The Reluctant Coroner

By Paul Austin Ardoin,

Book cover of The Reluctant Coroner

Book description

Blood is thicker than oil--until murder is involved. Fenway Stevenson doesn't want to return to the coastal town where her estranged father is practically king. But the death of her mother draws her back home--and the murder of the county coroner draws her into a deepening conspiracy. As the body…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Reluctant Coroner as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I loved the set up of this book. Suddenly finding yourself made coroner, because there is no one else impartial is an unlikely scenario, but the author made it feel believable. The main character isn't necessarily always likeable, but I felt for her, and I loved her sense of humour throughout the novel.

In recommending this book, I want to emphasize the word reluctant. Fenway Stevenson gets shanghaied into covering a friend’s butt by stepping in as coroner in a town in the California desert. She reminds me of Jason McCullough in Support Your Local Sheriff in that she constantly protests that the job is only temporary. She has every intention of going back to nursing school for her degree—right after she finds out what really happened to the body in her lab.

I couldn’t help rooting for her to discover her true vocation. Incidentally, for a male author writing a female protagonist,…

From Eugenia's list on Raymond Chandler’s mean streets.

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