The Disappeared: A Novel (Jenny Cooper) [Hardcover]

M. R. Hall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2009 | Series: Jenny Cooper

Coroner Jenny Cooper takes on the corrupt establishment of England's investigative institutions, fighting a lone battle for justice.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Still raw from an acrimonious divorce, former lawyer Jenny Cooper pops pills to control anxiety as she slowly adjusts to her new career as the coroner for the Severn Vale District, near Bristol, England, in Hall's solid U.S. debut. When a distraught mother asks Cooper to hold an inquest to declare her son legally dead, Cooper is hesitant to take the case. Nazim Jamal and a friend disappeared seven years earlier while at university and, according to the police, probably fled to Afghanistan to join al-Qaeda at the urging of a radical mosque. Nazim's mother is adamant her son was not an extremist. As Cooper's investigation broadens, she's met with resistance not only from the police but also MI5, who claim Nazim's disappearance may have national security implications. Hall (The Coroner) creates an appealingly flawed heroine, but struggles with pacing and the difficult task of precisely defining the coroner's role in solving crimes. (Dec.)
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From Booklist

The second appearance of Briton Jenny Cooper, Severn Vale District coroner, comes hot on the heels of her debut in The Coroner (2009). Continuing to struggle with demons from her past, Jenny relies on prescription meds and therapy to keep her work life steady. That’s a particularly tall order this time when an inquest she’s conducting on the death of a young Muslim student puts her at odds with both MI5 and the local police. With an assistant more loyal to the cops than to the coroner, and a disreputable attorney playing on her anxieties, Cooper is definitely struggling; the boy’s death may have been murder, and the integrity of her office is at stake. The pressure intensifies when the dead student’s mother is found murdered. A bit too tenative about her investigative role to be aligned with classic female American private eyes Warshawski or Millhone, Cooper, an intriguingly flawed and appealing character, is more like Lynda La Plante’s British copper Anna Travis. A series to watch. --Stephanie Zvirin

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (December 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439156980
• ISBN-13: 978-1439156988
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,527,707 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

M. R. Hall, a screenwriter, producer and former criminal barrister, a profession he left due to a constitutional inability to prosecute, is author of The Coroner. Educated at Hereford Cathedral School and Worcester College, Oxford, he lives in the Wye Valley in Monmouthshire with his wife, journalist Patricia Carswell, and their 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mixed feelings, June 9, 2010

By 

Silly Sister (South Carolina) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Disappeared: A Novel (Jenny Cooper) (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I sort of had to force myself to finish this one. There wasn't anything wrong with the writing, or the subject matter, and I think that given a different main character the book would have been interesting simply because it introduces the US reader to the way a coroner functions in Great Britain, which is very different from what we are familiar with. But even that made me feel a bit removed from this as a work of fiction. While it was informative, I couldn't get too involved in the mystery without being able to understand Coroner Cooper's duties and anticipate the significance of the clues she unearthed and what she would be able to do with them, or not. It was a bit frustrating.

And speaking of Coroner Jenny Cooper: I absolutely could not like that woman. She was weak and self absorbed and so lacking in judgment and confidence (and maternal instinct) that I actively disliked her. She was popping pills every time she encountered the slightest rough patch, was digging up and beating herself over the head with old relationships, letting her son down again and again (although he was nearly as unpleasant as she) and using authority in the place of wisdom. As I said, if there had been a different main character it could have made all the difference. Jenny Cooper would have to undergo a major personality conversion for me to want to spend more time with her, so I can truthfully say I wouldn't go out of my way to get the next Jenny Cooper installment.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An incredibly disappointing second book, May 31, 2010

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Disappeared (Hardcover)

First Sentence: During her six months as coroner for the Severn Vale District, Jenny Cooper had known only a handful of corpses remain unidentified for more than a day or two.

Coroner Jenny Cooper is contacted by the mother of a British Muslim student for a formal inquest on her son. He, and his friend, both disappeared from their college dorm rooms seven years' ago. The authorities claim they went to Afghanistan for terrorist training and failed to do a thorough investigation. Jenny also has a unidentified Jane Doe in the morgue whose body is stolen but traces of radioactivity left behind. How are the two cases linked and why are the authorities trying so hard to suppress the inquest?

It is very difficult when you really like an author's first book, yet find their second book so disappointing. What worked well in Hall's first book, "The Coroner," seemed to come completely undone here.

The protagonist, Jenny Cooper, moved from being a woman finding strength in spite of her issues, to an insipid, woman influenced and overwhelmed by everyone; her son, her clerk, her sometimes boyfriend, the police and some rather mysterious lawyer. Rather than being sympathetic, I found her annoying. At times, disability notwithstanding, her behavior was so unconscionable it wasn't even excusable by being fictional.

None of the characters were fully developed. Worse yet, I found I didn't care about or feel connected to any of them. The only exception was the boy's mother, Mrs. Jamal, and she was poorly used by the story.

There was a sense of place but not strong enough to give me a visual sense of where the story occurred. The author does have a good ear for dialogue but that's rather damning with faint praise.

The plot seemed to plod on with little sense of tension or suspense. Even the courtroom scenes, so effectively done in her first book, lacked punch or luster. The whole thing felt as though it was a collection news-story ideas (Muslim's, terrorists, conspiracies) looking for a cohesive book plot.

The deal-breaker, for me, was the particularly annoying "you'll have to read-the-next-book" ending. More than one author has lost me for doing that and Mr. Hall may well be the newest on that list.

The book just doesn't ever quite work. I did read it all the way through and I don't mean to say it was absolutely awful; but it wasn't good either. I shall have to give serious thought as to whether I continue reading this series.

THE DISAPPEARED (Lic Invest-Jenny Cooper-England-Cont) - Poor
Hall, M.R. - 2nd in series
Macmillan, ©2010, UK Hardcover - ISBN: 9780230709850

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars not a compelling debut, April 25, 2010

By 

Tina Morris "schultheiss" (Rockville, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Disappeared: A Novel (Jenny Cooper) (Hardcover)

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Generally I am very fond of mysteries that feature complicated lead characters and an even more complicated plot. Both work when they are well-developed. This novel left me wanting in both regards and took real effort to finish. The main character, Jenny Cooper, is a truly troubled character, and we find out from the onset that she has some serious issues to deal with that lie deeply buried in her past, but aside from the occasional innuendo, her pill-popping and visits to her psychiatrist, we do not really get closer to understanding her. The relationship with her son is fraught with unresolved conflict as well, and if that were not enough, she has an on-again, off-again relationship with a neighbor. All of that, though, is only the backdrop to a case that develops like a box of a 100 pieces that have been spilled all over the place. When Jenny in her function as a coroner is pleaded upon by the mother of a young man who has disappeared in 2002, she reluctantly opens an inquest. The story has real potential and there are some interesting characters moving in an out of it, but the author is never really able to develop that arc of suspense that would have you glued to the book. Mr Hall shows his professional background as a lawyer clearly in the courtroom descriptions and altercations, here his narrative is on terra firma, but the rest of the novel is uneven, especially in terms of plot development and ends with a shock revelation about Jenny that comes across as a heavy-handed cliff-hanger for the next installment in this series.