Priscilla Masters writes a twisty path of death and nastiness in Bridge of Sighs. The ending gives some consolation to the reader but read and see if you agree.

Two suicides leave a coroner baffled . A story of pure evil ! Incredibly gripping page turner with truly believable characters ! Thanks to Netgalley and Severn House Publishers #Netgalley #SevernHousePublishers #BridgeOfSighs

Princess Fuzzypants here: Martha Gunn is the coroner in Shrewsbury. She is very good at what she does and she is relentless in finding the reason for the deaths she investigates. Two suicides have her flummoxed. Two successful people who apparently had everything going for them, die is in horrific ways. One is a hugely successful female lawyer who has made a reputation of defending some pretty reprehensible clients. The other is a brilliant school boy. They leave behind people who are baffled as to why they would end their lives. While there is no doubt in both cases they committed suicide, Martha is unable to let it go until she finds out what led them to the decisions.
At the same time, her closest associate is on leave while another coroner, at Martha’s request, investigates the death of the policeman’s wife. Again, nothing is obvious and she feels frustrated that she cannot call upon his advice nor help him in his plight. But she does not give up until she has uncovered the unsavoury truth, not without some risk to herself.
This was a cracking good mystery, very gritty, with compelling intelligent characters. It is a story of revenge and malice and pure evil. This book makes me want to read the previous stories in the series. Even when she puts herself in danger, Martha is smart and savvy and very intuitive. She is well worth another look.
Five purrs and two paws up.

Bridge of Sighs
by Priscilla Masters
Severn House

Severn House Publishers

Mystery & Thrillers

Pub Date 01 Feb 2019



I am reviewing a copy of Bridge of Sighs through Severn House and Netgalley:



Gina Macaroni has everything to live for, a beautiful young Barrister who has a young son and a fiancé who loves her, she has a successful career. Which is why no one can make sense of why she left her home one night and drove her car into a stone wall.


Not long afterwards Patrick Eason, An intelligent twelve year old school boy jumps off a bridge in the A5. The suicides are seemingly unrelated other than the fact that neither Suicide makes sense. Could they actually be related? After a third unexplained death that of Di Alex Randall’s wife Erica. Because Alex is on leave pending an investigation Martha finds herself having to search for the answers regarding the suicides all on her own and she must question whether or not Alex Randall could be the murderer.




I give Bridge of Sighs five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

"People do not move on. They move to a different place dragging their baggage behind them like wheelie suitcases and bearing their scars."

Two inexplicable suicides have coroner Martha Gunn working overtime. The first, young and beautiful Gina Marconi, a 36-year-old barrister who was due to be married. She specialized in criminal law and had an 8-year old son. What on earth would make Gina drive her car at 60 miles an hour into a stone wall at 3 am? The second, a 12-year-old boy, Patrick Elson, who dives off the A-5 bridge into heavy traffic. Patrick was sweet, smart and being raised by a single mom. Definitely there must be a very sad story behind that leap.

Martha Gunn, the coroner for Shrewsbury, is a medical doctor whose job is to investigate the circumstances surrounding a death, hold an inquest, and make a determination about whether or not the death was from natural causes, accidental, homicide, suicide etc. She is not the one who performs the postmortem exam, but is more like a detective piecing together all the facts and nuances of a particular case. From the outset, Martha is convinced that somehow the two suicides have some connection or are linked despite the disparities in the victims. She usually investigates these situations with her close friend and colleague, DI Alex Randall, but he has been sidelined due to the unexpected death of his mentally ill wife, Erica. Because of their connection, Martha recuses herself from looking into Erica's death, and she finds herself without his guidance as she tries to put all the pieces together with the suicide cases.

This was the first book in this series I've read, and as it was #7, I was afraid I'd be totally lost. I didn't find that to be true, however, as the author provides some necessary backstory and it was easy for me to slot myself into Martha's life. I was pulled in immediately by her character and work ethic and found all the details of how the coroner works alongside the police and the pathologist to be quite interesting but it seems to be different to how this works in the USA. Regardless, I really liked following alongside Martha as she goes with the clues and digs into the lives of the victims to find out what may have driven them to their deaths. I really want to go back and read the first six books and definitely will be on the lookout for the next in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House for the e-book ARC to read and review.

For those not familiar with this series, Martha Gunn is a coroner in a small town close to the River Severn. The coroner is an official who investigates violent, sudden, or suspicious deaths.

In such a small village, one would not expect sudden death outside of the elderly and sickly. Today, Martha is looking at the suspected suicide of a beautiful young barrister who has a good life ... a job she excels at, a young son she adores, and a fiancee who she loves. What would induce her to leave home in the middle of the night and determinedly drive her car head first into a stone wall?

A few days later, there's another possible suicide. A 12-year-old boy jumps off a bridge into the morning traffic on the roads. Another suicide that just doesn't make sense.

And then there's a third death ... one close to home for Martha. Is this one connected to the others?

This is a well written mystery featuring a unique character. Not having read any of the previous books in this series, I was worried I might not be to put it all together ... but this one reads easily as a stand alone. Relationships are not explained in detail, but there's enough so that the reader isn't floundering.

