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Dervla McTiernan

About This Author
Reviewed

Read Time

7 min read

Our age bandAdult
Reader rating
4.2 · 1,559 Amazon ratings, as of Nov 2026
reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
$24.00 on AmazonAudiobook
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Front cover of Three Reasons for Revenge: A Novel

Our review

Three Reasons for Revenge

Three Reasons for Revenge Review: Trade Praise, Mixed Listener Reactions

by Dervla McTiernan

Dervla McTiernan's Three Reasons for Revenge follows Detective Sergeant Judith Lee as three tailored packages wreck three lives. According to BookBrowse, Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, while listeners are split between hooked and put off by the darkness.

$24.00 on Amazon
Our age band: Adultchildhood abuse and its aftermath · a predator father who kills the mother of two sisters

LuvemBooks Verdict

Best for

Readers who want an unsettling, character-led crime thriller with a psychological core, built around a revenge puzzle and a detective whose own past is part of the story.

Worth it if

Worth reading if you enjoy a plot where three separate stories slowly merge into one diabolical design, and you can stay with a larger cast before the connections click.

Skip if

Skip it if you want a light mystery or dislike stories built on abuse and its aftermath, or if you need a protagonist who reacts openly rather than pushing her feelings into the case.

Reception that we could trace leans positive: praise the plotting and the gripping pace, while one blogger's reservation concerns the lead's emotional restraint. The BookBrowse page relays trade praise but is largely publisher-facing.

Sources: debbish.com, theglossbookclub.com, bookbrowse.com
4.2from 1,559 Amazon ratings, as of Nov 2026— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score

Ask LuvemBooks

Was this helpful?

Three Reasons for Revenge is a revenge thriller in which Detective Sergeant Judith Lee investigates three tailored packages, each built to wreck a different life. Trade reviewers praise its craft. The caveat is a darkness some listeners found too much, and one found the opening slow.
Is it worth reading?
It delivers on its hook for most of the reviewers we found. According to BookBrowse, Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, and one Audible listener could not stop listening and was gobsmacked by the reveal.
Similar books
The sources compare it with the work of Liz Nugent and Karin Slaughter, so fans of those authors have the clearest reason to pick it up. Among related titles, Dervla McTiernan's own What Happened to Nina? is the nearest by author, and I See You by Elle Gray is a psychological thriller on LuvemBooks. In the Woods by Tana French and The Chain by Adrian McKinty are other character-driven crime picks.
Who should read this?
It suits readers happy to follow a larger cast through three interweaving storylines in a revenge puzzle. It is built around childhood trauma and abuse, so it fits people comfortable with those subjects. The reviews do not point to it for anyone seeking an easy mystery.
What age is it for?
It is written for adults, not teens or younger readers. The reasons are its murder plot and its focus on childhood abuse and trauma, which an Audible listener discusses. No source we found gives a recommended age.
About Dervla McTiernan
Dervla McTiernan is an Irish-Australian crime novelist. She is the author of seven novels, including the four-book Cormac Reilly series and three standalone novels, as well as audio novellas.
What content should I know about?
The sources point to a predator father who killed the sisters' mother and a leaked video used as a weapon as central to the book. One Audible listener, a self-described McTiernan fan, found it too dark for their taste. Murder and an arrest for it also drive the plot.
What is Judith Lee's personal story?
An Audible listener singles out Judith's off-duty life, including a difficult relationship with her mother and recurring nightmares that make her fear a capacity for violence. The same blogger found the Judith and Jack characters vividly real and liked the character enough to hope for more books. How her private fears intersect with the case is part of the draw for character-led readers.
Summarize this book

Summarize this book

Alexis Turner reports an assault at a police station and vanishes the same day. Three identical packages then arrive at the doors of a psychologist, a socialite and a struggling single father, each gift tailored to ruin its recipient. Judith Lee investigates, and the story braids her investigation with notes between two sisters, Renee and Margaux, who went into care.

Follow up

How is the story structured?
Is it part of a series?

Synthesized from verified book data & published reviews · How we review

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What would you like to know about Three Reasons for Revenge?

Answers come from our editorial notes on this book. If we haven't covered something, we'll say so.

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Our Review

We review the evidence: published critics, reader verdicts and BookTube reviews, gathered and weighed with AI assistance and edited by LuvemBooks, rather than one reader's first-hand take.

Dervla McTiernan's Three Reasons for Revenge earns attention for a hook that, according to BookBrowse, Publishers Weekly called "moody, character-driven", with Library Journal, as quoted on BookBrowse, praising its threads "expertly woven into a satisfying whole". One caveat from a listener is a slow start among many characters who don't seem to converge at first.

What is Three Reasons for Revenge about?

Alexis Turner walks into a police station to report an assault and, by the end of the day, has vanished. Soon after, three identical packages arrive at three very different doors: a respected psychologist's home, a socialite's mansion and a struggling single father's run-down apartment.
Each gift is tailored to its recipient and built to wreck that person's life. Detective Sergeant Judith Lee, smart and experienced, is called in to investigate the attacks.
The publisher's pitch is that she is soon "being forced to play" the game she is investigating.
It came out from William Morrow in July 2026.

