H for Hall

For this week´s ABC-meme I have decided to revisit M.R. Hall, The Coroner (2009).

When Jenny was eleven, she saw her first dead body.

“The first dead body Jenny ever saw was her grandfather´s. She had watched her grandmother, sobbing into a folded handkerchief, draw the lids down over his empty eyes and then, as her mother reached out to comfort her, sharply push the proffered hand away. It was a reaction she could never forget: accusatory, vicious and utterly instinctive.”

It is not her last, however, because many years later she is appointed coroner. An important step forward for a woman who has just gone through a divorce and a breakdown, and who is still dependent on tranquillizers.

Are you curious? And would you like to know why I gave this British debut five stars in March? Then visit my first post about The Coroner.

See Maxine´s review (which made me so curious I couldn´t wait to read the book).

M.R. Hall´s second novel about Jenny Cooper, The Disappeared, is well on its way and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.