I don't know what happened and why I didn't write a review for this one sooner, because I know I loved it! I read it all the way back in April and just completely spaced on posting a review. In my defense, I was packing to move at the time, and I think it just got lost in the shuffle.

This was such a well-written legal thriller, with enough psychological aspects to really hold my interest. The pacing was spot-on, and I loved uncovering the truth with Hannah.

The whole Innocence Project case was so interesting to me. While it was a little far-fetched that a team newbie would be given so much responsibility so early on, the story was a fun ride with such a satisfying ending! I will certainly be watching out for more from Dervla McTiernan in the future.

I liked this more than I expected. It was fast paced and entertaining. Highly unbelievable but still an enjoyable read.

I really enjoyed the concept of this book, especially the work described with The Innocence Project. The ideas in this book were original and well developed, I just felt the storyline was a bit drawn out and longer than it could have been. Overall I enjoyed this story and would recommend it to friends.

For my full review see blog post here: https://theselyricsandlines.com/931/the-murder-rule-review-and-age-rating/

3.5 stars

A slow burn mystery as we follow Hannah as she works her way to be a part of The Innocence Project regarding a supposed murderer on death row.

I wasn't sure where this was going to go and how it was going to get there. It was smart and engaging enough to keep me turning the pages.

The ending really picked up speed as it was one bombshell after another. This revenge plot made it immersive and entertaining.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advance e-copy in return for my honest review and opinion.

This is a legal thriller that is a propulsive read. You must keep turning the pages until you get to the end. Just when I thought I had things figured out, I was thrown for another loop.

The Murder Rule, author Dervla McTiernan's first stand-alone novel, was inspired by a newspaper article she read several years ago about a young Irish law student who came to the United States to volunteer with the Innocence Project for one summer. The Innocence Project was founded by law professors Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, who, in 1988, began studying and litigating issues surrounding the use of forensic DNA testing. Their groundbreaking work provided the foundation for state and federal legislation establishing standards governing the use of DNA testing in legal cases, and changed the way in which criminal investigations and prosecutions are handled. Returning to Ireland, that young student could not forget about one of the cases she worked on, and continued searching for answers. Eventually, with the assistance of a retired police officer, she uncovered the evidence that proved the convicted man's innocence.

Digging deeper into the story, McTiernan learned that the exoneration took more than five years, and the man served twenty-six years of a twenty-nine-year sentence for a crime he did not commit. Those revelations caused her to ponder the public relations considerations of an organization like the Innocence Project. She wondered why that dark and very important aspect of the story was not emphasized in the original reporting of the story. Acknowledging that it could be because the media chose to play up the inspirational component of the tale, McTiernan began imagining what might happen if the information supplied to the press was carefully curated and controlled by organizational spokespersons. And if so, she asked herself, "Would I blame them?" That gave McTiernan the idea to "invert" the story. A young, enthusiastic law student worked diligently to help the organization fulfill its mission, but McTiernan found herself contemplating what could happen "if the opposite were true? What if the law student deliberately set out to sabotage the organization's efforts?"

The Murder Rule is the story of Hannah Rokeby, a third-year law student in Maine. McTiernan says that Hannah, "at first glance, appears to be exactly what you'd expect -- bright-eyed, eager to impress her professors, and wanting to change the world." Indeed, from the outset, McTiernan establishes that Hannah is confident, bright, self-reliant, and tenacious. But the book opens with a series of emails Hannah exchanges with Robert Parekh, an associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and Director of the Innocence Project Clinic. Just two weeks earlier, Hannah stumbled upon an article in Vanity Fair "and found out exactly what was happening at the University of Virginia." She quickly formulated a plan and sets it in motion. Hannah acknowledges that the window to apply to volunteer at the clinic has closed, but presses Parekh to give her a position by mentioning the "personal mentoring" Parekh allegedly provided her friend. A few days later, Hannah sneaks out of the home she shares with Laura, her alcoholic mother, taking with her "a small, battered notebook with a faded red cover" -- her mother's diary -- and makes her way to the modest apartment she sublet at the last minute in Virginia. Hannah first read her mother's journal when she was just fourteen years old. The entries date back to 1994 when Laura was nineteen years old. Confessing that she read it brought Hannah and Laura closer, and Hannah believes that the diary truthfully recounts what happened to Laura and who was responsible.

