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FI CT I ON MARCH 2018

Dervla McTiernan’s road to publishing started with a tweet. With a complete first draft under her belt, on a whim, she entered an agent’s Twitter pitch contest. She knew the manuscript wasn’t ready but the agent took the bait and, with the first fifty pages in good shape, she sent them off. At the same time, Dervla made a doctor’s appointment due to persistent headaches and, after an MRI, she was diagnosed with a brain tumour, one that would need operating on immediately. With blindness being a possible side effect from the surgery, she took the three weeks prior to the operation to submit the completed manuscript to everyone that she could — just in case. Post-surgery, more or less intact, Dervla spoke to agents — unaware that a bidding war was about to start. The publishing world had fallen in love with Cormac Reilly. THE MOST ADDICTIVE CRIME NOVEL OF 2018 Responding to a call that took him to a decrepit country house, young garda Cormac Reilly found two silent, neglected children — fifteen-year-old Maude and five- year-old Jack. Their mother lay dead upstairs. Since then, Cormac’s had 20 high-flying years working as a detective in Dublin, and he’s come back to Galway for reasons of his own. As he struggles to navigate the politics of a new police station, Maude and Jack return to haunt him. What ties a recent suicide to that death from so long ago? And who among his new colleagues can Cormac really trust? Betrayal is at the heart of this unsettling small-town noir and the Ireland it portrays. In a country where the written law isn’t the only one, The Rúin asks who will protect you when the authorities can’t — or won’t? CORMAC REILLY IS ABOUT TO BECOME YOUR NEW OBSESSION

The Rúin D E RV L A MC T I E RN A N

ISBN: 9781460754214 eISBN: 9781460708675 AUS PRICE: $32.99 NZ PRICE: $36.99 ePRICE: $25.99 Trade Paperback PAGE EXTENT: 394pp

PUBLICITY CONTACT: Kimberley Allsopp EMAIL: kimberley.allsopp@harpercollins.com.au RELEASED: 19/02/18

Perth, WA

Dervla McTiernan was born in County Cork, Ireland to a family of seven. She studied corporate law at the National University of Ireland, Galway and the Law Society of Ireland, and practised as a lawyer for 12 years. Following the Global Financial Crisis, she moved with her family to Western Australia, where she now works for the Mental Health Commission. In 2015, she submitted a story for The Sisters in Crime Scarlet Stiletto Competition and was shortlisted. This inspired her to complete the novel that would become The Rúin .

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