The Coroner He Buried

Twenty-two years as county coroner. Eleven thousand signatures. One body he cannot file away. When a young woman is pulled from the mill pond, Dr. Alan Rees does what he has always done: he writes 'accidental drowning' and goes home to his wife. But her dental records do not match the name on the intake form. And in her pocket is a bracelet Alan's daughter lost seventeen years ago. He pulls the last decade of files. Seven drownings. Seven clerical errors. One sheriff at every scene, the same sheriff who was on the pond thirty years ago when a girl named Esther Cowan also drowned and was also filed away. Alan is a careful man in a county that rewards carelessness. He has a wife who has kept a box for thirty years and a diagnosis he has not told anyone about. He is going to testify anyway. Because the dead do not stay anonymous if someone refuses to sign.