Thanks to William Morrow Publishing, Dervla McTiernan, and Netgalley for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Wow! I was honestly captivated by this story the moment I started reading. I loved the writing style and how each chapter went back and forth between Hannah and her mother’s diary. I was interested in the case as well as the lies and deception throughout. There were twists and turns along the way that really kept me guessing. Overall this is great, quick read for someone who is interested in court cases, drama, and innocence. I would definitely recommend.

An intriguing read filled with so many twists and turns you won't be able to put it down. The moment you think you know what is going on another twist will appear and lead you in another direction. Everyone thinks they are the smartest person in the room but the problem with that is everyone can't be. Who is the smartest person? Follow along and see if you can figure out just what is going on before you reach the end!

The Murder Rule was a fast, easy read...just the kind I love between dense novels. As with most thrillers, some suspension of belief is needed to go along with the plot.

The premise revolved around The Innocence Project - a group that works to exonerate the wrongly convicted. It was interesting to learn of some of their inner workings. It was stated that this group is to ensure "...necessary, basic bare minimum maintenance of the system." Truly it is so much more.

Additionally, the story was told through 2 POVs and in 2 different timelines. It all wove together in the end nicely with some twists along the way. The pacing was perfect and the story unfolded without repetitiveness. This would be a great book club choice to discuss moral dilemmas and mother/daughter dynamics.

This was my first time reading McTiernan but it was so enjoyable I already bought The Ruin.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for advancing the kindle edition is exchange for an honest opinion.

There was a lot to like about this novel: a slightly shady main character that you couldn’t help but root for, a decades old mystery that haunted those involved, corrupt law enforcement, and a totally unrealistic resolution. It was a fast and engaging read but it was missing that little something extra that takes it from good to great. It could have been the overly mundane descriptions that peppered the book or the fact that the relationships never felt fully developed, but something kept me at arm’s length from this book. That’s not to say I didn’t like it; I just didn’t connect with it in the way I do with my favorite novels. I think it could make an interesting show or movie because all the elements for a twisty thriller are there - it just needs a little more energy.

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

I enjoyed reading this suspenseful story. This is a new author for me which I look forward to reading more from them in the future. I enjoyed how the author was able to pull me into the story by making her story come to life. The details they used made me feel as if I was right there in the story. This is a well written story about three simple rules and a passion that could mean something more. The twists and turns had me sitting on the edge of my seat. I had to know what happened next. The characters are realistic and made the story for me. They have great growth throughout which made the story easy to read. This is a great story that I truly loved reading. You dont want to miss this suspenseful story. I highly recommend this book.

The Murder Rule
⭐️⭐️⭐️.8 (rounding to four)
Genre: Thriller
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 5/10/22
Author: Dervla McTiernan
Publisher: William Morrow and Company
Pages: 304
Goodreads Rating: 3.85

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow and Company for providing a digital copy of the book for me to read in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: 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.

My Thoughts: The story is narrated by Hannah while working in the Innocence project, in her perspective, in current times, with snippets of her mother, Laura’s diary entries from 20 years ago. The beginning is a bit of a slow burn, but it does heat up at points, and has some good twists along the way. The author does a good job at developing the characters, you get a sense of Hannah and Laura (through her diary) and they are complex characters with a sense of manipulation and slyness. I was not sure if I agree with the things Hannah did in attempting to achieve justice but by the end, I completely understood. This story produces all kinds of feelings from the lies, secrets, violence, corruption, and betrayal that is present. The courtroom scenes were a stretch, as being a paralegal myself knowing the ins and outs of a courtroom, however, it did make for a good story. Overall, the author does a great job of portraying a story that is all too common in today’s world, unrealistic at times, but still a good story that I enjoyed.

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle and @williammorrowbooks for sending me a copy of this one. You can find this one now, it came out May 10!

This book started out with a bang. It has all the right ingredients to make a perfect thriller but I was missing something I can’t put my finger on. This might be a case of “Sarah reads too many books and isn’t easily caught up anymore” but I still recommend picking it up. If you’re into legal thrillers with a lot of characters then this one is for you!

Here’s the real synopsis: 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.

I rate this one a 3.25-3.5. Can’t really decide. I was so excited about the concept but I think it fell a bit short for me.

This book gave me strong How To Get Away with Murder vibes. Which I loved! I liked following a law student and nonprofit that works complex cases. I think the background we get for our MC too is really great.

I think the middle of the story in particular is where it lost me. I love the police corruption trope, but it took up far more of the story than it needed to. I enjoyed the progression of the case, but the time spent on that element of the story could’ve been used to bolster other parts.

And the ending!!! It was such a great twist. Really. I didn’t see it coming. But it was rushed through way too quickly. I think a little more buildup to the reveal would’ve added a lot more to the story.

While I didn’t LOVE this, I’d still recommend for folks getting into legal thrillers and who enjoy a complex main character.

