In the depths of a frozen winter, Coroner Jenny Cooper is called to the scene of a devastating house fire that has claimed the lives of Ed Morgan and his two step-daughters in the isolated hamlet of Blackstone Ley.

The police look no further when they discover the message Ed left for his wife, Kelly, telling her that he set the fire as revenge for her infidelity and that she will never find their infant son.

As Jenny digs into Blackstone Ley’s murky past, she uncovers a history that begs more questions.

Hall shows with aplomb that a coroner is just as able to become a detective (and, in this case, advance into the world of spooks) as the forensic pathologists of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs.

Sunday Times