Dervla McTiernan is the author of the Cormac Reilly series of crime novels set in Galway, Ireland. After three books McTiernan quickly earned a place on my must-read list. So imagine my surprise to find book number four, The Murder Rule, is a departure from the series and is set in Maine and Virginia.
We’re with Hannah, a law student near to graduation, who finds a place as an intern on The Innocence Project, a legal team that take on dodgy convictions, including death-row cases. As you can imagine, the work is intense, emotions running high.
“No one is innocent in this story” says the tagline on the cover, so I was expecting possibly an unreliable narrator. And yes, pretty much from the get-go, we learn Hannah will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. She shows this in how she persuades the Innocence Project director, Robert Parekh to take her on, and the hours she is willing to spend, long into the night to prove her worth.
What Hannah really wants is to be part of the small team focussed on the Michael Dandridge case. After eleven years in prison, his case has come up for retrial due to questionable evidence. Even so, he could still end up with the death penalty. Dandridge had been sent down for the rape and murder of a young mother, something he’s always denied – his confession, he says, beaten out of him by the sheriff. Hannah’s phone conversations with her fragile mother, Laura, reveals a hidden agenda.
”I’m sorry,” Hanna said, as sincerely as she could manage.
”You should be,” he said, still with a trace of amusement. “But here’s the thing.” He gestured broadly around the room. “Here at the Project, we are not the police and we’re not the FBI. We have a very limited budget to pay investigators. I need students who are imaginative, inventive, and willing to be creative when it comes to pursuing our cases. Working here does not mean sitting behind a desk drafting motions – our staff attorneys take care of that. We need students to do the hard grind of investigating facts and tracking down new evidence. If you could be as dogged with that as you were with trying to get a place here, maybe you could be of use to me.”
Hannah could feel the flush rising in her cheeks. She made herself hold his gaze. This was not the time to play the shy girl.
Interspersed with Hannah’s narrative are entries from Laura’s diary describing her summer spent in Maine working for a cleaning company to save money for college. At one secluded summer house she meets Tom, the son of wealthy parents, and the two click. If only that creepy Mike wasn’t around. After seeing what he has hidden in his room, he makes her nervous.
The story builds towards the Dandridge trial, as Hannah does what she can to fulfil her promise to her mother, impressing her team with her commitment and ingenuity. However, fellow Dandridge interns Sean and Camila, are smart cookies too and soon ask questions. So there’s plenty of tension and no one Hannah can trust. Meanwhile her fragile mother is struggling with Hannah being away, so there are tearful phone conversations between them.
There’s a tense last act with plenty of danger and near misses as new facts come to light with some shocking twists. The scene’s all set for a dramatic courthouse finale which may seem a little unlikely in the real world, but is entertaining nevertheless. It all comes together in a pacy novel that’s perfect escapist reading. I kind of miss the Galway setting of the previous books though.
McTiernan is a brilliant storyteller and I’ll be on the look out for her next book, What Happened to Nina?, which is set in Vermont and due out soon. The Murder Rule is a four-star read from me.
Judith McKinnon 
The author knows how to keep readers hooked.
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