The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan

Publisher's 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 Review of The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan

The Murder Rule is a change of pace for Dervla McTiernan from her Cormac Reilly series and, although she gives the legal thriller sub-genre a decent nudge, there are flaws throughout the story that were difficult to ignore. Sure, this is a fast-paced thriller that bristles with enmity and a blurring of the lines of justice and, definitely, it challenges you to decide exactly where the line between right and wrong should sit. But we stray when it comes to normal human behaviour, not to mention, crucially, in matters of legal procedure.

A protagonist who is devious, underhanded and downright dangerous, this is the unusual scenario we’re faced with when we meet Hannah Rokeby in what starts out as a gripping thriller that inexorably builds in intensity.

This is a story told across two time periods. The first is in the presence as we follow Hannah Rokeby, a law student, from Maine to Virginia. Hannah manages to insinuate herself (in an extremely underhanded way) into the University of Virginia’s much sought after Innocence Project where she aims to work on the Michael Dandridge case. The second is a flashback to 1994 where we follow Laura via the pages of her diary. Laura is Hannah’s mother and the purpose of these flashback scenes is to set the stage to explain the motivation for Hannah’s actions today.

The reason why Hannah wants so desperately to be a part of the Dandridge team is not to help it succeed but, in fact, the exact opposite. She is motivated by thoughts of revenge and is prepared to stop at nothing to undermine the work the rest of the team is doing in trying to reverse his guilty conviction.

To get a greater understanding of what it is that has motivated Hannah to take such drastic action, we switch to her mother’s diary, which Hannah has devoured numerous times over the years. The diary details Laura’s early working life as a lowly house cleaner, but where she met a couple of rich young men, one of whom was a lovely, gregarious young man while the other was dark, dangerous and mixed up in a life of crime. We gradually gain a greater understanding of the good times and the disastrous as her relationships with both men unfold. 

The Murder Rule works as a thriller designed to lure you into the unexpected blind alley. “Expect the unexpected” barely covers things - and well done for that. Character development is sketchy to the point where it felt as though we were given just enough detail about each character to get a broad sense of their motivations and beliefs without divulging too much about them. Consequently, I was far from invested in them as far as their success or failure to win their case was concerned.

My major problem, and it was pivotal to the entire outcome of the story, was the courtroom scene towards the end which was so far from believable it was actually laughable. Only I didn’t laugh so much as simply groaned. I mean, it would be an interesting system if a judge allowed anyone who happened to walk into the courtroom and announced, “I’ve got some questions for the witness myself, if you’ll just allow me some leeway, I’m sure I can get them to incriminate themselves for you”. Just. Not. Going. To. Happen!