Hannah concocts a story about her mother's participation in a three-month clinical trial at a Charlottesville hospital which necessitated her transfer from the University of Maine School of Law. Parekh is not rattled by Hannah's attempted blackmail, but is intrigued by her drive, so he offers her the chance to join a group of three or four other students working a minimum of fifteen hours per week. She is not immediately assigned to the Michael Dandridge death row case -- the impetus for her move to Virginia. Rather, she is assigned to review and evaluate applications for assistance received from inmates. But not for long.

In April 2008, Dandridge was convicted of raping and murdering Sarah Fitzhugh in June 2007, and sentenced to death. All of his appeals were procedurally barred or rejected on the merits. In November 2018, he applied for assistance from the Innocence Project. Parekh believed Dandridge's claim that the sheriff beat him up and threatened him until, under duress, he confessed to the crime. Dandridge also insisted that he informed both his trial and appellate attorneys, neither of whom raised the issue in court. An investigation revealed that exculpatory evidence was wrongfully withheld from Dandridge's trial attorney by the prosecutor. Thus, after eleven years on death row, his conviction was overturned and he is about to stand trial again. A preliminary hearing is set for the following week. Hannah knows she has to move quickly and use any means available to get herself assigned to the Dandridge defense team. And she does.

McTiernan alternates chapters moving Hannah's story forward with Laura's diary entries. In the first one, Laura explains that she is working as a housekeeper at a hotel near Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine, because she wanted to get away from Boston for the summer. She picked up a side job cleaning a house which turned out to be a frightening experience. There were two guys there and while cleaning, she discovered cocaine, as well as a semiautomatic pistol. And overheard one of the guys -- Mike -- having a heated argument with his mother on the telephone. She also witnessed Mike trying to convince the other guy, Tom Spencer, to take a trip with him to Canada. She unequivocally declares that she has no intention of getting caught up in whatever drama was playing out in that home. Subsequent journal entries detail that she did not stay true to her conviction, along with events surrounding Tom's death.

Gradually, Hannah's real motivation for moving to Virginia and worming her way onto Dandridge's defense team is revealed, and it is anything but altruistic. In reality, she is determined to see that Dandridge remains in prison. Based on her mother's diary entries, Hannah believes that Dandridge raped Laura and brought about her father's death. She has always been led to believe that her father came from a rich family who paid her mother off because they did not want her to have anything to do with him, and he died before Hannah was born. "Under the surface, she's actually pretty ruthless, and working for her own agenda," McTiernan explains. Indeed, McTiernan illustrates how shrewd and calculating, and wiling to cross legal, moral, and ethic boundaries Hannah is. But Hannah believes strongly in what she is doing and that her actions are in pursuit of a greater good. McTiernan manages to make Hannah surprisingly likable and empathetic, even as it is clear that she is being dishonest and seeking to infiltrate the Innocence Project in order to derail its efforts to see Dandridge exonerated. She comes close to being an anti-hero until readers recognize that if she possesses evidence of Dandridge's guilt -- irrespective of whether his confession was coerced -- she has an ethical and moral responsibility to disclose it to her colleagues. McTiernan describes her as "quite uncompromising" and notes that her unwavering commitment to her goal is "where she goes wrong." Indeed, as the story proceeds, Hannah and readers learn that she has taken action and set things in motion in reliance upon faulty perceptions and conclusions. Eventually, she is forced to recognize and accept the truth, and deal with the consequences of her actions, which are not what she envisioned or desired. That is extremely unsettling and difficult for her.

The book's title is derived from the felony murder rule. Criminal laws generally require that a defendant possess the specific intent to commit the crime with which he/she is charged. The felony murder rule is an exception, holding that if a death occurs during the commission of a felony, the defendant can be convicted of murder despite having no plan or intent to bring about the death. Thus, the felony murder rule flies in the face of the idea that a criminal defendant can be held responsible only for the outcome he/she foresaw when deciding to engage in criminal conduct. McTiernan felt the title fit the book because she explores whether "Hannah is responsible for all of the outcomes of her actions. How about if she didn't foresee something happening? What if she should have foreseen it had she done the work?"