What reviewers found in Three Reasons for Revenge

BookBrowse relays two trade verdicts. Publishers Weekly, as quoted on BookBrowse, said McTiernan "keeps readers deliciously off-balance" and that the book "will keep readers up all night."
Library Journal, as quoted on BookBrowse, called it a well-paced, complex thriller and recommended it for fans of Liz Nugent and Karin Slaughter.
The debbish.com blogger singles out the single father Jack and his son Cam, who she says feel "very real" despite limited page time.
The debbish.com blogger also admired how Judith picks the case apart by tracing the gun and its owner, a foster carer whose many foster children all knew where the guns were kept. The investigation, in her telling, is a steady accumulation of suspects rather than a leap.

How do the plot and structure work?

According to debbish.com, the first gift is a leaked video of a psychologist named Walker, who is soon found dead. A note bearing Judith's name is at the scene, and she removes it as evidence.
Jack's package contains the gun used to shoot Walker, and he is arrested for murder.
The third target is Jack's best friend, which tells Judith that the acts of revenge are linked. Between chapters run notes between two sisters, Renee and Margaux, who went into care after their predator father killed their mother.
The debbish.com blogger also praises Judith's off-duty life, including a difficult relationship with her mother and fears that her own recurring nightmares point to a capacity for violence.

Is Three Reasons for Revenge worth reading?

Weighing these reviews, the tension is between a tightly plotted revenge puzzle and a darker, more disturbing subject. Publishers Weekly and Library Journal point to craft and pacing.
Listeners on Audible split: one could not stop listening and was stunned by the reveal, while another found the opening slow, with many characters who did not seem to converge.
Another Audible listener found it entertaining. A different listener, a self-described faithful McTiernan fan, found it creepy and too dark for their taste.
That points the book towards readers who want an unsettling, character-led crime story with a psychological core, and away from anyone who wants a light mystery or dislikes stories built on abuse and its aftermath.
The debbish.com blogger hopes it becomes a series because she liked Judith Lee. Readers who prefer a long-running Cormac Reilly-style detective may be interested in this novel.
The sources compare it with Liz Nugent and Karin Slaughter, so fans of those authors have the clearest reason to pick it up.

Sources & Further Reading

The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.

  1. Cited in this review
  2. 1
    Summary and Reviews of Three Reasons for Revenge by Dervla McTiernan

    bookbrowse.com

  3. Further reading
  4. 2
    Dervla McTiernan — author profile

    Dervla McTiernan, LuvemBooks

  5. 3
    Three Reasons for Revenge by Dervla McTiernan | Gripping New Crime Thriller

    dervlamctiernan.com

  6. 4
    Book review: Three Reasons for Revenge by Dervla McTiernan - Debbish

    debbish.com

  7. 5
    Three Reasons for Revenge Audiobook by Dervla McTiernan

    audible.com

  8. 6
    theglossbookclub.com

    theglossbookclub.com

Age & Reading Level

Our age band

Adult

Our age band groups books for browsing; it isn't an age a review gave.

Browse all adult books

Content to know about

childhood abuse and its aftermath
a predator father who kills the mother of two sisters
murder and a wrongful arrest
a leaked video used as a weapon

Best for: Written for adults; the sources point to murder and childhood abuse as the reasons it is not for younger readers.

Skip if you want a light mystery or dislike stories built on abuse and its aftermath.

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Curated picks for readers who enjoyed Three Reasons for Revenge, with our reasoning for each match.

More by Dervla McTiernan

On Amazon

What Happened to Nina?

Dervla McTiernan

McTiernan standalone built on domestic suspicion rather than a police hunt: a young woman vanishes and her family and her boyfriend's family turn on each other.

This standalone swaps the detective-led structure for domestic suspense: Nina disappears, and as the search drags on her parents and her boyfriend's family begin accusing each other. It shows a different side of McTiernan's writing, built on grief and mistrust inside two households. It suits readers who came for the psychological pressure more than the procedural detail.

If you liked Three Reasons for Revenge

In our catalogue

I See You

Elle Gray

FBI agent Pax Arrington hunts a killer whose crimes are staged for personal impact. Matches the made-to-measure menace of the packages, at a faster, pulpier pace.

On Amazon

The Chain

Adrian McKinty

Ordinary people are coerced into harming strangers by someone who has studied them. Matches the tailored-cruelty engine and the darkness that split this book's listeners.

On Amazon

In the Woods

Tana French

Dublin detective investigates a child's murder in the woods where his own friends vanished years before. Irish crime, damaged investigator, slow-burning dread.

Not your thing?

In our catalogue

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

Benjamin Stevenson

For readers the darkness put off: a comic whodunit that keeps the murder puzzle but swaps dread for jokes and a chatty narrator at a lethal family reunion.

Related News

Easy Tiger Lands TV Rights to McTiernan's Three Reasons for Revenge

Colin From Accounts producer Easy Tiger has won TV rights to Dervla McTiernan's thriller Three Reasons for Revenge, with Shaun Grant set to write the screenplay.

Nov 5, 2026

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