Secret Remains: A Coroner's Daughter Mystery

by Jennifer Graeser Dornbush

Overview

A forensic mystery full of small-town suspense “with a twist no one will expect”—for fans of Kathy Reichs and Jayne Ann Krentz (New York Journal of Books)
 
Dr. Emily Hartford’s cold case investigation points to viper’s nest of lies and a shocking prime suspect: her old high school flame.

It’s been 12 years since Sandi Parkman went missing after being dropped off at home by her schoolmate, Nick Larson, now the Sheriff of Freeport, Michigan. When a construction crew unearths Sandi's bones—along with Nick’s letterman jacket and one of his hairs—Nick becomes suspect number one in the murder.

Dr. Emily Hartford, the daughter of Freeport’s medical examiner, is called in to investigate, but the case is about to get personal. Nick was Emily’s high school love, and now she has to either clear his name—or contend that he’s the killer. As she delves into the case, a host of other suspects emerge: a coterie of Nick’s jock friends from high school; Sandi’s sister, Tiffany, now a dancer at a local strip club; and James VanDerMuellen, a trust funder who’s recently returned to Freeport.

As the autumn skies darken over Freeport and the holiday season looms, Emily must sift through more than Sandi’s brittle bones to solve the case. Can she exonerate Nick—and rekindle their long-smoldering romance? The race is on to find the truth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643851228
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	01/07/2020
Series:	A Coroner's Daughter Mystery , #2
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	833,933
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Graeser Dornbush is herself the daughter of a medical examiner, whose office was in her home. She investigated her first fatality, an airplane crash, when she was 10 years old. Since that first case she has had decades of on-site experience in death investigation and 360 hours of forensic training through the Forensic Science Academy. Jennifer now uses these experiences to pen crime fiction for film and TV, with a feature film God Bless the Broken Road released in 2018. She has consulted on shows such as Deception, Hawaii Five-O, Prison Break, Leverage, and more. Jennifer is also a member of Sisters in Crime and hosts webinars on crime writing through Writer's Digest.

Editorial Reviews

11/11/2019

Set in Freeport, Mich., Dornbush’s middling second Coroner’s Daughter mystery (after 2018’s The Coroner) opens on a dramatic note with the fatal heart attack of surgeon Emily Hartford’s medical examiner father, who’s barely in the ground when Emily gets a call from Sheriff Nick Larson. Nick, who wants to rekindle their high school romance, asks her to examine some bones unearthed by a construction crew. The subsequent autopsy reveals that the victim was Sandi Parkman, a teen last seen a decade earlier, and it’s clear from the “blunt-force trauma to the neck, right ribs, and skull” that Sandi was murdered. When Nick is arrested for the crime, Emily vows to find the real killer, aided by, among others, former FBI agent Delia Andrews, who now owns the town’s best bakery. Unfortunately, Emily’s problems define her character, not her response to those problems. Take them away, and she’s a complete zero. This entry reads like a cozy with autopsies, minus the sense of fun. Agent: Julie Gwinn, Seymour Agency. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Secret Remains:
"Dornbush has artfully woven a great page-turner. Smartly written, artfully crafted—put this one at the top of your reading list!"
—Catherine Finger, award-winning author of the Jo Olive thrillers

“A twist no one will expect...the perfect ending to a case that becomes more complicated as each fact is revealed.”
—New York Journal of Books

“Jennifer Graeser Dornbush has a winning series going. Here’s hoping to more of Emily and Nick and the town of Freeport.”
—Red Carpet Crash

Praise for The Coroner:
"Dornbush's debut is an intense, riveting mystery... Readers of Lisa Black's books written as Elizabeth Becka will enjoy this tale."
—Library Journal starred review

"If you like small town mysteries, twisty reads or books written by Lisa Black or Patricia Cornwell, you'll love The Coroner."
—Karen Harper, New York Times bestselling author of Shallow Grave

"Fast-paced and riveting, The Coroner by Jennifer Dornbush is filled with surprises, authentic detail and memorable characters. Well done!"
—Carla Neggers, New York Times bestselling author of Theif's Mark

"Emily Hartford is strong and competent, vulnerable and kind...Add a twisty plot, romance, and family drama and the result is this satisfying first-in-a-series mystery."
—Dawn Eastman, national bestselling author of Unnatural Causes 

"A fast-paced, propulsive read filled with smart characters and all the forensic science we've come to love from her."
—Lynn Renee Maxcy, writer of The Handmaid's Tale Hulu series

From the Publisher

2019-10-27
The death of her father opens both new heartaches and new opportunities for surgical resident Dr. Emily Hartford.

A providential unannounced visit on her way back to Chicago puts Emily on the scene in time to call an ambulance for Dr. Robert Hartford, the veteran coroner of Freeport County, Michigan, but although the prompt medical attention he receives enables him to tell his daughter, "The day…your mom died…I was meeting…a woman," it isn't enough to save his life. No sooner has Emily, shocked at the death of her long-estranged father so soon after they'd tentatively reconciled (The Coroner, 2018), arranged for his funeral than County Sheriff Nick Larson begs her to identify a collection of bones that's been unearthed in the excavation for a new housing development. Nick arranges for University of Michigan forensic anthropologist Dr. Charles Payton to make the identification, and he confirms Nick's hunch about the bones: They're human, they're female, and in life they belonged to Sandi Parkman, a high school student who went missing 10 years ago. Now Emily finds herself pressed from every side imaginable. Brandon, the Chicago surgeon she just broke up with, wants to go through with their wedding and indicates that he's willing to bend over backward to accommodate her. Dr. Claiborne, her retiring supervisor in Chicago, wants to know if she and Brandon are interested in taking over his practice. Freeport County commissioner Hank Wurthers wants to know if she intends to stand for election to coroner in her father's place. On top of everything else, her father's will reveals that she has a half sister, Anna Johnson, whom she's never heard of, much less met. Despite her grief, Emily disguises herself on two separate occasions to visit the Silver Slipper, where Sandi's kid sister, Tiffani, interrupts her pole dancing long enough to intimate that Nick killed her sister.

More interested in the heroine's amatory adventures and future home than in a piddling murder or two.

Kirkus Reviews