Book review: The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan

I have to admit that Cormac Reilly is REALLY growing on me. I think Dervla McTiernan might have found the perfect hero in her good cop at the centre of her series of police procedurals.

In The Good Turn, Reilly is again under pressure from those higher up in the policing hierarchy.

It makes matters worse when one of his loyal colleagues, Peter Fisher, shoots the suspect in a kidnapping, only to find that the victim was not at risk at the time.

Reilly is suspended and in disgrace, Fisher is sent to work under his estranged father in a small, country station.

As with the previous novel in the series, The Scholar, I listened to The Good Turn on audiobook and constantly found myself wanting to put in my earphones and keep listening.

I was swept up by the mystery at the heart of the story about whether the suspect who was shot was responsible for the kidnapping of a young girl, or was an innocent victim of a trigger-happy policeman.

The good cops in the book are as appealing as they are reserved. They are men of few words, but those words are always well placed. Even when embattled by the forces at the top of the system, they are humble, loyal and moral.

McTiernan’s books are perfect easy-listens with susbstance and I’ll be waiting eagerly for the next instalment … even if just to get another dose of my favourite fictional policeman.