This one was pretty good - an easy to read, quick binge. Definitely some good twists. - you have to suspend disbelief a little bit, but overall it worked. A fun legal thriller. 3.5 stars .

There’s a whole lot to like about this book, a little bit I found myself disliking, and a splattering here and there where I just thought the book could have tried harder or reached for something higher or darker.

I think that last point there describes how I felt about this book best: I felt like this book wanted to be darker than it ended up being; and it could’ve been, had it followed through with every single plot thread it dangled in front of us (or, in my case, one particular plot thread that I found to be especially compelling and enticing and I wish McTiernan would’ve brought more of that thread into to story instead of tossing it in like a fabric remnant at the end).

Going into this book I thought I was getting something more cunning, morally ambiguous, more… agent provocateur-cum-Elle Woods. Make no mistake, we do get a little but of that vibe, but we don’t get it as ruthlessly as I’d hoped for.

For someone who’s got a score to settle and is in the business of revenge for the time being, Hannah (our protagonist), doesn’t seem too committed to the cause. She just comes in like a lion and then does sneaky little tricks and subtle sabotages while double-crossing herself time and time again because somewhere inside she actually does have a conscience.

I know what I’ve said so far likely doesn’t endear you to the book. I’m not making the best case for it. That’s because all of the “good” in this book has to do with the writing style, the pacing, and the overall idea of the plot. Now, I’m not going to go through the plot anymore than I already have, because I’ve touched on that enough for one review and because I suspect this really might be a “me” issue, but I’ll go ahead and touch on the writing style and the pacing.

There are three narrative streams coming from three different POVs in three different styles in this book (and one coming from another source, but it’s more of an aberration since it only happens the once): the first is the main narrative stream of the story, which comes from Hannah and is told in third-person; the second is comes from a diary written by Laura, Hannah’s mother, which is obviously first-person (and which Hannah keeps with her, as it plays a part in the story); and the third is a few snippets of time in the past told from Laura’s third-person POV that happen in live-action as opposed to being written inside a diary. These narrative streams, interweaving with one another, showing how mother and daughter are bonded together, showing how Laura got to be where she is in life and how Hannah came to be and the epic love and loss that has now become a sort of mantle, shield, and sword which Hannah must now carry into battle to free her mother of the chains that hold her down with sorrow and shame are simply a beautiful tragedy, even if you can’t help but feel no parent should lay the lightening of their burdens at the feet of their children. The deeper you get into the novel the deeper you get into just who Laura is, and into just how tangled and tight the weave she has around Hannah is; and how it took distance and time for Hannah to realize she was wrapped up in something she never realized she had signed up for in the first place and it made herself into someone she’s not even sure she likes or knows. Who is Hannah without Laura? Who is Hannah at all?

The pacing of the book is steady and propulsive, but not so much as a thriller. This is more of a suspense mystery: just a pot of simmering water, letting you know there’s a time limit, people are going to start asking questions and figuring things out sooner rather than later, the reveals and turns will come (I actually didn’t guess the big one in this book!), and one or more persons will be injured. This all happens: after all, this is genre fiction and in genre fiction it’s all about how well you complete the elements of the genre. You’re not normally reinventing the wheel. My point is this book does all this without falling into the dreaded 30 - 50% slump, when the book slows down and I usually keep dozing off because now we’re just doing exposition and montages of busy work until the 50% reveal/turn. This book escapes it, and does it with NECESSARY exposition and busy work involving all the legal things any law student working on something as inherently interesting as The Innocence Project would need to be working on. Hannah needed to be doing all this solitary work that’s only tangentially related to the main plot, and in doing that, McTiernan managed to avoid the slump and also have a bit of story to tie to a possible future for Hannah at the end of the book.

All in all, the book has its issues, but it’s still a page turner. I recommend it as a suspense and legal mystery.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Ok. Uh. This book.

I was teetering between 2 and 3 so I decided to be kind and give it 3 stars because it DID hold my interest.

The TLDR plot: Hannah, a law student, leaves her mom in Maine and goes down to Virginia to transfer for a year and work with The Innocence Project.

The writing was...not great. Lots of unnecessary details. Lots of changes between past and present tense. There was one discrepancy regarding a street address that I saw (Alexander Road vs Washington Street). This book was kinda sorta dual POV but the one POV was in diary format and it was just...unrealistic? Poorly written? I can't put my finger on it. Oh and not to mention besides the diary & Hannah's POV there was ONE chapter from another character's POV that was just slapped in there. I understand why, but because of that, it led to questions later about what Hannah was doing.

And honestly? Hannah was unlikable to me. Her mom was unlivable And not in the way where you think, "Omg I hate this person but I need to know more about them!" (kinda like Verity, imo). Hannah was just...a sociopath. Her mom was diabolical. You wouldn't go near either of them with a 20 foot pole IRL.

The mystery kept me going though. A guy who claims he's innocent and the group of law students unbury a whole bunch of corruption? Hell yeah, sign me up. One scene in particular reminded me of LEGALLY BLONDE and that made me smile just because I love that movie so much. So that was kinda fun.

