Mantle £12.99

The Flight, By M R Hall

Fasten your seatbelts for a quality thriller

Our insatiable hunger for crime fiction has caused every backwater in the world of law and order to be ransacked by authors in search of characters on whom to hang a best-seller or television series.

If I make the process sound calculated, that is often how it comes over in the finished product, but not in Matthew Hall's first-rate books about unorthodox Bristol coroner Jenny Cooper. The Flight is Cooper's fourth outing and Hall's Gold Dagger-nominated books, quite simply, get better each time.

Part of it is the former barrister and TV producer's ability to structure and deliver a thriller that has you keep turning the pages. I read The Flight, as its predecessors, at one sitting. But Hall has also hit upon a genuinely fascinating aspect of the justice system – the independent role of the coroner since the 12th century to determine the cause of death of individuals within their jurisdiction. In The Flight, Cooper's territory touches the scene of a major air disaster, after one of the new generation of super-jumbos mysteriously ditches in the Bristol Channel with no survivors.

The most compelling element of Hall's books, however, is Cooper herself: difficult, damaged, self-destructive, struggling to recover from a divorce that has left her alienated from her teenage son, and prone to panic attacks whose causes are gradually investigated during her regular sessions on the psychiatrist's couch. All the qualities that make her a tenacious champion of the bereaved against a system that too often silences them, also make her an uncomfortable mother, partner, boss or friend. She is emotional rather than logical, intuitive and challenging when challenged. In other words she is real, recognisable and three- dimensional, rather than an amalgam of qualities chosen to make for a good plot.

And so, there is a beguiling psychological tension at the heart of his novels that is building Hall a dedicated following (plus talk of a TV series). In Flight, the fragile but forceful Cooper almost goes along with the cover-up orchestrated by an establishment that tries to persuade her that "national security" is at stake. But a grieving mother's insistent demand to know how her 10-year-old daughter died chimes with Cooper's own complicated past, and leads her into a labyrinth of international business dirty tricks and cyber-terrorism.

It is wonderful stuff, chillingly plausible, but probably best not read on a long-haul flight.

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Career Services

Day In a Page

For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos in Greece

For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos

On a secluded peninsula in north-east Greece lies an enclave that's way off the tourist map, especially for women...
48 Hours In: Faro

48 Hours In: Faro

More than just the gateway to the Algarve, this city has much to tempt you off the beach.
Here, the coast is always clear: Celebrating sixty years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

60 years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

Mick Webb reveals a land of puffins, tanks and Hollywood blockbusters.
Free Range: Meet the designers of tomorrow

Free Range

Meet the artists of the future
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

As scientists at Rothamsted's GM trials plead with activists not to sabotage their work, Michael McCarthy visits the battle field
Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Deep in Cameroon's rainforests, poachers are killing primates for food. Evan Williams reports from Yokadouma on a practice that could create a pandemic
Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Government urged to take abuse more seriously as London study shows 41 per cent are harassed
Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Militant Tuhoe tribe members defiant amid claims race relations had been set back 100 years
Fatal crashes are cyclists' fault, says Boris

Fatal crashes are cyclists' fault, says Boris

Mayor condemned for saying that two-thirds of riders killed on the road were at fault in accidents
Move over Brangelina, this night belongs to Kingston Bagpuize

Move over Brangelina, this night belongs to Kingston Bagpuize

Unlikely community movie beats the stars to get prized Leicester Square premiere
Solved after 33 years? Case of first missing boy shown on milk carton

Solved after 33 years?

Case of first missing boy shown on milk carton
Like mamma used to make: Pizza Pilgrims is proving a word-of mouth sensation

Pizza Pilgrims: Like mamma used to make

A van dispensing purist pizzas is proving a word-of mouth sensation
The supper on its uppers: Why we need to learn to entertain lavishly for less

Supper on its uppers: Entertain lavishly for less

Dinner parties are buckling under the pressures of food snobbery and belt-tightening...
The 10 best summer cookbooks

The 10 best summer cookbooks

From Claudia Roden's The Food of Spain to The Art of Cooking with Vegetables by Alain Passard...
Gorgeous Georgian: Now we can enjoy the cuisine of Russia's fiery neighbour nearer home

Gorgeous Georgian cuisine

The food of Russia's fiery neighbour is among the world's most inventive and original