The Unquiet Grave by Dervla McTiernan

Dervla McTiernan burst onto the Australian crime writing scene with her multi-award winning debut The Rúin. That book introduced readers to Irish policeman Cormac Reilly and his complicated life. Riley would return in The Scholar and The Good Turn in which his world became even more complicated. While not exactly settled, The Good Turn left Reilly in a reasonable place that could possibly have been the end of the series. McTiernan went on to write two US-based novels – The Murder Rule and What Happened to Nina? – but has now returned to the world of Cormac Reilly with The Unquiet Grave.

The cold open of The Unquiet Grave is particularly cold. A family of German tourists who have inherited a small house near Galway are out in a bog, digging out peat in the rain when they stumble across a floating body. This brings in Cormac Reilly and his offsider Peter Fisher who soon find that the dead man is a missing school principal who was not well liked. At the same time Cormac is contacted by his ex-girlfriend Emma, now married and pregnant, whose husband has disappeared while working in France. And in a seemingly unrelated thread that eventually becomes very relevant, distinctly unlikeable computer programmer Carl is thinking about a way he can rig the lottery.

As with previous books in this series, in The Unquiet Grave, McTiernan delivers a great mix of the personal and the professional in Reilly and Fisher. Reilly finds himself being offered a promotion that he is not sure he wants, is dealing with regret when having to support Emma and feels betrayed by Peter Fisher’s alternative career plans. All of this means he cannot give his full attention to the murder investigation which allows it to spiral a little until he manages to bring it all together. And both Reilly and McTiernan do end up bringing all of the strands of this novel together in a satisfying way.

The Unquiet Grave brings McTiernan back into her sweet spot – a series of puzzling mysteries, interesting central characters (and minor characters) with complex lives and plenty of Irish atmosphere. And an ending that has plenty of opportunity for more, including, possibly (finally?) an Australian connection.

The Unquiet Grave by Dervla McTiernan

9

9.0/10