If you’ve watched any Netflix true crime documentaries in the past decade or so, you’re familiar with the various Innocence Projects around the world. These teams of attorneys (and attorneys-in-training) dedicate months, even years, to exonerating people who have been convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. Dervla McTiernan has turned this into a brilliant conceit for a mystery-thriller novel, The Murder Rule: what if someone on the team actually wants the criminal to stay behind bars?
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The story is primarily set in Virginia, in 2019. Hannah is a law student, and in the opening pages she blackmails her way into a coveted volunteer role at the UVA Innocence Project. McTiernan doesn’t hide the fact that Hannah has ulterior motives. From the very start, we know she’s not in it just for glory – there’s a particular case she wants to dismantle from the inside, and a man she wants to keep behind bars.
The case is that of Michael Dandridge, a man who was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a young mother as her children slept in the next room. He’s been locked up for over a decade, and with questions being raised about the validity of the evidence used to convict him, prosecutors have elected to re-try his case. The Innocence Project team – student volunteers Camilla, Sean, and (now) Hannah, led by project director Robert Parekh – scramble to prepare for the preliminary hearing. Hannah is cunning and wily, and she has her eyes and ears open for any opportunity to sabotage the defence.
Hannah’s story alternates with chapters styled as diary entries written by her mother, Laura, dated 1994. Laura’s story gradually reveals why Hannah is so determined to keep Dandridge in prison – and why she has ended up effectively parenting her alcoholic mother in the present.
The Murder Rule is a great mix of psychological thriller, legal procedural, and murder mystery. There are a lot of elements at play, and plenty of twists (some you’ll see coming a mile off, some will surprise you). As the tagline on the cover promises: no one is innocent in this story.
I had a couple of minor problems with it, though they didn’t detract much from the story as a whole for me. First off, I’m not sure third-year law students would need all the for-dummies explanations of courtroom procedure and evidence rules that Parekh provides; it’s a slightly clumsy way of giving the reader the information they need to understand the stakes. And secondly, the characters (slash suspects) and their motivations and relationships get a little murky as The Murder Rule builds towards its climax. McTiernan thankfully straightens it all out with a Legally Blonde-esque courtroom showdown.
Ultimately, The Murder Rule is a book about confirmation bias, and how we keep believing the stories we tell ourselves. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more books by McTiernan if they’re all up to this standard.
Read The Murder Rule on audiobook via Libro.fm here.
My favourite Amazon reviews of The Murder Rule:
- “If you really want to prove the man of murder, why is she part of the group that is trying to set him free??? Why not join the people that are trying to keep him in prison???” – Ivy
- “Be prepared not only to suspend disbelief, but to ignore all rational thought.” – Amazon Customer
- “It’s not a book that gives you anything to think about after you finish it. It’s basically chewing gum for the mind.” – Hey There Delilah
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