The Coroner (Coroner Jenny Cooper Series) [Paperback]

This review is from: The Coroner (Paperback)
I did wonder at the start whether this was a thriller or a text book on the role and duties of a coroner, but luckily that didn't last, and I was soon drawn into the well written story. So many books in this genre are set in the States it was refreshing to find one that was set in familiar places and actually applied to us in the UK.

I was intrigued by the subplot which kept me guessing right to the end of the book, and probably well into The Disappeared the next book in the series. Our heroine is full of temazipan and doubts (a far cry from Scarpetta) but somehow muddles through.

This book was interesting and informative, and I can't help thinking that if nothing else, it is useful to have a better insight into the work a coroner does. I was a bit surprised to read that according to ancient charter an inquest is never held in a pub, as towards the end of the 19th century the inquest on someone in my family history was held in the local hostelry.

After finishing the book I was surprised to find I actually cared what happened to the characters next which is quite unusual for me.

According to the dust jacket, this is M.R. Hall's first novel and it's a good one. Rather intriguingly choosing as a male author to focus on a main female character, he pulls it off well. Jenny Cooper, 42, just short of beautiful, has had some kind of a nervous breakdown following the acrimonious collapse of her marriage. Choosing to leave her career as a child lawyer, she takes a job as a coroner in the Severn valley and moves into a rural cottage on the borders of Wales and England.

But the previous coroner died of a heart attack in bed, and has left a couple of messy cases: the suicide in custody of a 15 year old boy, and the apparent death of a 15 year old girl through a heroin overdose. Dogged by an unco-operative assistant, NHS pathologists, local authority bureaucrats and an assortment of social workers, Jenny fights to find out what really happened to these kids and why everyone is so keen to have these cases closed.

I'm not someone who reads every crime book out there, but I do enjoy them occasionally and found this a refreshing change from the genre ennui I so often encounter. There is a freshness to the story, the characters and the writing, and Hall does a fine job of holding the balance between the case and Jenny's troubled personal life. There were times where I felt that he perhaps went too far in making her such an emotional cripple - pill-popping every half an hour, drinking her way through two bottles of wine an evening, barely eating with a vague hint of anorexia at the start where she admits to making herself throw up because she doesn't want to be fat - that it didn't quite make sense that she also manages to not just hold down a responsible job, but also deliver some extremely hard-hitting court-room speeches.

However this is a small flaw and not one which in any way spoils the enjoyment of the book. Intelligent, unobtrusively written, the story twists and turns, revealing secrets and hidden motivations as it goes. A far cry from the gore-fest that so many crime novels have become, this instead relies on plot to keep the reader gripped, and though there is sex, it's glossed over rather than indulged. And the acid test - would I read another Hall novel? Yes, definitely - though personally I think I'd prefer that he move on rather than turn the coroner into the start of a series. Recommended.

The tag line on the front of this book is 'I'm a Coroner. I spend my life laying things to rest'. We are introduced to the new Coroner of Severn Vale. Her name is Jenny Cooper, newly divorced and recovering from a breakdown, her teenage son lives with his father and new girlfriend and it is made clear from the very start of the book that Jenny has some deep childhood trauma in her life that has affected her personality and made her doubt herself and her abilities.

OK so we have the usual maverick type person, knocking back tranquilizers and wine as if they are going out of fashion, full of angst and generally falling apart and I felt a weariness of spirit come upon me and thought Do I really really want to read this? Do I really want to end up feeling as if I too would like to put my head in the gas oven? (As I am all electric decided there was no danger so on I went). I persevered and glad I did as I gradually became drawn into the story. Jenny's curiosity is aroused by the previous coroner's behaviour prior to his death and the fact he was trying to get to the bottom of the death of a teenager who had committed suicide in a young offender's institution. Then there was the drug related death of a young teenage girl, another suicide, seems a clear open and shut case, but as with all good crime stories, we begin to doubt that all is as it seems and Jenny decides to investigate further.

Once again, the usual stock characters pop up, the local businessman and Member of the Council, obnoxious and pompous who does not want Jennie to get involved, he is clearly on the make and has been taking backhanders from the owners of the offender's facility who want to build a bigger and better commercially run building elsewhere; the policeman, ambitious and ruthless who has skimmed over the investigation into the teenage girl's drug induced death; a slimy lawyer and an investigative journalist seeking a good story.

As she digs deeper into the mystery and cover up nasty things begin to happen to Jenny and her friends and her new lover, but the reader knows that ultimately she will find the guilty party. She does but it is not quite such a clear cut ending as normal and we are left with characters who are obviously going to reappear in the next story of what we are told is 'a fantastic new series heroine who takes on the establishment in a search of truth and justice whilst dealing with a very broken personal life'.

I always feel if you are going to use a cliche or two, then you may as well go the whole hog and The Coroner certainly does not hold back in this regard. And yet, and yet - I found myself becoming more and more engrossed with this story, I began to feel great sympathy for Jennie and though there were times when I felt like screaming DON'T DO THAT as I could see disaster just around the corner, ultimately this turned into a real page turner and one that I thoroughly enjoyed, despite my initial doubts. The final scene in the court room was very exciting and extremely filmic and I did my usual trick of casting actors in the various roles - already have an idea for Jennie - and I find that I can recommend this book to you as a good start to the series and I am looking forward to the next one.

I had assumed, that like JK Rowling, M R Hall was a woman as the book is certainly written from a woman's viewpoint and is sympathetic to Jenny's unhappiness and vulnerability. However, I have just checked and have discovered that he is "a screenwriter and producer and former criminal barrister, a profession he left due to a constitutional inability to prosecute".

So now we know.