The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan (Review by Lara Ferguson)

Hannah Rokby is a woman with a mission; armed with her mother’s diary, she is determined to right the wrong that ruined her mother’s life—and by extension, hers. She will do anything to see justice done and perhaps ease the burden her mother has carried for so long. Securing a student spot on the Innocence Project is only the first step, but after that task is completed, Hannah wastes no time conniving her way onto the team defending the man to blame for destroying her mother, Michael Dandridge. The discoveries she makes while working to destroy Michael are not what she expected, and no one is without blemish. Determined to follow the trail and unearth Michael’s real story, Hannah must sort through her preconceptions and decipher fact from fiction. The Murder Rule is a wonderfully written thriller that engages and begs to be read from the very beginning. The story, never giving too much away capitalizes on its twists and turns, making it difficult to put the book down, and the characters, each with their own motivation and background, are intriguing and smart. I do not typically give a book five stars, but this one checks all the boxes. It’s an action thriller mystery crime generation-spanning saga that is beautifully written and well-researched. It demands attention. It reads like a movie; the scenes and characters appear before your eyes and capture your imagination. I can’t wait to see it on the screen.