Author: Dervla McTiernan
Written: 2020
Publisher: HarperCollins
Dervla McTiernan is Irish, but now lives in Australia. This book is her third novel, and all are written in Galway, in Ireland. The Good Turn is about police corruption and an investigation into that which causes too many more crimes and death.
Cormac Reilly is a detective sergeant running a serious crime investigation team in Galway, but his team has been stripped down to a skeleton team as Murphy, the Commissioner for the area, is running a drug crime team. Reilly is informed of a 12-year-old child who was abducted and he calls Murphy for more men, but Murphy turns him down. Reilly is left with Peter Foster, a new detective, Mulcair, a young and inexperienced garda, and Deidre Russell, the only woman, treated as the police receptionist. Foster is sent to an interview of a young boy, Fred, who is home sick. He says he had seen the abduction from his bedroom window – and, more importantly, he had taken a video of it.
Foster reports back to Reilly, and is sent back out to look around the area for anyone who might know the abductor. One name crops up, and Foster tries to find him. He is informed that the vehicle in Fred’s video is seen heading out of town, and he knows that, without other officers, he has to follow it. He rings the station and speaks to Russell and find that Reilly is at the house where the girl lives, and can’t be spoken to. He knows he needs more men, he knows he needs a helicopter, but he knows that he can’t order it: he would have to wait for Reilly.
Frustrated, he follows the vehicle down a non-road, towards the lake. He has to stop his own car, and walks the rest of the way. He sees the vehicle and sees the person who was driving it. He calls to him to stop the vehicle, but the driver drives towards him, forcing him backwards towards the lake. He fires, three times. That man is now dead – and no young girl.
Back at the station Reilly says the girl is at hospital and isn’t talking. His office is overtaken by Inspector Reynolds, with no explanation at all. Reilly is dumped and Foster is sent to Roundstone in the country to work with his father – something he never wanted to do. His father is a garda, but doesn’t think Peter is any good. Foster visits his grandmother, Maggie, and meets another woman, Anna Tilly, who was staying there with her daughter. She is looking after Maggie. Foster finds out of a couple of murders in Roundstone, investigates them and finds more clues. What would he do? What would he tell Reilly? And what would happen to Murphy and Foster’s father?
McTiernan wrote very well. Readers who enjoy detective and crime novels need to read this.
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