Published: 2022 1. First lines. 2. Cover: Harper Collins 3. Rotunda University of Virginia [CC BY 2.0] via Wikimedia 4.
Law student Hannah Rokeby weedles her way into a University of Virginia project that involves law students volunteering to help free prison inmates who they think may have been wrongfully imprisoned. The Innocence Project is working on a case that Hannah has a personal interest in, but for the wrong reasons. She actually wants to derail the project to ensure the prisoner stays in jail, because her mother Laura wrote in a diary as a teenager that he had killed the man she was in love with.
First Rule: Make them like you.
Second Rule: Make them need you.
Third Rule: Make them pay.
This book is a good read with a complex plot that moves along relentlessly, keeping suspense high. There were parts that I found unbelievable towards the end (e.g. scenes in the court). Arts Hub loved the book: “McTiernan has produced another stunning psychological thriller that can only serve to reinforce her position as one of Australia’s most talented modern crime writers.”
Quotes:
“Hannah thought about money as they walked. Thought about how it insulated you, wrapped you up in a bubble of beauty. Thought about what a person might do to stay inside that bubble.”
“This idea (the murder rule) that people should be fully responsible for the consequences of their actions, even if those consequences are unintended, within reason.”
BOOK SNAPS - for readers 