The Scholar

The second installment in Dervla McTiernan's Cormac Reilly series, finds Cormac still being back benched by his boss, while resentment builds among the other overworked detectives. Cormac's partner, Emma Sweeney, is a research scientist; on her way into her lab late one evening, she finds a dead body in the parking lot at the university. She immediately calls Cormac and he initially offers to take charge of the case to help out his work colleague, Carrie O'Halloran, who has already complained to their boss that she is overworked. Because the victim is so disfigured by being run over several times, the police initially rely on a security ID card in her pocket, a card with Carline Darcy's name on it. Before Cormac can confirm the Jane Doe's identity, however, someone has leaked this information to the powerful head of Darcy Therapeutics, who is Carline's grandfather, and the funder of Emma's research. When circumstantial evidence links Emma to a subsequent death, Cormac is pulled off the case and comes to question his own judgment in believing Emma innocent. Once again, Cormac is struggling to find the perpetrator of the crime while battling those at work who would rather see him fail.
Reviews from Publishers Weekly, and The Independent (a detailed and rave review).