Book description
A vulnerable boy hangs himself inside a secure young offenders' centre.
A teenage girl is found dead of a heroin overdose. Then, after dealing
with these two cases, Coroner Harry Marshall suddenly dies, apparently
from natural causes. Jenny Cooper - freshly divorced and recovering from
a minor breakdown - is now the coroner for the Severn Vale. As she
embarks on a new life, she cannot escape the demons of her past: an
egotistical ex-husband with a new girlfriend, an estranged son and an
increasing reliance on antidepressants. Jenny's curiosity is quickly
aroused by Marshall's puzzling behaviour before his death. What
injustice was he planning to uncover? And what caused his abrupt change
of heart? Jenny is determined to investigate further, but in the face of
bureaucratic resistance and aggressive journalists, how much pressure
can she cope with? How far is she willing to go in search of the truth .
. .? And how much will she be forced to sacrifice?
M. R. Hall is a screenwriter and producer and former criminal
barrister, a profession he left due to a constitutional inability to
prosecute. The Coroner is his first novel. Educated at Hereford
Cathedral School and Worcester College, Oxford, he lives in the Wye
Valley in Monmouthshire with his wife, journalist Patricia Carswell,
and two sons. Aside from writing, his main passion is the preservation
and planting of woodland. In his spare moments, he is mostly to be
found amongst trees.
