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.

The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan is a thriller that never stops. The pacing is truly fantastic and the characters are written with so much detail. I loved the alternating POV’s. The Murder Rule is high up on my reads for 2022.

The Murder Rule is a wicked ride, let me tell ya. I gave it three stars but would say it is at a 3.5 star rating for me. I had to suspend belief a little bit with some of what happens but could absolutely see this as a mini series or movie. This is a courtroom mystery with a mother daughter relationship thrown in. There are some graphic scenes with rape, violence and alcoholism, just for those who would like to know trigger warnings. This is my first book by this author and I will definitely be checking out their other work!

Thank you to Netgalley, Scene of the Crime, and Harper Collins/William Morrow for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Murder Rule follows Hannah, a young law student, as she works on an Innocence Project case whereby the team is focused on trying to stop Michael Dandridge from being retried for a rape/murder he maintains he did not commit. The story alternates between present day Hannah, and her mother Laura's diary entries from 1994. Based upon reading her mother's journal entries, which feature a younger version of the Dandridge, Hannah has her own agenda.....to make sure he never gets out of prison.

Hannah is not always a likeable character but she did have some growth over the course of the book. As a lawyer myself I appreciated the Innocence Project part of the story which gave the book a true crime vibe. Professor Rob Parekh, Hannah, Sean and the rest of the team reminded me, at time, of the tv show How To Get Away with Murder. I liked the race against the clock aspect of needing to get things done quickly before Dandridge's hearing, it helped to move the story along. That being said, Hannah's motivations are slow to be revealed, as is the answer to the Michael Dandridge guilt/innocence question. The last quarter of the book picks up the pace before all is revealed.

Special thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

Review of The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I went into the book blind and I really liked it. It was a very fast read for me. I loved the story and all of the twists. It was extra fun for me because it takes place at UVA in Charlottesville which is my alma mater. I definitely plan to read more from this author in the future.

Quick synopsis: Hannah is a law student in Maine when the novel opens. She has learned from her mother’s diary about a man who caused much harm in the past who is currently in jail for murder. He has been taken on by a group called the innocence project who hopes to have him released. Hannah wants anything but before him to be released and so she heads down to UVA where the project is based determined to get a spot on the team so she can ensure he stays in prison.

Thank you @netgalley and @williammorrow for the wrenched copy. This was one was out May 10.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CddVcZmLxJ3/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

4.5⭐️. Thank you William Morrow and Scene of the Crime for an ARC of The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan. I had previously read and loved her Cormac Reilly series, so I was very excited to try something new by her. Hannah has to be one of my most favorite likable/un-likable characters. Some of the things that she did may have been borderline illegal, but Ms. McTiernan wove a story that makes the reader understand why Hannah goes to the lengths that she does. I also loved Sean and Camilla; Camilla’s shrewdness and Sean’s compassion. I hope that this is the start of a new series.

4.5 stars, rounded up. I absolutely love Dervla McTiernan's Cormac Reilly series, so I was so excited to see what she would do with a new setting (Virginia) and characters in The Murder Rule. This was such an intensely interesting story about innocence, crime, corruption, and the legal system, while having a hefty dose of nuanced family drama. The front cover states "No one is innocent in this story", and what that means gets more and more complicated as the plot goes on. This is one where you'll want to set aside a chunk of time to read it all at once- it's not easy to put down.

I love books with a Maine connection, and I especially love books with a badass female character who is willing to take a chance and be a little (or a lot) underhanded to get what she wants.

Add the two together, and you get Dervla McTiernan’s @dervlamctiernan The Murder Rule, which I thought was absolute perfection. It’s perfectly paced and delightfully twisty. Not only that, but it’s going to be a series from FX, and you’re definitely going to need to read it before you see it!

Thank you so much for the opportunity to review!

Link to 5/9/2022 Instagram post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CdV_z-0L9Vp/

The Murder Rule
by Dervla McTiernan
Pub Date: May 10, 2022
William Morrow and Company
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. For fans of the compulsive psychological suspense of Ruth Ware and Tana French, a mother-daughter story—one running from a horrible truth, and the other fighting to reveal it—that twists and turns in shocking ways, from the internationally bestselling author of The Scholar and the The Ruin.
* Mystery * Thriller
The Murder Rule is her first standalone thriller, inspired by the true story of a young law student who uncovered evidence at the Innocence Project, exonerating a man who had been in prison for 26 years.
The story alternates between Hannah, in the present, working on the project, and Laura’s diary entries from 1994.
While I doubt that the newest member of the Innocence Project team, would so easily get to take center stage on the case, I went with it and enjoyed the story.
3 stars

So, I enjoy a good slow burn and this has a slower build up but it started getting intense towards the last 1/3rd of the book. But I felt the end was really rushed. With thrillers, I like everything to mostly get figured out in the end and this was just super rushed. It was a good read but I just feel like more details could have been included. I loved the idea of Hannah infiltrating the Innocence Project to try and keep Michael Dandridge in prison, which is why I wanted to read it. It's a different storyline than I've read before. My other complaint is that there seemed to be too many people with similar names. I had to keep trying to remember who was who and I never have a problem doing that.

