Books with author M.R. Hall

“DAD, WHAT HAPPENED TO COUSIN KATY?” “YOU REMEMBER, SMILER. YOU KILLED HER.” JENNY COOPER has a lot on her mind. Under fire from her superiors for exposing a high-level government cover-up of the disappearance of two Muslim youths, she is also haunted by the discovery that she may have been responsible for the death of one of her own family members. Her college-age son, her therapist, and her neighbor and sometimes lover all seem to be turning their backs on her, driving Jenny to increasingly give in to the temptation to escape through alcohol and pills. The discovery of a dead man lying outside a Bristol church with the sign of the cross gouged into his flesh looks to her at first like another grisly suicide. But the unexpected arrival of an enigmatic Jesuit priest reveals deeper levels of mystery. Father Lucas Starr, the chaplain of a nearby prison, has come to plead for Jenny’s intercession on behalf of one of his parishioners, who confessed to murdering Eva Donaldson, a former adult movie actress turned world-renowned anti-pornography campaigner. Persuaded by him to look at Eva’s death afresh, Jenny un-covers a sinister series of connections between Eva and the body at the church. After another tragic death, Jenny’s suspicions turn toward a powerful new global phenomenon: the politically ambitious and intoxicatingly charismatic Mission Church of God. Answering to no one but the dead, Jenny’s lone quest for justice takes her to the heart of the fight between good and evil, sex and the supernatural, and on a dark inner journey to confront ghosts that have haunted her for a lifetime.

A dense, bitterly cold fog has settled over the Wye Valley when Bristol Coroner Jenny Cooper is called to the scene of a dreadful tragedy: in the village of Blackstone Ley, a house has burned to the ground with three members of a family inside. Though evidence of foul play is quickly uncovered, it isn't long before the police investigation is drawn to a close. It seems certain that the fire was started by one of the victims, Ed Morgan, in a fit of jealous rage. But their infant son is still missing and Ed had left a message for his surviving wife, Kelly Hart, telling her that she would never find the child. As Jenny prepares the inquest, she finds herself troubled by the official version of events. What could have provoked Ed's murderous rampage? How might the other, guarded inhabitants of the village have been involved? And what could the connection be with the mysterious abduction of a little girl 10 years ago? Battling to supress grueling events in her own life, Jenny soon becomes entangled in another perplexing inquiry that may have surprising links to this one. Can she unearth Blackstone Ley's secrets, before it's too late?

A family tragedy. A buried secret. What lies hidden in the flames? A dense, bitterly cold fog has settled over the Wye Valley when Bristol Coroner Jenny Cooper is called to the scene of a dreadful tragedy: in the village of Blackstone Ley, a house has burned to the ground with three members of a family inside. Though evidence of foul play is quickly uncovered, it isn’t long before the police investigation is drawn to a close. It seems certain that the fire was started by one of the victims, Ed Morgan, in a fit of jealous rage. But their infant son is still missing, and Ed had left a message for his surviving wife, Kelly Hart, telling her that she would never find the child . . . As Jenny prepares the inquest she finds herself troubled by the official version of events. What could have provoked Ed’s murderous rampage? How might the other, guarded inhabitants of the village have been involved? And what could the connection be with the mysterious abduction of a little girl 10 years ago? Battling to suppress grueling events in her own life, Jenny soon becomes entangled in another perplexing inquiry that may have surprising links to this one. Can she unearth Blackstone Ley’s secrets, before it’s too late?

In the bestselling tradition of Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta, M. R. Hall's heroine Jenny Cooper makes her debut as a coroner with a detective's eye and a woman with a home life as complicated as her cases. In this brilliant debut, Jenny investigates the disappearance of two young Muslim students, who vanished without a trace seven years ago. The police had concluded that the boys, under surveillance for some time for suspicion of terrorism, had fled to Pakistan to traffic in the atrocities of Islamic fanaticism. Now, sufficient time has passed for the law to declare the boys legally dead. A final declaration is left up to a coroner, Jenny Cooper. As Jenny's official inquest progresses, the stench of corruption is unmistakable. Not only does it appear that British Security Services played a role, but the involvement of an American intelligence agent soon makes it clear that a vast conspiracy is in play. As Jenny builds an ever-strengthening case implicating a shocking collection of power and influence, she meets with a determined and increasingly menacing resistance. When she links the students' "vanishing" to the unidentified corpse of a beautiful young woman and the fate of a missing nuclear scientist, Jenny is forced into an arena in which she is pushed to the breaking point and beyond. She must struggle with her own inner demons while fighting a lone and desperate battle to bring an unspeakable crime to justice.

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.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..

“DAD, WHAT HAPPENED TO COUSIN KATY?” “YOU REMEMBER, SMILER. YOU KILLED HER.” JENNY COOPER has a lot on her mind. Under fire from her superiors for exposing a high-level government cover-up of the disappearance of two Muslim youths, she is also haunted by the discovery that she may have been responsible for the death of one of her own family members. Her college-age son, her therapist, and her neighbor and sometimes lover all seem to be turning their backs on her, driving Jenny to increasingly give in to the temptation to escape through alcohol and pills. The discovery of a dead man lying outside a Bristol church with the sign of the cross gouged into his flesh looks to her at first like another grisly suicide. But the unexpected arrival of an enigmatic Jesuit priest reveals deeper levels of mystery. Father Lucas Starr, the chaplain of a nearby prison, has come to plead for Jenny’s intercession on behalf of one of his parishioners, who confessed to murdering Eva Donaldson, a former adult movie actress turned world-renowned anti-pornography campaigner. Persuaded by him to look at Eva’s death afresh, Jenny un-covers a sinister series of connections between Eva and the body at the church. After another tragic death, Jenny’s suspicions turn toward a powerful new global phenomenon: the politically ambitious and intoxicatingly charismatic Mission Church of God. Answering to no one but the dead, Jenny’s lone quest for justice takes her to the heart of the fight between good and evil, sex and the supernatural, and on a dark inner journey to confront ghosts that have haunted her for a lifetime.

A MOTHER’S ONLY CHILD. A GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY. A SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH THAT COULD COST JENNY COOPER HER JOB—AND MAYBE HER LIFE.SEVERN VALE DISTRICT CORONER JENNY COOPER signed up for the job imagining a quiet life in the English countryside—a chance to repair her relationship with her college-age son and to conquer a frightening addiction to pills that emerged in the wake of her painful divorce. But then Amira Jamal shows up at her office demanding an inquest. Seven years ago, Jamal’s son vanished along with his friend, and the boys, both Muslim university students, have now been officially declared dead. As Jenny begins to investigate their disappearance, she discovers a deepening mystery that appears to involve not only British Security Services but also a shady American agent, an unidentified body, and a missing nuclear scientist. In the face of determined resistance from an Establishment that would prefer the grim truth remain buried, Jenny must fight to control her own inner demons and to bring unspeakable crimes to justice.

In the bestselling tradition of Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta, M. R. Hall's Jenny Cooper makes her debut as a coroner with a detective's eye and a woman with a home life as complicated as her cases.Jenny investigates the case of two young Muslim students who vanished seven years ago -- sufficient time for her to declare them legally dead. The police had concluded that they had fled to Pakistan to traffic in the atrocities of Islamic fanaticism. But as her official inquest progresses, Jenny detects the unmistakable stench of corruption.