. I gave the book 5 stars.

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A twisty character-driven drama with a thrilling conclusion

Reviewed in Australia on 27 August 2020

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Having read The Scholar (Cormac Reilly #2) last year, I have been looking forward to the opportunity to backtrack and read the first instalment in Dervla McTiernan's Cormac Reilly series.
In this book, Reilly is feeling like an outsider after his transfer to Galway from the high-flying Dublin-based terrorism squad. Neither the hierarchy nor his detective colleagues seem pleased to have him around, and he's biding his time on frustrating cold case reviews.
When the body of 20-something Engineer Jack Blake is pulled from the River Corrib on St. Patrick's Day weekend, a presumed suicide, it proves a blast from the past for Reilly. In his first month as a gardai, over 20 years ago, he was the attending officer following the sudden death of Blake's mother, and had briefly taken charge of the 5-year-old Jack and his older sister, Maude.
What follows is a twisty and sometimes dark character-driven drama, as Reilly attempts to tease out any connection between the two deaths, in spite of the obstacles continually being placed in his way.
I really felt engaged with the large cast of characters, and was shocked with the surprising conclusion. Now waiting impatiently for my name to come to the top of the holds list for Cormac Reilly #3, The Good Turn!

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Almost a good murder mystery

Reviewed in Australia on 18 May 2018

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The abuse in Irish orphanages has left its mark on modern Irish literature. This book does not directly tackle the issue, but the reader is left to imagine what horrors created the murderer.

This book is meant to the first in a series. And as such, there is considerable exposition that is not immediately relevant to the murders investigated in this book.

The first half of the book was confusing with the different characters and their points of view. This settled down in the second half as the varoius plots began to resolve themselves.

The intersection of police politics and the ingenuity of the murderer made this a good murder mystery. However, the final confrontation between Cormac and the murderer lacked credibility.

3 people found this helpful

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Bob Howe

Another excellent crime story

Reviewed in Australia on 21 January 2019

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Very pleased to find another good author with a great characterisation. The story line covered many of the historic problems we now all know about ( the church, abuse of children) as well as contemporary factors. The people were real to the reader and had significant depth to like or dislike. Very well done and we have already ordered the next book and are waiting impatiently for it to become available.

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Nana Mez

Not an exciting crime read

Reviewed in Australia on 28 January 2020

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Started well but I lost interest half way through. Read to the end but found it dragged a bit. The characters did nothing for me. I thought Aisling was pretty stupid for a Doctor. Finding Jack's movements on her phone, going to the exact spot, where he had been at the exact time the Garda were searching, finding the phone in the dark was all just a bit too convienent. The plot although, seemed promising, failed to make it a "can't put down" book. Book #2 doesn't look any better.

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The beginning was excellent

Reviewed in Australia on 9 April 2020

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and led me to feel the book was going to be a page turner.

Sadly, it lost its sparkle as the chapters continued. There was a loss of direction and thus I didn't really comprehend that there was a second murder. It didn't come across clearly and seemed to be mentioned only in passing.

Things muddled along for a while and then slowly cleared again. I kept at it because I wanted to know about the two children Cormac Reilly found twenty years ago.

I was glad I did, but was disappointed with the book as a whole

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5 star		44%
4 star		37%
3 star		13%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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