If you want a quick book with mediocre writing where you can suspend disbelief for a bit, this one's for you.

Thank you to William Morrow for my free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hannah cons her way into law school in Virginia to be a part of The Innocence Project. This group hopes to set a man imprisoned for eleven years set free. Hannah is passionate about this…but passionate about seeing he gets retribution for what he did to her mother.

This novel was full of interesting characters and had an entertaining twist. I really enjoyed it.

The plot of The Murder Rule takes place with Hannah in 2019 and diary entries from her mother Laura in 1994. Hannah, as a third year law student, manipulates her way into being a volunteer for the Innocence Project. But, she's not there to save Michael Dandridge from death-row; she's there to make sure he never gets out of prison.
Hannah is quite manipulative and it's difficult to see how she would get away with everything she did. The big courtroom scene at the end was overly dramatic and you really have to suspend belief that it would play out like that.
I really enjoyed the first half of The Murder Rule, but felt the ending was too rushed and unbelievable.

This is a suspenseful legal thriller that had me compulsively turning the pages from start to finish. I enjoyed the pacing of the book and the twist is one that I didn’t see coming, which I always love. This is the first book that I’ve read by this author, but I’ll definitely be checking out her other titles!

When I began this book, I wasn't excited about the locale (not Ireland), but I decided to give it a chance. I'm so glad I did! It was a great, twisty mystery novel with great characters and pacing. I highly recommend this for mystery lovers.

A devious and compelling search for the truth.
Hannah, a law student has found that the Innocence Project is working to free a man her mother despises. After finding her mother's diary at age fourteen, Hannah has learned the story about her mother's dealings with the man in question and the murder he committed taking Hannah's father from her. She's determined to undermine the Innocence Projects case in any way she can to make sure the man stays in prison. So Hannah moves to Virginia and finagles her way into the group working to get the man released. What follows is a rather sordid tale of lies and manipulations that lead to a surprisingly enjoyable conclusion.
For me, Hannah isn't the most likable character and her actions in the beginning leave a lot to be desired but as the story evolved she was able to worm her way into my good graces. Written primarily from a 'then' (her mom's diary) and 'now' (Hannah's POV) narrative, the story slowly builds to an exciting climax complete with a car chase down a treacherous and windy mountain road. Although I did have to suspend disbelief for one courtroom scene it did little to inhibit my enjoyment of the story. All in all this was a very satisfying thriller and one that I can comfortably recommend.

A law school student from Maine, Hannah Rokeby transfers to the University of Virginia with laser focus on a single goal: getting a spot on the school’s Innocence Project so she can work on the case exonerating Michael Dandridge.

She volunteers more hours than any other student, writes excellent summaries, and professes her commitment to the group’s mission. Soon, even though she is a newcomer, she is invited to work on Dandridge’s case. What no one knows, though, is that Hannah wants to sabotage his new trial.

The book is told from Hannah’s perspective in the present as well as from her mother’s point of view through diary entries written in 1994. Due to Hannah’s subterfuge, the book immediately introduces a tension that runs throughout the narrative—will she be discovered, and, if so, how? Then, the dual timelines provide new information and interpretations that continually shock the reader. I thought I knew the direction the story was going, then Dervla McTiernan pulled the rug out from under me!

In addition to the fast-paced story relating to Hannah and Dandridge, McTiernan reveals how people are susceptible to good narratives—whether they are true or not.

I really enjoyed THE MURDER RULE and recommend if you like legal thrillers or revenge stories.

Very enjoyable legal suspense story-
Hannah leaves school, to go and volunteer with The Innocence Project. The move is prompted by reading old diaries of her moms.
We soon find out the reason for Hannah’s decision. I don’t want to give anything away, but very well written.

Hannah Rokeby, a law student, wants in on the infamous Michael Danbridge case. Not to help, but to keep him in prison because he hurt her mother, Laura, years ago. She easily(!) joins the VA Innocence Project, and within a few days she is a major part of the investigation. Wow!
This psychological thriller alternates between present day, Hannah, and 1994, Laura’s journal. Although I found some parts of the book hard to believe, this was a quick read with some great twists. I plan to add other books by McTiernan. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital arc of this book.

This was a book that you had to keep reading. I like the way it was told in first person by the main character of the book, Hannah and then her Mom's diary. Hannah had found and read her Mom's diary and wanted justice or revenge for what had happened to her Mom when she was a young woman. The man who killed her father was in jail for another murder. The Innocent Project at the University of Virginia is working to free Michael Dandridge of that murder and being the law student that she is Hannah decides she needs to be on that project to make sure that murderer does not go free. And so the excitement begins. I am sure that maybe some of the law procedures were not up to protocol but when you are reading this page turner who cares!!! I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this book. The characters, the writing style and the story. Would highly recommend.
Thanks to #netgalley, #williammorrow and @dervlamctiernan for an ARC of this book.