Hannah is a law student desperate to get away from the influence of her alcoholic mother. Or so it seems, until her reasons for leaving home and heading to Virginia to work on the Innocence Project start to become clearer. Hannah is desperately keen to get assigned to the case of Michael Dandridge, who has had his conviction vacated and is up for a re-trial. She manages this, and thereupon throws everything she has into the case.

This is a compulsively readable book, with a plot that has several very good twists, as McTiernan starts to reveal more about Hannah's motives. It maybe strains credulity a little how Hannah manages to get assigned to the case so readily, but I didn't find that bothered me much as the story barrelled along. I also liked Hannah a lot as a character dealing with some very complex feelings and confused motives, whilst trying to hide that from her colleagues.

Another winner from McTiernan, who is fast becoming one of the most reliable crime writers around.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers Australia for advanced copy
Pub date:04 May 2022

I looked forward to reading this book because I am such a a big fan of the author, I knew this "standalone" would be a departure from her usual police procedurals but I didn't realise it is set in America, although the "death row" mention ought to have clued me in!
I found it a slow start, mainly because I found it hard to get interested in such an unlikeable character as Hannah. I won't add too much to the publishers summary other than that Hannah, through deceit and cunning manages to inveigle herself into the Innocence Project, this is when her work begins in earnest.
The story is told over two timelines, her mothers past, told through her old diary, and Hannahs present day, this did add a little interest.
However, the the further I progressed the more outlandish the plot seemed to become, I know US law and legal procedures are quite different to ours in many ways but surely, that courtroom scene, could that really happen? It seems outlandish to me that students are allowed that much freedom in the courtroom, but then, I'm not American!
I really wanted to like this book so much more than I did

An incredible novel ... well written and definitely worth 5 stars. Very difficult to put down and read in two sittings. The protagonist Hannah, a young idealistic student, investigates the release of an innocent man on death row with a group of like-minded students and legal team. The twists and turns in the story highlight the brilliant writing and bring home the deceptions carried out by 'corrupt' police and the conviction of 'innocent' people. The story also weaves through the protagonist's belief in passed on 'true' diary entries and fairytales that lead to perceptions that change her life. Highly recommended read.

I really enjoyed The Murder Rule, overall it was an engaging new book by McTiernan. The premise was really interesting and the book started really strong. This book is definitely a change of pace and setting from McTiernan’s other books, so it’s good to remember to go into reading this one with an open mind. I really enjoyed the legal side to this story with the Innocence Project, I can definitely see the possibility for more books concerning those cases.
I did find a few aspects that weakened the story such as the the final court scene which seemed a bit unlikely, and the one brief switch where a chapter wasn’t written from Hannah’s perspective. Overall though, I really enjoyed The Murder Rule.

I really enjoyed reading The Murder Rule. It was a short read and a very suspenseful story.

It’s a move away for McTiernan from her series of Cormac Reilly books, which I read with relish. Although it’s very different from those books, it is also a great read.

Hannah, the main protagonist, is a law student at the University of Maine. She manages to inveigle her way into spending a semester at the University of Virginia School of Law’s Innocence Project. This is a project set up to help free miscarriage of justice victims, particularly those on death row and/ or serving life imprisonment sentences.

She leaves behind her mum, Laura, a clingy alcoholic. She had read her mum’s diary from 25 years earlier and believes her mum was raped by a man the project is helping to release. She also believes he murdered her father. His name is Michael Dandridge and he’s serving life imprisonment for another rape and murder.

Hannah tricks one of the other students who is working on Dandridge’s case to leave the project by pretending to her that she has been offered a law job at a prestigious firm. She then manages to take her place on the Dandridge case. She does her best to sabotage Dandridge’s case, messing about with legal motions that Rob, a charismatic and egotistical lawyer who runs the project, has made on his behalf, etc.

She befriends Sean and Camilla, two other students working on the case. Sean likes her. She notices that Camilla, a shrewd person, is suspicious of her and queries her back story.

She visits Dandridge at prison and comes to learn that he’s her father. She realises that her mother has lied to her and manipulated her for years. She starts to doubt Dandridge’s guilt and decides to help him.

An evil sheriff with an agenda comes into play, as do a number of other characters in this fast moving thriller.

McTiernan is Irish Australian. From memory, she did a Law degree in Ireland. Then she worked in Perth for a government department. Yet, her knowledge of how the law works in the U.S. and everything else detail wise about this story set in the U.S. rings very true.

