The Disappeared by M R Hall

The Disappeared (2009) is the second book in the Coroner Jenny Cooper series.

Hardback:  Two young British students vanish without trace.  The police tell their parents that the boys had been under surveillance, that it was likely they left the country to pursue their dangerous new ideals.

Seven years later, Nazim's grief-stricken mother is still unconvinced.  Unable to understand why the police failed to investigate the suspicious circumstances surrounding the boys' disappearance, or the mysterious involvement of the Security Services, she has exhausted every avenue in her search for the truth.  Jenny Cooper is her last hope.

Finally established as the Severn Vale District Coroner and with the ghosts of her past banished to the sidelines, Jenny launches an investigation which reveals secrets from the past that powerful and corrupt figures have worked hard to suppress.

But how is the theft of the body of a young woman from the hospital morgue linked to the case?  What is the connection to Maybury nuclear power station?  And just who is Alec McAvoy, the bewitchingly charismatic and disgraced former criminal lawyer who seems to know so much more than he reveals?

As the pressure mounts to silence her increasingly dangerous and politically sensitive inquiry, events from the past collide with the present and propel Jenny into a desperate and life-threatening struggle for justice.  And how could she have known that by unravelling the mysteries of the disappeared she would begin to unearth her own dark secrets?

About the author:  M R Hall is a screenwriter, producer and former criminal barrister.  The Coroner (2009) is his first novel and was nominated for the Crime Writer's Association Gold Dagger in the best novel category.  Educated at Hereford Cathedral School and Worcester College, Oxford, he lives in Monmouthshire with his wife and two sons.  Aside from writing, his main passion is the preservation and planting of woodland.  In his spare moments, he is mostly to be found amongst trees.

Other books in the Jenny Cooper series are

The Coroner (2009)
The Redeemed (2011)
The Flight (2012)

The Innocent (2012) - a free Kindle edition

The author gives us his insight into The Disappeared:



Rating:  5/5