Like many of Dervla McTiernan's readers, I was delighted to hear that she was returning to her much-loved Irish-set Cormac Reilly series, after her recent foray into standalone crime fiction set in the USA (The Murder Rule and What Happened to Nina?).

The Unquiet Grave draws together four separate plotlines into an enthralling whole. A German teenager discovers a body part-submerged in a Galway bog, while holidaying in the area with her parents. Garda Peter Fisher is trying to manage a domestic violence situation threatening a family friend, while facing an internal struggle with how to break to his superior officer, D.S. Cormac Reilly, that he's planning to emigrate to Australia. Meanwhile, Reilly is called by his pregnant former partner Emma, whose retired military husband Finn has disappeared while on a business trip to Paris. Finally, crooked cybersecurity expert Carl Rigney is planning to infiltrate the software underpinning the Irish Lottery in order to realise the lavish lifestyle to which he feels entitled.

I felt engaged with each of these storylines and the cast of continuing and new characters created by author Dervla McTiernan. The Unquiet Grave has series hero Cormac Reilly reflecting on his past, in particular how his relationship with Emma went wrong, and contemplating his future with the Gardaí, as he continues to face prejudice from fellow officers over his unmasking of corruption within the force, and is offered a plum position within Internal Affairs. Meanwhile, D.C. Peter Fisher is also at a turning point in his professional and personal life. He must face some big questions about the meaning of justice and his role in dispensing it before the end of the novel. I found the parts of the story following the odious Carl as he devises his plans and chooses a willing accomplice provided some intriguing light relief from the concerns of the central series characters and their investigation.

The Unquiet Grave was a thoroughly enjoyable read, which I accessed via the Bolinda Audio edition, narrated by the excellent Aoife McMahon. My thanks to the author, Dervla McTiernan, publisher Bolinda Audio and NetGalley (UK) for the opportunity to read and review this engaging title.