The Good Turn, by Dervla McTiernan

Detective Sergeant Cormac Reilly is almost a secondary character at the start of McTiernan’s third novel about crime and policing in Galway. His offsider Peter Fisher is front and centre in a problematic investigation into a child abduction that winds up with Reilly suspended and Fisher banished. The two officers face losing their careers and everything that matters to them, so do they give up or do they fight? McTiernan’s depiction of the breadth and depth of corruption in the police force is detailed and depressing as she examines very different approaches to policing and the implications of shades of grey. She maintains suspense until the end, her strong character development overcoming the improbable coincidence the plot hinges on. As usual, she leaves the reader wanting more and it would be very interesting to discover what lies ahead for Reilly and Fisher.