Talking Location With … M J Robotham – VENICE
Mystery set in Virginia
22nd August 2022
The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan, mystery set in Virginia.
#audiobook
A well plotted novel that builds with a good few twists and turns.
Hannah Rokeby is a trainee lawyer and she has got herself onto the Innocence Project, a collective working on cases where there has a been a miscarriage of justice. She specifically wants to work on the case of Michael Dandridge, who was sentenced several years ago for the rape and murder of a young woman. Right from the off it is clear that Hannah is a determined young woman, who doesn’t baulk at crossing boundaries. She has a mission and come hell or high water, she is going to do what she needs to do. She is sly, she is determined, she lets nothing get in her way and these qualities serve her purpose very well.
The reason for her mission is largely set out in the diary of her now alcoholic mother, Laura – penned in the mid 1990s – which is presented as part of the whole narrative.
I listened to this as an audiobook, and it is well narrated. I feeling the billing of the book as a thriller is a bit tenuous but it certainly falls into mystery category and the author pens a well plotted storyline, that moves smoothly back and forth. It is hard to say more without offering spoilers. I enjoyed listening to it and was always keen to pick up where I left off, but I think there was something about the story that didn’t altogether resonate, maybe the characters were just a little thin, or maybe that fact Hannah got herself in on the project just felt a touch contrived.
Overall a good listen. Good but perhaps not an altogether outstanding read for me. Setting isn’t particularly strong.
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