Customer Reviews

The Flight (Coroner Jenny Cooper Series)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Some people love flying and enjoy the thrill of it all, some can take it or leave it, and for others, myself included, it's all too easy to think about how you are thousands of feet up in the air inside a metal tube that didn't ought to stay there really as far as you can tell! Being a nervous air passenger myself with a tendency to grip the armrests, or the hand of the person next to me (usually only if I know them already) rather tightly, and having read the synopsis of this novel, it was with not a little trepidation that I began reading...

`The Flight' is the fourth novel in the `Jenny Cooper' series written by M. R. Hall. We first met Jenny in `The Coroner', as she arrived to take up her position as the new coroner for the Severn Vale district. Now established in her role, and having taken on and shaken up a good few people in the establishment as well as others along the way, she is back again to tackle the fall-out from a major incident that occurs just outside her patch.

Flight 189 from Heathrow, and destined for JFK, plunges into the Severn Estuary, and the body of one of the passengers, a little ten-year-old girl named Amy Patterson, together with that of a sailor, are both washed ashore in Jenny's district. As a senior official coroner is appointed to deal with the deaths of all the hundreds on board the flight, Jenny must determine the cause of death of the sailor, whose boat seems to have been sunk as the plane hit. However, as she tries to find answers to all the questions that are raised, she finds that doors are closed and lips are sealed due to the extremely secretive nature of the main investigation into the plane crash. But how could the crash have happened, with the highly sophisticated computerised systems now employed on such a plane leaving virtually no room for error by the pilot or his officer? Was this an horrendous accident, or is there some deeper conspiracy here? And is there a link between some of the passengers who were on flight 189?

Jenny is still haunted by the memories she has uncovered from her childhood, and the responsibility she feels is what drives her in this case to want to know, on behalf of `the hapless dead, the innocents', what caused their deaths. The somewhat turbulent working relationship between Jenny and her officer, Alison, is continued in this story, and there is once again a compelling and convincing inquest. This is a complex, intricate multi-layered story, with an investigation that explores a frightening possibility. The author has evidently done much research into modern air transport. Jenny finds herself once again in an almost impossible situation as she takes on the might of the establishment. It's difficult to comment much more without revealing the twists and turns of the story, which I don't want to do here, as the thrill and enjoyment is in discovering them as you read the novel. Suffice it to say the tension builds dramatically towards the nail-biting climax of the story.

I must admit that I am already a fan of this series of novels, and I think Jenny is a super character. Right from meeting her in the first novel, I liked the fact that she has her own difficult personal issues to overcome, and that sometimes these interrupt and interfere with her work. She is intelligent and quick, but flawed, and very human, haunted by certain events in her past and trying to cope in the face of anxiety and panic attacks, and yet she is determined to do a proper job at all times, to fight doggedly for the truth and to keep pushing people to the limits to get answers, whoever she comes up against, and I like her for all these reasons. This is another dramatic, intriguing instalment in the Jenny Cooper series. Looking forward to number 5 already.

As for holidays, well, we'll hop in the car and stick to the UK this year... '
4.5/5

The story would have been far more suspenseful if the author and/or editor had trimmed off a lot of the fat. As it was, the psychiatric problems, the childhood traumas, the assistant's love life, the long-winded aeronautical explanations, the overload of characters and the endless speculation all made it a painful slog.

I also found the plot to be totally implausible including the ludicrous intervention of the Michael character on the Airbus flight.

Moreover doesn't this coroner have other clients - I'd hate to be one of the regular stiffs waiting for her to let them bury me.

Hall is an accomplished writer. But he is getting into a rut. I don't imagine I am alone in being somewhat irritated by his main character, Jenny Cooper, and her really rather tedious psychiatric problems. But it may be those are now at an end and the next volume won't have to have so many pages devoted to all the pills she takes.

