In conversation with Dervla McTiernan

Listen to this ANU/Canberra Times Meet the Author conversation on the Experience ANU SoundCloud channel

Best-selling author, Dervla McTiernan, will be in conversation with Chris Hammer on Dervla's new novel, The Murder Rule, her first ever standalone thriller.

Hannah Rokeby looks, on the surface, like an idealistic law student determined to free an innocent man from death row. But she knows something about the man's past that no one else does, and she will stop at nothing to make sure he stays in prison where he belongs. She is willing to break all the rules. But is it justice she serves ... or vengeance?

"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".

The Murder Rule is 'Diabolically clever, highly compelling and deeply moving.' Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of The Force and The Border

Dervla McTiernan's debut novel, The Ruin, a critically acclaimed international bestseller, won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, the Davitt Award for Best Adult Fiction and the Barry Award for Best Original Paperback. Dervla's second book, The Scholar, debuted into the Nielsen Bookscan Top 5 on release in 2019, and her third, The Good Turn, went straight to no.1, Dervla's books have sold over 400,000 copies in Australia and New Zealand alone.

Born in County Cork, Ireland, to a family of seven, Dervla practised as a corporate lawyer for twelve years. Following the global financial crisis, she moved with her family to Western Australia, where she now lives with her husband and two children.

Chris Hammer was a journalist for more than thirty years. His crime fiction novels, Scrublands (2018), Silver (2019) and Trust (2020), featuring troubled journalist Martin Scarsden and his partner Mandalay Blonde, which have won multiple awards in Australia and overseas, constitute a powerful, compelling and original trilogy. His latest novel , Treasure and Dirt (2021) an engrossing, standalone, outback noir thriller, has been an international bestseller.

The vote of thanks will be given by Cellena Connolly-Moynihan, the Second Secretary at the Embassy of Ireland.

This event is in association with Harry Hartog Bookshop. Books will be available for purchase on the evening in the Cultural Centre foyer. Pre-event book signings will be available from 5.30pm, and available again after the event.

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Apodcast will be made available after the event.