The third stunning Jenny Cooper novel from the author of The Coronerand The Disappeared. Jenny’s lone quest for justice will take her to the dark heart of an
establishment who wish to silence her, and on an inner journey to
confront ghosts that have haunted her for a lifetime. For Jenny Cooper
answers to no one but the dead . . .
The body of a dead man is discovered in an overgrown cemetery in Bristol, the sign of the cross gouged into his flesh. At first it seems to coroner Jenny Cooper that all the evidence points to a horrific, if routine, suicide.
Then an enigmatic young priest, Father Lucas Starr, arrives on Jenny’s doorstep, entreating her to hold an inquest into the death of Eva Donaldson, a high profile political campaigner whose past life continued to haunt her. A young man, Paul Craven, has recently been sentenced for Eva’s brutal murder. But despite Craven’s conviction and the evidence against him, Father Lucas is convinced of the man’s innocence.
M. R. Hall lives and works in the Wye valley in South Wales. Born in London in 1967, he was educated at Hereford Cathedral School and Worcester College, Oxford, where he graduated in law.
During a career at the Bar, working mostly in the field of criminal law, he tried to learn the craft of screen writing, eventually getting his first commission in television writing an episode of the ITV hit series, Kavanagh QC starring John Thaw. He went on to write further episodes and shortly afterwards was commissioned to create a series for the new Channel Five, Wing And A Prayer. The first season earned him a BAFTA nomination in the best series category.
For over ten years Matthew has been a screen writer and producer, and has written over forty hours of prime time drama for BBC1 and ITV.
His debut novel, The Coroner, was published by Pan Macmillan in the UK in 2009 and has been nominated for the Crime Writer’s Association Gold Dagger in the best novel category.
The second novel in the series, The Disappeared, was published in the USA by Simon and Schuster on December 1st 2009 and in the UK by Pan Macmillan in January 2010. The third novel in the series, The Redeemed, is out in April 2011.
Translation rights to both The Coroner and The Disappeared have been sold across the world.
Matthew spends much of his spare time looking after his sixteen acres of woodland and working for the conservation of the countryside.
