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The Murder Rule

By: Dervla McTiernan
Narrated by: Michael Crouch,Kate Orsini,Sophie Amoss
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Publisher's Summary

No one is innocent in this story....

The unmissable new stand-alone from the number one best seller of The Good Turn.

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.

"Diabolically clever, highly compelling and deeply moving. I loved The Murder Rule and did not want it to end." (Don Winslow, New York Times best-selling author of The Force and The Border)

"Extraordinary. Haunting. An incredible thriller. I could not put this book down. Dervla McTiernan is a gifted writer with a very special way of telling a story. This is a heart stopping rollercoaster of a tale." (Adrian McKinty, New York Times best-selling author of The Chain)

©2022 Dervla McTiernan (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about The Murder Rule

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

American legal thriller with few redeeming feature

If I'd wanted a book about the US legal system with a highly American flavour I'd have read a Grisham. It even has his 'in real life' Innocence Project as its backbone.

None of the characters engaged me and I found aspects of the story very hard to swallow; ( for example, she tries to blackmail someone, badly, and they hire her)?

This is a very personal thing, but I'm not fond of American narration and have to really want to hear the book to buy it. That said, it was well-narrated by all three except the first, whom I found tried too hard with the 'young and enthusiastic' characterisation.

This book was a pre-order. I doubt I'd have bought it had I been aware of how much it deviated from McTiernan's style. I'm all for authors diversifying, but not into areas that are already awash with the genre.

Disappointing.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Overrated

This novel had a huge publicity machine behind it and I got sucked into listening to it.The plot felt like a picture painted by numbers .. characters thrown in to Sprout messages when required then dropped out a few pages later to save the writer having to develop them into 3 dimensions. Also the device of using a male voice to narrate the ‘boy story’ was jarring and clunky.

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12 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • MN
  • 11-05-2022

Not what I expected

I have listened to (and enjoyed) all of this author books, but this is one I should have read instead. I really missed the gorgeous Irish accent which enhances the previous books. I did not enjoy any of the narration of this one and it affected how I reacted to the story. There were twists in the story but only once well into the book and honestly they all seemed a bit too far fetched for the story to hang together. Perhaps if you choose to read rather than listen, the book will seem less like a cheaply made movie.

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11 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not as good as her previous novels.

I think this is designed for an American audience. I am sad that she hasn't continued on with her Irish novels.

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6 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Unable to suspend disbelief

From the very beginning, I found it impossible to suspend the disbelief needed to accept the underlying premise of this entire novel; that a young woman, no matter how brilliant, would be able to lie and blackmail her way into a prestigious, highly competitive Innocence Project program, and then manipulate herself into the inner sanctum working on the most sensitive and crucial death row case.

This is the McDonald's of crime fiction, easy to read but leaves you feeling used and unsatisfied at the end. It's full of every trope of the trashy crime novel. Tabloid, unbelievable trash. Save your Audible credit for something better.

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3 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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A waste of a credit

Really boring from the start. I couldn’t keep listening. Felt it was going nowhere at all.

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2 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing

I have loved all the Irish novels by this author so bought this but no where near as good. A lot of suspended disbelief needed to swallow this plot! A very disappointing read.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

keep you guessing

the way the story twisted through the chapters was very smooth. Really may you not want to put it down.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan

What a good book iam so glad the cop got got just deserts .Thank you Dervla McTiernan for a good book & Thank you
Sophie Amoss ,Kate Orsini ,Michael Crouch for reading to me

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Storyline a bridge or two too far

Overall a disappointment. The premise was satisfactory but the last third of the book became just too unbelievable. Compared to the other books and short stories by this excellent author, this felt more like a Hollywood tale where all threads must be promptly tied off and all reality displaced to achieve this. A bit ho hum for me.

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  • Sharon
  • 19-11-2023

Slow start but glad I finished

Turned out this was worth hanging in for.
Would write longer review but too much 1-finger typing on here and my laptop version of audible won’t allow me to type.
Enjoy!

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  • Jacqui
  • 23-01-2023

Awesome

This story was gripping, lots of twists and turns and I really, really enjoyed it. I was so disappointed when it ended. It was one of those books that you want to get to the end of find out what happened but you don't want to finish it. I can't write it any better than to say, it was excellent.

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  • HeatherAnn
  • 06-11-2022

Twists and turns abound

I really enjoyed the Cormack Reilley series and this stand alone thriller with a complex litigation path was engrossing till the end. A super read.

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  • Overall
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  • Tina D.
  • 09-09-2022

Disappointing

Legal proceedings weren’t convincing, characters pretty one dimensional, over long. I expected better from Dervla McTiernan.

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