The Murder Rule

October 1, 2021

The winner of Ned Kelly, Barry, and International Thriller Writers honors, McTiernan again stirs up tension with the story of a young lawyer who appears to be urgently challenging a corrupt system to save an innocent man from death row. But she's got other designs, tied to her outing a secret her mother has been hiding. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

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January 10, 2022
In 2019, University of Maine law student Hannah Rokeby, the protagonist of this entertaining if flawed psychological thriller from Thriller Award winner McTiernan (The Scholar), shares a home with Laura, her alcoholic mother, until she transfers to the University of Virginia, where she wangles a highly desirable job with the law school’s Innocence Project, which tracks down new evidence in cases of individuals convicted of a crime, but who profess their innocence. She’s assigned to work on freeing Michael Dandridge, who’s on death row, having served 11 years for the rape and murder of Sarah Fitzhugh. Meanwhile, vivid excerpts from her mother’s diary recount dramatic events surrounding the death of wealthy Tom Spencer in 1994, when Laura was working as a maid at an exclusive hotel in Seal Harbor, Maine. McTiernan keeps the suspense high as she gradually reveals how Spencer’s death relates to Hannah’s work on the Dandridge case. Unfortunately, the rush to the finish is riddled with unaddressed issues, like why no one challenges Hannah after she admits in court that she broke into a sheriff’s garage to obtain evidence. McTiernan has done better. Agent: Shane Salerno, Story Factory.

February 15, 2022
McTiernan, one of Australia's most popular crime writers, is best known for her police procedurals featuring Irish detective Cormac Reilly. Her new stand-alone is something different. Hannah Rokeby, a third-year law student at the University of Maine, transfers to the University of Virginia for a chance to work at the Innocence Project, made up of a group of students who investigate the trials of death-row prisoners and others who may have been wrongfully convicted. She joins the team working to disprove the rape and murder charges against the man whom Hannah's mother, Laura, claims raped her and killed her boyfriend in 1994. Laura has become a reclusive alcoholic and Hannah is truly devoted to her, but as the investigation progresses, she finds herself wondering if her mother's recollections may be shaky--or even downright lies. As the false persona Hannah has created for herself in the group begins to crumble, she perseveres, walking a dangerous path to the final, shocking truth. For fans of the compulsive psychological suspense of Ruth Ware.

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