About the book

For years the boglands of Northern Europe have given up bodies that are thousands of years old, uncannily preserved. Bodies with strange injuries that suggest ritual torture and human sacrifice.

When a corpse is found in a bog in Galway, Cormac Reilly assumes the find is historical. But closer examination reveals that the dead man is Thaddeus Grey, a local secondary school principal who disappeared two years prior.

At first, progress on the case is frustratingly slow and Cormac struggles to keep his mind on the job. His ex-girlfriend, Emma Sweeney, is in trouble – her new husband has gone missing in Paris, and the French police are refusing to open an investigation into his disappearance.

Cormac is sure that he has found Grey’s killer, and is within hours of an arrest, when another mutilated body is discovered on the other side of the country. Two days later, a third body is found. Press attention is intense. Can Cormac find the murderer before they strike again?

ISBN: 9781460766828

ISBN 10: 1460766822

Pages: 368

On Sale: 30/4/2025

Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Police Procedural

Who this book is for:

For readers who enjoy layered police procedurals where personal history, buried secrets, and emotional stakes drive the investigation.

Author’s Note

Writing Grave was an absolute romp for me. I’d just come off the back of writing What Happened to Nina? (a book that was very challenging to write) and going back to Cormac felt like I was going home. I just had so much fun with the story. I wanted to bring everything that people liked about the Cormac Reilly books back (which for me meant Cormac, and Peter and Emma and Ireland) and then I just wanted to write a twisty, satisfying story that people could sink into on a rainy weekend.

Of course, when you’re really into writing a book, deeper thoughts and feelings start to come through. I wanted to write about at the quiet, determined persistence it takes to uncover something others would rather leave buried and in the end, I wanted to explore what happens when the cost of doing the right thing is personal — and maybe irreversible.

— Dervla

Awards & critical praise

‘McTiernan is a bestselling crime writer for good reason, and this is another brisk, moody police procedural with an effortless command of pace and suspense’

Sydney Morning Herald

‘This is a clever and complex police procedural mystery with many intertwining threads, and I do sincerely hope to see Cormac again.’

Good Reading

‘The Unquiet Grave is an intriguing novel, complex, multi-layered, exploring the bullying behaviour of a number of self-obsessed, sociopathic men.’

Canberra City News

‘McTiernan is a bestselling crime writer for good reason, and this is another brisk, moody police procedural with an effortless command of pace and suspense’

Sydney Morning Herald

‘This is a clever and complex police procedural mystery with many intertwining threads, and I do sincerely hope to see Cormac again.’

Good Reading

‘The Unquiet Grave is an intriguing novel, complex, multi-layered, exploring the bullying behaviour of a number of self-obsessed, sociopathic men.’

Canberra City News

‘McTiernan is a bestselling crime writer for good reason, and this is another brisk, moody police procedural with an effortless command of pace and suspense’

Sydney Morning Herald

‘This is a clever and complex police procedural mystery with many intertwining threads, and I do sincerely hope to see Cormac again.’

Good Reading

‘The Unquiet Grave is an intriguing novel, complex, multi-layered, exploring the bullying behaviour of a number of self-obsessed, sociopathic men.’

Canberra City News