Thursday 13 December 2018

#BookReview The Coroner by Jennifer Graeser Dornbush @crookedlanebks

The Coroner by Jennifer Graeser Dornbush
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Summoned from her promising surgical career first to her estranged father's bedside, and then his post as medical examiner when his small town needs urgent help with a suspicious death, Emily Hartford discovers home is where the bodies are in this pitch perfect mystery debut.

Recently engaged and deeply ensconced in her third year of surgical residency in Chicago, Emily Hartford gets a shock when she’s called home to Freeport, MI, the small town she fled a decade ago after the death of her mother. Her estranged father, the local medical examiner, has had a massive heart attack and Emily is needed urgently to help with his recovery.

Not sure what to expect, Emily races home, blowing the only stoplight at the center of town and getting pulled over by her former high school love, now Sheriff, Nick Larson. At the hospital, she finds her father in near total denial of the seriousness of his condition. He insists that the best thing Emily can do to help him is to take on the autopsy of a Senator’s teen daughter whose sudden, unexplained death has just rocked the sleepy town.

Reluctantly agreeing to help her father and Nick, Emily gets down to work, only to discover that the girl was murdered. The autopsy reminds her of her many hours in the morgue with her father when she was a young teen—a time which inspired her love of medicine. Before she knows it, she’s pulled deeper into the case and closer to her father and to Nick—much to the dismay of her big city fiance. When a threat is made to Emily herself, she must race to catch the killer before he strikes again in The Coroner, expertly written and sharply plotted, perfect for fans of Patricia Cornwell and Julia 
Spencer Fleming.

**********

This book was pleasant. Yup, like watching a Hallmark movie. If that's your thing. I'm a bit on the fence, however, since I love my crime novels to be a bit darker, more surprising and let's face it less romantic. I saw the plot, what would happen in Emily Hartford's life right from the start. Or, rather from the moment, she met her ex-boyfriend when Emily came back to the town. Her perfect life in Chicago suddenly didn't seem to be so great when her fiance kept surprising her with news about the wedding that his mother is now organizing. This romantic side story is so unoriginal. And, yet I kind of liked the book. I liked the little city, the characters and yes the crime mystery was good. So, it was a pleasant book.

Would I read a sequel? Yes, I would. Not least because the book ended with some loose threads that I want answers to. So, like crime novels with a romantic triangle drama? The go for this book!  

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through Netgalley for an honest review!

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