Oh my gosh this book was good. It was well written with a well executed and gripping storyline and well developed and engaging characters that were relatable and likeable, although some more than others.. It was mysterious, susoenseful and unpredictable with twists that left me on the edge of my seat. I really enjoyed it.

This was amazing! This is the first book I've read by Dervla McTiernan and it definitely won't be the last. I'm not usually a fan of legal thrillers, but I was immediately pulled into the story. I loved Hannah's character and the way in which the author portrayed her determination and vulnerability. The story was really pacy and I loved how the drama unfolded. The twists were great and also unexpected to the extent that I felt even more betrayed than Hannah. Overall a great story with wonderful characters and a hopeful ending too!

Murder thrillers are becoming increasingly common, making it exceptionally difficult to pick up and read something original in its plot.

The Murder Rule is a legal thriller from the point of view of a law student who works for The Innocence Project. However, all is not as it seems as the story unfolds, with her original perspectives being a work of fiction.

This book is a book of two halves. At times felt a bit confusing as we flitted between past, present and occasional (and often seemingly purposeless) interludes from her mother.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher HarperCollins for an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this psychological suspense book, it really did seem to have a little bit of everything in it. It firmly held my attention and had several twists. A brilliant read and I hope we get more books about the innocence project.

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.

Will keep you reading and enjoying right to the very last page…

Strong How to Get Away With Murder vibes from this mystery/thriller by McTiernan. With a relatively young cast of characters and personal agendas getting in the way, this is a messy but captivating read.
The start of this book did not do it for me. The main character, Hannah, grated on me and I really struggled to be invested in her motivations or activities. I am so glad I stuck it out! The second half of this book was extremely well written. Camila and Sean are very strong side characters, and the development of relationships felt organic despite there being such a short space of time considered.
I found the pacing of this book to be a little strange, as some time seemed to go by very quickly while others were much slower to pass. Addtionally, I am not a fan of story telling through diary entries, so I’m very glad this did not continue throughout the book.
Overall, a really enjoyable story with a very nice, easy to read writing style.

Dervla McTiernan is a new crime author to me and i really liked her style of writing. The story is about Hannah's involvement with a group called The Innocence Project, aimed at helping convicted prisoners who the project believes have been wrongly convicted. Included in the story are some diary entries from Hannah's mother Lucy who has information that relate to the case that is being investigated by the Project.
If im being critical, some of the evidence that was uncovered felt like it came to light a little too easily, but other than that, I enjoyed the book and will look for more by the same author.

A great suspenseful read and definitely different. I really wanted to like this more than I did. I found some of the last third of the book a bit unbelievable.

I did really enjoy the real detail of law in the book and the interactions between the students. Overall interesting but not my favourite.
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I really enjoyed this book. The twists and turns throughout kept me interested and I managed to finish it within a couple of days.

The agenda that Hannah had at the beginning based on the information she was given, was the reason she joined the innocence project and upon finding out that the truth has been twisted, allowed the story to take a different but still exciting turn.

I enjoyed how the storyline changed mid wat, how the author managed to keep it interesting, tense and dramatic all at the same time.

5 stars from me!

This wasn’t my usual go to book but I’m so glad I read it. McTiernan did a wonderful job of character development and had such a perfect flow throughout the book. Definitely will be buying a hard copy to put all of my notes into!!!

Gripping, fast paced, twisting - The Murder Rule has it all.

I couldn’t help but get pulled in to the story of Hannah and her mum Laura. Including diary entries from Laura’s younger days the plot is set up through a series of past and present tense extracts that interweave - drip feeding us details and ultimately revealing plot twists that shocked me.

I couldn’t go to sleep until I had finished this book. The final chapters pulled me in so deeply that I just had to know what happened - it was worth every minute!

The Murder Rule is due out in May 2022 and I’d like to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read this in advance of publication.
The story focuses on Hannah and her involvement - for reasons that eventually become clear - with The Innocence Project. We learn fairly early on that Hannah has her own reasons for wanting to be part of the Project, and as we follow her attempts to ingratiate herself into their work and a fairly high-profile case it’s hard to not get sucked in.
Interspersed with Hannah’s story are extracts from the diary written by Hannah’s mother. These offer little snippets of information to help us start piecing together what is motivating Hannah, and to ensure that we are wholly invested in the group’s work with Michael, convicted of raping and killing a young mother and who swears his innocence.
The first part of the book really blew me away and had me convinced this would be an easy 5 star read. As we learn more about Hannah’s past it became a little harder not to feel some scepticism.
There’s lot of instances that seem rather improbable, and the revelations uncovered certainly fall into place a lot more easily than I think they would. The crux of the story hinges on events of the past, and we never get a satisfactory reason for all of these. While I found myself excited by Hannah’s ‘big moment’, in the cold light of day I find it hard to imagine half of what takes place would actually be probable. The revelations about Hannah’s reasons for doing what she does certainly make sense, but I found myself incredibly frustrated by the scenario involving her mother. There were far too many unanswered questions with regard to her motives, and the rather abrupt ending left me feeling like something was missing.

Love love loved this book! Very intriguing storyline and characters, I was hooked from the very beginning! Would definitely recommend and purchase for friends. A truly great read!