My real concern about these books is that they are becoming much too formulaic. In all of them the civil service and all other holders of judicial office are portrayed as being incompetently evil while only our nutty heroine seeks justice. It is rather reminiscent of a very bad television series called something like "Judge John Deed" the hero of which was a High Court judge who broke all the rules (frequently sleeping with witnesses or counsel) and who was constantly being spied on by a sinister official from the Lord Chancellor's office.

I hope Mr Hall will be brave enough to have different villains in his next book. I think he should also try adding a little bit of humour to his work. Very few novels pass the test of time without having the odd funny passage in them.

I feel sure Mr Hall can rise above his publisher's demand for more and more of the same and will, very soon, produce a really excellent novel. I wish him luck (and, for the time being at least, will continue buying his books).

Charles

The fourth book in the series follows coroner Jenny Cooper as she investigates the death of a sailor, presumably as a result of a plane crash. The body of a 10 year old girl, who appears to have survived the plane crash, is also found washed up. As Jenny tries to connect the dots, the official investigation into the fate of the world's largest high-tech commercial airliner appears to be doing its best to stop her.

Although a little heavy in technical detail at times, an intelligent well written plot with a likable protagonist will keep you turning the pages. Don't be put off he you haven't read the earlier books in the series either; this was my first M.R. Hall book, and it certainly won't be my last.

I only finished this novel because it was a book group read. I found it to be a long, uninvolving trudge through what amounted to a technical manual strung together with manufactured paranoia. The characters were weak stereotypes and any emotional context was so distant as to be negligible. Consequently, I found it difficult to care about the eventual outcome.
This novel has been shortlisted for a CWA Gold Dagger Award in 2012. I can only infer that this year must have been a poor year for crime writing if this represents one of the top four examples.

An airbus-380 crash lands in the Severn estuary with the loss of all lives. Coroner Jenny Cooper is called in to investigate the deaths of two bodies found in the estuary, that of a young girl who was on the fated flight and that of a sailor. When a life-jacket of the type issued to the sailor is recovered and found to have been deliberately cut and forensic examination reveals traces of plastic explosive then Jenny starts to suspect those involved with the accident investigation are hiding information.

As the story unfolds it becomes increasingly complex and it is not until the final few chapters where it becomes clear which of the interested parties are attempting to hide the truth or what their motives are for so doing.

I enjoyed this novel on one level but the thing that let it down for me was the apparent fragility of the lead character Jenny Cooper. Fuelled with prescribed medication, trips to her psychiatrist and a past history with more highs and lows than a roller-coaster, I was far from convinced that she would be capable of every-day tasks let alone functioning as a district coroner. This is however the fourth in a series of Jenny Cooper books and I suspect that reading the series in order might explain her background and thus make her a more believable character.

I will not summarise the book here - as others have done a good job of that - but I will say that I found it the most un_put_downable of the series about Jenny Cooper.

There is more to the news headlines when the Airbus crashes in the Severn Estuary - and Jenny the district coroner sets about the difficult task of sides-stepping political forces to find the cause. I am delighted to read another book set in my own part of the country - and pleased that the main character has got to grips with her personal problems from previous books. This is book to read with your feet firmly on the ground - and if you live in the greater Bristol area so much the better.

Picked the book up in a charity shop because flight interests me and I had enjoyed the TV programme on the West London Coroner. I did not know MR Hall as a writer. A good set of ingredients well mixed and cooked. Read whole book in a day so must have been a page turner with good writing flow. Main interest was the up to date flight background and a thought about how so many planes do stay up in the sky without problems. Cannot say I am drawn to read more of the Jenny Cooper series.

Well, I wasn't blown away by this one as a coroner seeks the truth about a crashed airline. What appears to be a tragic crash may actually be something else and coroner Jenny Cooper is determined to find out what happened, despite many warnings off.
Started well but the pace flagged and the plot was a little daft. Not badly written but just missing that 'certain something' to make it special. Nice to see a UK based character, packed with plenty of personal issues and flaws but it still didn't quite hit the mark for me.

kept me on my toes from page one, very good read well reccomended., the posibility of it happening for real scary