The Murder Rule examines each character's motivations for his/her choices and actions, and questions their justifications. McTiernan's characters are fully developed and intriguing. As noted, Hannah is young and quixotic, her machinations fueled by years of ruminating on erroneous beliefs. Laura is an alcoholic and, unsurprisingly, manipulative. McTiernan's use of the dual narratives is highly effective because readers get to know Laura, through her old journal entries, along with Hannah who documents her present-day activities and interactions. Readers also learn the truth, along with Hannah, and are privy to her emotional journey as she realizes that the indisputable evidence does not square with her mother's account of events. The tale is a compelling examination of the mother-daughter relationship between Laura and Hannah -- two women with divergent goals. Laura wants to keep the past hidden and put it behind her while Hannah is on a quest for truth and a specific brand of justice. What will Hannah due when the truth is fully revealed?

Because McTiernan practiced law, she injects credible details about the legal aspects of the story, including a tensely climatic courtroom scene, while requiring some suspension of disbelief from her readers. Putting those flaws in the tale aside, it is a fast-paced, otherwise tautly-crafted, and entertaining thriller replete with shocking revelations and surprising developments. McTiernan's overarching story is clever, as the eventual unveiling of the connection between Tom's death and Dandridge's case demonstrates. It is also an absorbing exploration of a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship and its impact on Hannah.

The Murder Rule is an engrossing meditation on under what circumstances, if any, questionable means can ever justify the achievement of a desired end. McTiernan says she wanted to explore a highly provocative question: "What if you're a good person trying to do good things in a world that doesn't seem to care? And the world we live in right now doesn't seem to care. Would you take a little step off the ethical path in order to be effective?" And if one does that, what about another little step. And another. And another . . . "How far would you go? Where does that line sit? Because it's very hard to be effective in the world today if you follow the rules strictly." It's up to readers to decide if they accept McTiernan's core premise, whether Hannah is that good person McTiernan references, and if wrongful actions by police, prosecutors, or others can justify the means employed to write those wrongs. And what they might do if forced to confront similar circumstances.

I love this author. I really do. But I have no idea why she thought it would be a good idea to fix what wasn't broken. Her previous novels were based in Ireland where she appears to understand the culture, setting, and people very well. In this one, the action is based in the States and I'm sorry to say that it's apparent she doesn't understand the culture, setting or people almost at all. The premise of 'The Murder Rule' is on its face farfetched, but since the author is a favorite, I thought I'd give it a chance. But maybe, as a lawyer, I know a little too much, because first of all, I've NEVER heard a reference to "the murder rule" in the law. What she describes seems to be what's referred to as the "felony murder" rule--where a defendant can be held criminally liable for a death that results while in the commission of a felony, even if the death of the victim was not intended. So I was a little put off by that misnomer, but still thought I'd hang in there.

But then ... the plot and crime at its center did not in any way, shape or form refer to a felony murder, but to the intentional killing of a woman. It almost felt as though the author heard about the felony murder rule, this peculiarity in American law and decided to write a story that borrowed on that peculiarity ... except ultimately she didn't have the knowledge about American law to pull it off. But having spun a complicated yarn--involving a young woman who depends on a series of complicated ruses to weasel her way onto the defense team of a man she "knows" is guilty, just to sabotage his case--the writer appeared stuck. Somewhere in there, the story devolves into a series of cliches about American society and law enforcement, complete with a corrupt sheriff who runs a small town through intimidation, a trio of goons starting an unprovoked bar fight with the complicity of scared locals, and a car chase. Why, Dervla? Why?

And finally, the author didn't seem to (and this is the kiss of death for me) know her main protagonist very well. Hannah is almost a stereotype--a plucky can-do American girl who will stop at nothing (not even a few dirty tricks) to "get justice" as she sees it. Hannah was barely likable but more importantly, scarcely believable. The circuitous way she intends to get that justice makes for an intriguing blurb, but once we begin to see the lengths she was willing to go to, we're left to ask, 'but why?' As a previous reviewer points out, the best way to undermine a defense that you believe is false is to support and bolster the case of the prosecution. Not to contrive to move across country, tell a series of easily debunked lies and ruin someone else's life to get a position on the ... defense team?

Anyway [deep sigh] ... I'm going to consider this a blip in an otherwise stellar track record of an amazing author, and just wait for the next book.

Another very unique story line inspired by a young law student who was involved with The Innocence Project. This story just rocketed out of the gate. I could not stop reading it. What a twisty tale. It just shows that things are not always black or white, innocent or guilty. It depends on whose angle we are looking at. Another top read for 2022.

