Detective Cormac Reilly had recently transferred to the Mill Street Garda Station in Galway from Dublin where he had not received an enthusiastic welcome from his new colleagues.
Assigned a number of cold cases to investigate he becomes involved in reinvestigating one of the first cases he had encountered as a young garda. Twenty years previously he had been called to an isolated house where he discovered two traumatised children. In another room he discovered their mother who had been dead for some time. The young boy was obviously unwell and when he was taken to hospital staff were horrified by the bruising on his body plus fractures that were partially healed. It appeared that the mother, an alcoholic, had committed suicide so the five year old was fostered to a local family who later adopted him. His fifteen year old sister disappeared.
Reilly was told to look at the case again when a young man, related to the earlier case, was found dead in the river. The police announced that the death was suicide. Cormac Reilly had been instructed to concentrate only on the cold case but, as he endeavoured to find out what really happened to the family twenty years previously, he became concerned that the two cases are connected, especially when the young man's sister, Maude, and his partner, Aisling, attempt to convince the police to treat the death as murder.
Apart from the prologue, the story is revealed from the viewpoint of Cormac, Asling and Maude over a month in 2013. As the investigation continues, it becomes obvious that a police cover up is hindering the discovery of what really happened. Themes in this police procedural include child and family abuse plus police corruption. The book is well written with a character driven plot and I look forward to reading the next installment.
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