Hannah is a law student at the University of Maine. She sees an article in Vanity Fair that prompts her to pack up, leave her alcohol dependent mother behind, and transfer to the University of Virginia law school basically overnight. Her personal mission is to infiltrate the UVA Innocence Project and work on their current case representing convicted murderer Michael Dandridge, who the Project strongly believes is actually innocent. But Hannah has ulterior motives for wanting on the murderer’s legal team. Who really is Michael Dandridge? Who is he to Hannah? What is she hiding? Is he actually innocent?

After being denied for this title on audio (on my birthday no less!) and being quite upset over it since I was so excited to read, I was thrilled to be accepted for an e-arc.

The description, title, and cover caught my attention on NetGalley immediately. It’s a really fascinating plot. As a criminal lawyer, I could relate to the content really well - law school, the Innocence Project, the felony murder rule and legal terminology. In fact, I am current prosecuting a questionable felony murder case at my day job. I really like the title for this. Not far into the book, readers come to understand what it means, which I love about novels but not all authors always do this in a clear way. Most of the novels that the genpop consumes is adult police procedurals or courtroom dramas - I wish more authors wrote novels with plots about law school and students.

I breezed through this one in about two days and really enjoyed it overall, although there were some things that still didn’t quite make sense to me at the end or I would have changed up a little bit. The “twist” was very foreseeable and didn’t pack as much of a punch as it could have. I still enjoyed it though, which is why I rate 4/5 stars.

There were some typos, mistakes, grammatical errors I caught but it was a e-proof and I am sure these were fixed prior to final publication yesterday, 5/10.

Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and the author for an advance reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review!

After a break from thrillers it was great to dive into the mystery/suspense/thriller genre again. Told with dual alternating views from past and present, the story revolves around a quest for justice/revenge. Though there are few surprises it is sure to satisfy.

Thank book club girl/William Morrow for the eARC.

I very much enjoyed this author’s Ireland set mysteries of which there were three, The Ruin, The Scholar, and The Good Turn. In The Murder Rule, the author changes everything up. This new book is not set in Ireland, but rather in the U.S., around the UVA Law School. The book is meant to be a thriller with an unreliable narrator who is single minded but not straightforward among most things.

Laura and her daughter, Hannah, share a very close relationship, albeit one with role reversals. Hannah worries about and cares for her mother who suffered enormous trauma in the past. The story behind her mother’s circumstances is what motivates Hannah throughout these pages.

Hannah is a third year law student at the University of Maine as the novel opens. She manipulates her way into a semester at UVA (the University of Virginia) Law School and to a spot on their Innocence Project. Hannah is there for her own purposes but her desire to see justice done does not mesh with the goals of the others with whom she works on Michael Dandridge’s wrongful (is it?) murder conviction.

Readers get to know Hannah, Laura and their situation well. They also spend time with the other law students, the head of the program and those involved in, and impacted by, the actions of Michael Dandridge.

I wanted to like this book as much as the others that I have read by this author, but, sadly for me, I didn’t. I found that there was a lack of warmth in these pages. I know that Laura was wronged and traumatized but somehow I didn’t care quite enough for her. The plot of this story also depended on actions that did not always feel realistic to me.

Those who like thrillers, law and courtroom stories and idealistic young lawyers to be may well enjoy this book. I just wished for more even as I respect that the author was trying to write something completely different from her earlier novels.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for this title. All opinions are my own.

My first read with this author and a fantastic read it was! I was immediately pulled into this book and my interest stayed throughout. The characters were very well developed. A psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout! I read this book in a few days because I could not put it down! A mother daughter story with twist and turns you never see coming! I strongly recommend to anyone who loves getting into the mind of a psycho and seeing how it can take over your life! Hannah is determined to get the man who ruined her mother’s life and make him pay! The way she does this is absolutely fabulous! Thanks go to Net Galley, Scene of the Crime, and Harper Collins for this exciting journey!

The emails between Hannah Rokeby and Professor Robert Parekh have ignited the gripping suspense that instantaneously drawn me into the dark secrets and lies, unexpected twist and turns of The Murder Rule!
An article of Vanity Fair and a small, battered notebook are the main elements that initiated Hannah’s thrilling journey that would keep you on the edge of your seat till the end!
The gifted Dervla McTiernan has brilliantly crafted this smooth-flowing thriller that is entwined with layers of suspense and tension. THE MURDER RULE is a perfect summer read for fans of legal drama!
I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this compelling legal thriller!
#NetGalley
#TheMurderRule

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow Books for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I devoured this book! I was so hooked from the very first page. I couldn't put this book down for the past two days. The plot pacing was on point and the characters had a lot of depth to them. I loved the author's writing style and how the secrets unfolded flawlessly. Such a brilliant thriller! Highly recommend!

The Murder Rule, by Dervla McTiernan, is a clever novel of suspense. The story alternates between the present day point of view of Hannah—a third year law student who connives her way into The Innocence Project at UVA—and her mother Laura’s diary entries, written in 1994.
No spoilers here: suffice it to say Hannah’s motives are not to free the wrongly accused. While the plot was engaging and the storytelling strong, the legal aspects in the story did not ring accurately for today’s courtroom proceedings—they seemed glib, like TV show quick wrap-ups. For me, Hannah’s character was also mostly unlikeable and, at times, unbelievable.
This is still a compelling story, especially for readers who enjoy suspense-driven family drama and legal thrillers. I look forward to reading more works by Dervla McTiernan.

3.5 stars

Thank you to Book Club Girl FB group/William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.