The Scholar, by Dervla McTiernan

This sequel takes place immediately after the events of The Ruin, with Detective Cormac Reilly still trying to find his place in the Galway Garda. His partner Emma finds a hit and run victim outside the University lab where she works and calls Cormac to the scene. Station politics hamper the complicated murder investigation and blocking tactics by the wealthy family that funds the lab don’t help. A second murder brings Emma under suspicion and compromises Cormac. Can they clear her name and even if they do, will their relationship survive? McTiernan’s tight prose zips the story along, making it hard to put down. Her characters are fully rounded, complex and interesting and that goes for the victims and witnesses, as well as the police investigating the murders. This is the best kind of crime writing, so it’s good to know a third Cormac Reilly novel is on the way.