Thank you to Scene of the Crime, William Morrow Books, HarperCollins Publishers, and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.

After finding her mothers old diary, Hannah uncovers a secret about a man called Michael Dandridge. A man who is fixing to get a new hearing with the Innocence Project. Hannah, a third year law student, is determined to join the Innocence Project in Virginia and is hoping to join the legal team who will represent Michael for a crime he committed. But is all that it seems to be?

I, personally, don't understand the negative reviews of this book. Was it a 5 star to me? No. But it kept me pulled in, intrigued, and turning the pages. I would recommend to friends interested in similar genres.

The Murder Rule had all of the components to be epic but ended up falling short of the mark. This novel follows Hannah as she works to sabotage and scheme her way onto the project Innocence trial team for a man who is deeply intwined with her mothers past. What begins as a quest for vengeance becomes something else entirely. You definitely cannot trust anything you think is “truth” in this novel but I will say most of the “twists” were pretty obvious. Parts of this dragged a bit and I wish the whole book had been at the pace of the ending.

All in all, this was a 2.75 for me but I’m hoping it will get picked up for a mini series adaption that can work out some of the kinks and make it as good as I was hoping it would be.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was my first Dervla McTiernan book and I received it as an #ARC from #Netgalley. The book intertwines a current-day law student working for the Innocence Project with her mother's 1994 diary. Hannah travels to Charlottesville in an attempt to derail a current Innonce Project client's appeal. During the attempt, she learns things about her past that she did not anticipate. The storylines seem to lead you in a number of different directions. The ending was not at all what I expected.

I received an ARC from NetGalley.

Hannah Rokeby is a third year law student who finagles her way into working for The Innocence Project as a transfer student. After reading some things in her mothers diary she is particularly interested in the Michael Dandridge case. He was a rapist and murderer released on a technicality, and set for a retrial.

She does figure out a way to get on the defense team in time for the hearing. As she gets more involved she learns more about what happened and it gets you wondering yourself. Based on what she read she wants to make sure he stays in jail.

I enjoyed this book very much. Kept you guessing!!

Hannah Rokeby is a law student in her third year at the University of Maine when she worms her way into one of the coveted spots on the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia. The professor who heads the project thinks she is temporarily relocating to care for her sick mother but Hannah’s got other motives for wanting to “help” with one very specific case. I was very excited to read this book as I have loved the author’s Cormac Reilly series. Unfortunately this one missed the mark for me. I didn’t care for the main character and some of the plot points just didn’t seem believable at all.

Thank you William Morrow, Scene of the Crime, and NetGalley for my advance copy!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Thanks for the ARC. What can I say? I didn't want to put this book down once I started reading it. I did but could not wait to get back to reading it. I loved it. Will recommend!

This is a solid procedural that kept me engaged until the end. Hannah is a law student from Maine that "infiltrates" the University of Virginia's Project Innocence, a volunteer organization lead by law professor Rob Parekh bent on freeding people who have been wrongly convicted. Their current case involves Michael Dundridge, who has been accused and convicted of the murder of a young mom on flimsy evidence 11 years before and now that he is being retried Rob and his team think they can prove that he was innocent. Hannah has his own motives to be on the team though and is set on getting revenge on behalf of her mom, Laura, whose life derailed one faithful summer when she met Hannah's father. This backstory is told through a diary that Laura wrote at the time and Hannah accidentally found when she was 14. But all is not what is seems as they say. I loved Hannah as a character and her determination in trying to right her mother's due (she breaks a few rules to get on the team) but I also appreciated the fact that she isn't stubborn to a fault. She is actually pretty smart (a nice change from the typical MC that you want to slap) and I was rooting for her. I think that on the other side Laura isn't a fully fleshed character and the ending is a bit affected by our lack of involvement in her side of the story. This isn't a thriller with a big twist at the end, Hannah's own doubts put the reader on the right path but it is enjoyable nevertheless. The secondary characters, Hanna's collegues on the case, Sean and Camila also contribute to an enjoyable read (especially Sean). Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

First let me say that as I started reading, I was sure I'd been sent the wrong book. Dervla McTiernan is, in my mind, a wonderfully evocative writer of mysteries set in Ireland. This was a legal mystery set in the United States…how could it be the same writer? But, in fact, this is McTiernan's first standalone book, one that is entirely different from her Cormac Reilly series. What is the same is her skill with characterization and plot. Once I had convinced myself that this book was written by one of my favorite writers, I was (reluctantly) willing to give up the Irish setting I had been expecting and go with a legal mystery (not my favorite genre). Because McTiernan is that good.