I’ve heard many good things about Dervla McTiernan’s Irish detective series, but alas I’ve not yet read them. She’s an author who’s been on my radar for awhile, so I was excited to see she has new series coming out. I believe this is book 1 of the Murder Rule, although this felt quite complete. I’m not sure which character this book will follow next.
Anyways this story follows two narrative arcs:
* Hannah - a law student in her third year transfers to another college institute so she can manipulate her way into The Innocent Project, a charity that recruits law interns in their cases to help exonerate people wrongly convicted on technicalities. The case her team is working on involves a single mother who was raped and strangled. A man called Michael was arrested and convicted, but he’s been clear that he was beaten into giving a confession. But Hannah isn’t here to free Michael, she’s here to ensure he never gets out...
- Laura, Hannah’s mother. We have diary extracts from twenty years ago involving Michael and how he ruined her life...
The premise was top notch and the execution was almost chef’s kiss. I loved the judicial approach to looking at crimes and exploring the truth by interpreting evidences. We see Hannah and her colleagues becoming detectives researching the case and I was intrigued. The story is set in America so it had that small town American vibe to it, too, with stops in cute dinners and very American bars. Things tie up in unexpected ways, yet I did find the last 20% a bit far fetched. The twist regarding Laura didn’t work for me, in fact I couldn’t connect with her character at all and that was a shame. These issues aside this is a compelling read exploring the American justice system and a decades old mystery with buried secrets coming to the service. Personally I preferred Hannah’s narrative voice. She was a messy, anti-hero type character and I wished she was more psychopathic. I think the narrative should’ve stuck with her, rather than deviating in the last third to other POVs such as Sean’s.
I give this one four stars. A great read if a flawed one, but I will be intrigued to know what happens in the follow on.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this arc. I was absolutely hooked by the premise expecting an anti-heroine.
For the most part she is clever and sneaky, driven by her internal clock of rightful justice. Vengeance for her mother. She transfers university. She’s a third year law student. She blackmails her way into The Innocence Project, a charity that helps those in jails who might be innocent and have been convicted on technicalities. She learns about a case where the team is helping someone named Michael. However, Hannah isn’t here to helpful. She’s here to ensure that Michael never gets released. The reason for this is revealed in Laura’s (Hannah’s mum) diary which reveals tragic events that occurred two decades ago...

I wanted to like this more than I did. I loved the first two thirds, but was let down by the final act. Some of the reveals were preposterous especially the ones with Hannah and her mum’s. I never got the sense Laura was a good mother so for Hannah to be so driven for revenge just wasn’t consistent with her character considering how irritated she was with her mother.
However I liked the law students setup, and having lawyers doing investigative work. It was refreshing to read about and I found the law conversations and the nitty gritty aspects of proving certain truths in court fascinating, and wanted more of that. On the whole the story does come together but I did find the last act abrupt and the actual antagonist a bit cardboard cutout. Nonetheless an intriguing courtroom suspense read, for readers looking for something different.

Psychopathic protagonists are my favourites, ala Joe from You, and recently Never See Me Coming. I went into this expecting a thrilling voice who’s out for revenge, and for the most Hannah was an intriguing character. I raced through the first half. It’s the last third that the momentum slowed as more was revealed and one of the big twists just didn’t work for me. Nonetheless this was overall a good beach read. I liked all the details about the law, which was new to me and the juridical politics.
In a nutshell this follows Hannah who joins The Innocence Project, when she transfers universities. She’s studying law. The Innocence Project helps people wrongfully committed for crimes. But Hannah isn’t here to help, she’s here to determined that one of the convicts being helped doesn’t get out. Alternating with Hannah’s story is her mother’s journal with events from twenty years ago.
A new series looking at the courtroom aspect of justice and crime, with an intriguing protagonist.

This has a little bit of everything.
Murder,mystery,family drama,courtroom drama,death row.

Entertaining read,that I was always keen to get back to.

Plenty of twists along the way,that made me constantly rethink where the book was going.

I feel/hope the Innocence project could show up again in future books.

Dervla McTiernan’s Cormac Reilly series of books is one of my favourites so I was so excited to see a new release from the author. This one is completely different to her previous work, it’s set in America and not Ireland and switches from a police investigation to a legal thriller.
Hannah Rokeby is studying law at the University of Maine but has transferred to the University of Virginia and moved to Charlottesville to work as a volunteer on the Innocence Project. The Project takes on the cases of wrongfully convicted death-row prisoners.
But Hannah’s not there to help get prisoners freed, she’s there to make sure one prisoner in particular, stays in prison and will undermine any work they do to help him.
The chapters alternate between her work on the project in 2019 and her alcoholic mother Laura’s diary in 1994 slowly explaining her troubled past as the reasons for Hannah’s motivation are revealed.
I loved the idea of the book, definitely something different, and the legal details were interesting. But as more is revealed the less believable the story becomes and the actions of the characters around Hannah start making less sense. In the end the story was not memorable but makes a good beach read.
With thanks to the author, HarperCollins and Netgalley for the ARC,

The Murder Rule is a gripping and hugely original novel focused on law student Hannah Rokeby who gets a coveted student volunteer place on the Innocence Project, an organisation that works with Death Row prisoners it believes are innocent, to overturn their convictions. Hannah has an ulterior motive for her involvement with the project and this is gradually revealed to the reader through the use of a dual narrative. We have Hannah's perspective in 2019 and her mother Laura's through her diaries from 1994. Hannah is not a likeable character and she uses unethical and immoral tactics to get her place on a a small team who are working to overturn the conviction of a rapist and murderer .
This is the first Dervla McTiernan novel I have read and I absolutely loved it. The plot and the twists were completely unexpected and I was completely immersed in it over 24 hours. I love the way the things are slowly revealed to the reader and the dual narrative works really well. A novel I was sad to finish. Highly recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Loved this thriller! The storyline was totally different from what I was expecting, and this law student is definitely no slouch! I loved every second of this enthralling read set in the dark world of academia.