I recommend this fast paced legal thriller to others. I think it may appeal a lot to those who have studied law, and also appeal to those who have not but enjoy reading a well written suspenseful legal thriller.

My thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had trouble putting this book down once I started it. This book is a suspenseful read as you navigate the plot to try and figure out what happened and in fact what is happening. This a book about secrets, lies and what we fail to see in those closest to us.

This novel centres around an investigation that is trying to prove that a man has been in prison for 11 years for a crime he did not commit while someone on the team is working to keep him where he is. Everyone has a agenda in this novel and at times I was surprised by the characters - and for the record I did not see the twist coming until we the reader were meant to see it.
If you love legal thrillers then this book is for you.
Many thanks to Netgalley the author and the publisher for a chance to read this novel.

Dervla McTiernan’s Cormac Reilly books are one of my favourite crime series, so I was excited to hear that the author had a new stand-alone book coming out this year. I love a good legal thriller, too, so this sounded like the perfect story for me.

Hannah Rokeby is a law student with her own agenda – to avenge a great injustice done to her mother before Hannah was born. Ever since she discovered her mother’s diary, Hannah has been determined to bring the perpetrator to justice. The opportunity presents itself when the Innocent Project at the University of Virginia takes on the case of Michael Dandridge, who is in prison for allegedly raping and murdering a young woman. Wrongfully incarcerated, according to the project’s founder, Professor Rob Parekh and Michael himself, who keeps proclaiming his innocence. With ingenuity and some cunning, Hannah makes certain that she is included in the team investigating the case – but she is following her own agenda.

With Hannah’s thirst for revenge disclosed early in the story, I soon became invested to find out more: what, why and how? I’m usually not a great fan of diary entries as POV, but in this case they worked well to give motive to Hannah’s quest. With her background as a lawyer, the author presents us with an intriguing premise that worked well for me for the first ¾ of the book. Sadly, the last ¼ lost a lot of credibility, with many unanswered questions remaining in the end. Whilst I could understand Hannah’s motives (despite the troubled relationship she had with her mother), some of the other characters seemed to be driven by agendas that were never fully explained, and I was left feeling like I had overlooked some crucial bit of information that tied it all together. Whilst the action ramped up nicely in the final chapters, it did so at the expense of believability, both regarding the last courtroom scenes as well as character development of some of the secondary players. This may have all been excused if I had understood the prime motivations, but as I came to the end, I was scratching my head in puzzlement and flicking back to earlier chapters to see what I had missed.

It’s difficult to rate a book that initially had me glued to the pages, but left me feeling disappointed with the final reveal. I still love McTiernan’s writing style but feel that the character development here was nowhere as convincing as in her Cormac Reilly series and in some parts appeared stereotypical to me (which Cormac Reilly definitely was not). One of the things I always loved about McTiernan’s previous novels was that they offered something unique in terms of characters and setting, whilst this one seemed a bit like your run of the mill American law enforcement novel. Whilst the concept of THE MURDER RULE was intriguing and it was entertaining enough, it didn’t have the same impact on me as the Cormac Reilly series and I would love to see the author return to her Irish settings or perhaps an Australian one in future.

Dervla McTiernan is a fantastic storyteller. I have read all of her novels so far. The Murder Rule is Dervla’s latest and is absolutely fantastic! I was totally spellbound and just had to keep reading. I loved the complexity of the characters, especially Hannah Rokeby, who, being the main character held the story and we moved with her through the many twist and turns the story took.

The use of a diary to reflect back on the past was an excellent strategy as it was easy to follow and meant the reader didn’t lose track of where they were. Too often, these days, the moving back and forth from present and past gets confusing so I found this strategy very effective.

The story itself has a legal setting with Hannah getting herself into The Innocence Project in the University of Virginia which aims to have the sentences of convicted criminals overturned. With the most prominent case being that of Michael Dandridge, Hannah manages to wrangle herself by hook or by crook onto the team working on this case. We follow the progress of the case to its conclusion!
The ending is superb. I must admit I was left with the feeling that there may be a sequel to this story with the Innocence team of Sean, Camila and Hannah continuing with their work.

Highly recommended read.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Publishers Australia for a copy to read and review.

Although the story moved along at a good pace, there were too many instances where it was hard to believe the characters would actually behave that way, and the final court scene in particular seemed implausible. I thought the book was an interesting read, but once finished, didn't stand up to scrutiny.