The book deals with a number of tough subjects, including social inequality and toxic masculinity in addition to innocence vs. guilt, giving the reader something besides the mystery to think about. Hannah Rokeby is a law student who "transfers" into the UVA program so that she can join a team of lawyers and law students trying to free innocent prisoners. It's no secret to the reader that she isn't there to free Michael Dandridge, but to ensure that the Innocence Project does not do so. She's read her mother's diary, and she knows that Dandridge is not the innocent man the Project believes he is. The book cycles back and forth between Hannah's legal and investigative work for the Project and pages from her mother's diary. At about the halfway point in the book, there is a big twisty reveal, some of which I had foreseen and some of which I had not. It was late at night when I reached that point, and it took me hours to fall asleep as I pondered where McTiernan was taking the plot. This particular twist was better done than most, in that it turned the plot on its head while still leaving much to figure out.

I missed the atmospheric writing McTiernan is known for, and I missed the Irish setting. Nonetheless, I was caught up in the story line of THE MURDER RULE and give the author credit for being able to switch locations and genres so effectively. Some of the legal aspects seemed a bit unlikely to me, but then I am no expert. The title seems more tied to a thread of another case that Hannah would like the Innocence Project to adopt, so, if this turns out to become a series rather than the standalone it is purported to be, perhaps that's the point of the title. I will be on the lookout for the next Cormac Reilly novel, though, rather than the next Hannah Rokeby one.

What a cluster!?! Wow! I actually enjoyed this book! Great lines, plots, characters, twists, turns and the flow. The novel’s intention is to stir your doubts and the ending’s twists changed the whole story! I had doubts about Hannah’s mother, father and her reasonings to move temporarily to VA; however, the ending sealed the deal that I wasn’t anticipating! What a read, something that could have been stripped out from true-crime TV shows! Highly recommending this novel!

Hannah Rokeby is a third year law student who finagles her way into working for The Innocence Project as a transfer student. She is particularly interested in the Michael Dandridge case, a rapist and murderer released on a technicality, and set for a retrial. Hannah’s story is interspersed with journal entries from 1994 that lay the groundwork for Hannah’s motivation.

Hannah is an intriguing character who commands respect because she knows who she is and what she intends to accomplish and will do whatever it takes, starting on the first pages of the book with blackmail.

I could not stop reading this book. Even when I thought I knew where the story was going (I did not), I was compelled to keep reading because I wanted to see how Hannah would adapt as circumstances changed.

A first for me by this author. I will look for more.

I'm very sorry that I'm late with this one.
It was a fast read. A lot of great plot twists. I enjoyed it for the most part but it didn't come over as a legal thriller. That is ok but...

This is one that you need to read for yourself and enjoy. There was something that I just can't put my finger on that I didn't like but that must not be important. lol

A nice enjoyable thriller. Keeps you on your toes.

Thank you #NetGalley for this ARC. My own true thoughts about this book.

3/5 stars

(4.0*)

This is the first book I have read from this author and I have to say, I do enjoy the way they write their stories and there were definitely a few twists that I didn’t see coming, which totally makes me want to check out more by Dervla McTiernan.

The Murder Rule follows two perspectives, the first one being Hannah, who starts volunteering for the Innocence Project at University of Virginia. She has a very specific reason as for why she wants to work closely with this project/team, and even more so, a particular case she wants to be on that is personal to her. Eventually, Hannah figures out a way to join the defense team just in time for the upcoming hearing. The second perspective is from Laura, Hannah’s alcoholic mother, whose point of view is taken from her 1994 diary.

As the story goes on and Hannah gets closer to the people involved or close to the case, there is a lot of information and little details from the case that is figured out, as well as, past events unfolded. This all makes for a very suspenseful page-turner.

The whole time I just wanted to know/see how Hannah would end up being successful in finding her mother some peace and justice… but by the end of the story I definitely felt a little different about that after uncovering some lies. ;)

Overall, great quick read full of good twists and it wraps up well enough at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.