The Coroner
Matthew Hall
2009 Nominee
CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger
2009 Nominee
Waverton Good Read Award
31 March 2013
9780330458368Synopsis
The Coroner is the first gripping installment in Matthew Hall's twice CWA Gold Dagger nominated Coroner Jenny Cooper series, from the creator of BBC One's Keeping Faith.
When those in power hide the truth, she risks everything to reveal it.
When lawyer, Jenny Cooper, is appointed Severn Vale District Coroner, she’s hoping for a quiet life and space to recover from a traumatic divorce, but the office she inherits from the recently deceased Harry Marshall contains neglected files hiding dark secrets and a trail of buried evidence.
Could the tragic death in custody of a young boy be linked to the apparent suicide of a teenage prostitute and the fate of Marshall himself? Jenny’s curiosity is aroused. Why was Marshall behaving so strangely before he died? What injustice was he planning to uncover? And what caused his abrupt change of heart?
In the face of powerful and sinister forces determined to keep both the truth hidden and the troublesome coroner in check, Jenny embarks on a lonely and dangerous one-woman crusade for justice which threatens not only her career but also her sanity.
The Coroner is followed by the second book in the Coroner Jenny Cooper series, The Disappeared.
The Jenny Cooper novels have been adapted into a hit TV series, Coroner, made for CBC and NBC Universal starring Serinda Swan and Roger Cross.
It's a tribute to the author's skill that I read this book supposing it to be autobiographical . . . He really gets under the skin of his heroine . . . Good and imaginative writing (and some political implications) to make an outstandingly interesting first novelThe Literary Review
A compelling debutSainsburys Magazine
This big, well-executed debut novel by screenwriter and producer Matthew Hall has meaty characters and a chewy plot in the Lynda La Plante styleGuardian
