The Murder Rule
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4.0 • 199 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
No one is innocent in this story ...
The unmissable new standalone from the no.1 bestseller of The Good Turn
First Rule: Make them like you.
Second Rule: Make them need you.
Third Rule: Make them pay.
They think I'm a young, idealistic law student, that I'm passionate about reforming a corrupt and brutal system.
They think I'm working hard to impress them.
They think I'm here to save an innocent man on death row.
They're wrong. I'm going to bury him.
'Complex, unsettling and relentless, with a female protagonist on a journey of self-discovery that will culminate in a riveting final act, The Murder Rule is a great read' Sydney Morning Herald
'Tense and fascinating, dripping with the sort of suspense and intrigue we've come to depend on from Dervla McTiernan' Christian White
'Dervla McTiernan somehow makes the crime writing caper look effortless (spoiler: it isn't). This one's a headlong rush.' Jock Serong
'An extremely smart, thoroughly addictive, super twisty legal thriller that strikes the perfect balance between high-stakes action and real emotional depth. An absolute must-read, I guarantee you won't be able to put it down.' Anna Downes, author of The Safe Place
'Clever and compelling, Dervla McTiernan has seamlessly switched from fast-paced police procedural to original and suspenseful legal drama without missing a beat.' Sarah Bailey, author of The Housemate
'Gripping and full of tension, with twist after unexpected twist. You won't just read The Murder Rule, you'll devour it.' Karin Slaughter, no.1 bestselling author of Pieces of Her
'Diabolically clever, highly compelling and deeply moving. I loved The Murder Rule and did not want it to end.' Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of The Force and The Border
'Extraordinary. Haunting. An incredible thriller. I could not put this book down. Dervla McTiernan is a gifted writer with a very special way of telling a story. This is a heart stopping rollercoaster of a tale.' Adrian McKinty, New York Times bestselling author of The Chain
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Dervla McTiernan, author of the highly praised Cormac Reilly crime series, returns with a thriller that brilliantly examines the nature of guilt. When law student Hannah Rokeby transfers to the University of Virginia, her goal is to join a team that aims to exonerate people wrongly convicted of serious crimes—but her intentions are not straightforward. Hannah’s backstory is also her mother’s, and it’s their intense relationship that compels Hannah’s disturbing pursuit of justice and propels the plot towards its jaw-dropping reveals. McTiernan’s first standalone novel draws on her fascination with the Innocence Project, a real-life organisation that pursues criminal justice reform and works to free the innocent, and the true story of a young law student working for the project in the United States. The author skilfully turns these interests into a riveting story that crackles with tension right up to its final, gut-wrenching moments.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 2019, University of Maine law student Hannah Rokeby, the protagonist of this entertaining if flawed psychological thriller from Thriller Award winner McTiernan (The Scholar), shares a home with Laura, her alcoholic mother, until she transfers to the University of Virginia, where she wangles a highly desirable job with the law school's Innocence Project, which tracks down new evidence in cases of individuals convicted of a crime, but who profess their innocence. She's assigned to work on freeing Michael Dandridge, who's on death row, having served 11 years for the rape and murder of Sarah Fitzhugh. Meanwhile, vivid excerpts from her mother's diary recount dramatic events surrounding the death of wealthy Tom Spencer in 1994, when Laura was working as a maid at an exclusive hotel in Seal Harbor, Maine. McTiernan keeps the suspense high as she gradually reveals how Spencer's death relates to Hannah's work on the Dandridge case. Unfortunately, the rush to the finish is riddled with unaddressed issues, like why no one challenges Hannah after she admits in court that she broke into a sheriff's garage to obtain evidence. McTiernan has done better. Agent: Shane Salerno, Story Factory.
Customer Reviews
Great
McTiernan gets better with each book
Believable and spell binding - real people with enough ‘hype’ to keep the pages turning
Can’t wait to read the next book
The Murder Rule
Started off really well and interesting, but turned out to be pretty stupid. So disappointing as I had been really looking forward to this release. Boo hoo.
Disapppointing
2.5 stars
Author
Irish lawyer who moved to Perth, Western Australia with her family following what the rest of the world calls the great recession and we call the global financial crisis, and started writing crime novels, as you do. Wildly successful ones at that. Her three previous novels are set in the west of Ireland and centre on police detective Cormac Reilly. This, her much anticipated fourth book, is a standalone effort set in the USA.
Plot
Hannah is a law student who lives in rural Maine with her “damaged” mother: an alcoholic with PTSD due to the trauma she suffered at the hands of the man she says murdered Hannah’s father back in the day. That man was subsequently convicted in Virginia for rape and murder of someone else and has served 11 years when his conviction is overturned thanks to the efforts of an “innocence project” legal team at University of Virginia. The cops and the DA decide to try him again. Our gal reads about it in Vanity Fair, travels to Virginia, fakes enrolment at law school down there, and tells a lot of stories and undertakes sundry subterfuge to hustle her way onto the team with the aim of sabotaging their defence of the dude. All is not what it seems on both sides. Yada, yada. Our gal saves the day, and herself, sort of.
Writing
Hannah’s third person narrative appears in alternating chapters with her Mom’s diary from back in the day. The pace is slow to start but builds to break neck speed towards the end, which necessitates leaving out details that are recapped briefly when our gal makes her unexpected debut cross-examining a witness in court. Character development limited compared to Ms McT’s previous efforts, which she compounds by introducing more characters than she really needs. There were unspoken asides about inconsequential matters, such as how good food tasted, which I found annoying in a third person narrative, and made me wonder whether Ms McT started out with a first person then changed her mind as she accumulated more characters. Plenty of twists and turns, albeit predictable ones. Several Goodreads reviews by US lawyers suggest Ms McT doesn’t not understand the legal system over there as well as the one in her native Ireland.
Bottom line
Disappointing. I know this author is capable of better.