The characters are solid, well-defined. Martha takes her job very seriously and does a great job at investigating the causes of death, along with her friend in the police department.

Many thanks to the author / Severn House / Netgalley for the advanced digital copy of this mystery. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Fab book, started so sad and then built its way into a great tense thriller. I was at first disappointed that Martha seemed to not want to help Alex, but then understood that she did the best thing for them both. At some points I found the suspense masterful and very well written. These characters would make a great series of books. I found myself comparing them to the Kathy Reichs Brennan books. Diffinitely would recommend

Martha Gunn is trying to figure out whether a woman with everything to live for (or so others think) and a 12 year old boy committed suicide. Not easy no matter what but then the wife of her colleague (and friend) Alex Randall is found with her neck broken. Did she fall down the stairs on her own or was Randall at fault? I'd not read the earlier books in this series and occasionally felt I was missing something for it. That said, I have no doubt fans of Martha will find this a good read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

A Martha Gunn mystery

Martha Gunn is a coroner in Shrewsbury and while her job occasionally involves nothing more than elderly persons dying naturally and peacefully, surrounded by family and with doctors’ certificates present she, however, has to answer the question “Why?” in her investigation into any suicide. Why does a woman who has a successful career as a barrister specialising in criminal law, a loving fiancé and an eight-year-old son drive into a wall at sixty miles an hour in the early hours of the morning, after first unbuckling her seatbelt? She leaves no suicide note, has no alcohol or drugs in her system and the post mortem reveals that her brain is normal, so there is no possibility that she had a temporary loss of consciousness. The absence of a note means that she does not want to explain to her family, but this leaves them wondering forever. A few days later there is another death – a twelve-year-old boy throws himself off a bridge over the A5 landing on the bonnet of a passing car. According to his mother, he was not depressed, and the autopsy showed no drugs in his system. Again, there was no suicide note, and no one can understand why he would do such a thing. Could these deaths be linked? Only the determination behind their final acts connects them, and Martha feels it's up to her to unravel their story.

A coroners’ court is meant to provide answers, and Martha does precisely this, doggedly going over and over the evidence and digging into the lives of the two deceased until she has the answers that she needs to give the families closure after having their worlds ripped apart. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would highly recommend it. The author manages to portray the characters as normal humans, going about their jobs while also struggling with their own issues as we all have to do. If you have a job, you need to do it to the best of your ability no matter what you may be going through personally and it is not always easy. As Martha knows, it is when you do good for others that good comes to you.

Saphira

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

Two deaths, apparent suicides, neither of which make sense because the victims had so much to live for. Coroner Martha Gunn who is handling the autopsies is in a bind trying to figure out whether the deaths are suicides or accidents, and if the deaths connected. This story flowed really well in the beginning and the character development was good but then it really slowed down and rambled on in places and got quite repetitive. I’m sorry to say it did not hold my interest. I received this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Although this is the 7th in this series, this is the first I have come across although I have read Crooked Streets which I thoroughly enjoyed. So it was with anticipation that I approached this novel. I was not to be disappointed.

Martha Gunn is a Coroner in Shropshire and has been notified of the death of a young woman. In the middle of the night she left her home, without her mobile phone and drove her car into a brick wall at 60 mph. No cause for the accident could be found, but the woman had everything to live for. She is a successful barrister, beautiful, intelligent, somewhat extrovert, planning her wedding and she has a son whom she adores. So, could it be suicide – but why no note in explanation?

Two weeks later she receives notification of a 12 year old boy who has committed suicide and she is called upon to investigate. Again, there is apparently no reason.

Martha, as the Coroner usually liaises with DI Alex Randall with whom there appears to be the hint of a developing relationship but suddenly he is on garden leave from his post and Martha is unable to contact him to discuss these cases and her suspicions. So she goes it alone.

Although this is written in a fairly simplistic style, it is well-written and far from detracting from the whole; it renders it a comfortable, easy read without losing anything. What I found really interesting was the background to her work as a coroner. Not for Masters the gory and bloody prose, but more of a considered, thoughtful process of deduction. The characters are well-drawn and identifiable, even though at times I was dis-satisfied with Martha and her relationship with Alex, let alone the risks she sometimes took. I felt that she needed a gentle shake (but that’s just my opinion).

Would I recommend it? Yes, particularly if you like a more ‘English’ approach.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

‘She had worked it all out, step by step.’

Two violent deaths, both apparent suicides, leave Shrewsbury Coroner Martha Gunn with some difficult questions. First, the death of Gina Marconi. You’d think that Gina had everything to live for. She was a barrister with a successful career, had a young son, and was about to marry her loving fiancé. So why did she leave her home one night and drive her car into a stone wall?

And then, Patrick Elson, a twelve-year-old schoolboy, jumps to his death from a bridge on to the A5. Why?

Neither of these deaths makes sense. And while Martha Gunn tries to answer some of the questions these deaths raise, there’s a third unexplained death. DI Alex Randall is Martha Gunn’s friend, and when his wife Erica dies suddenly, she feels unable to take on the case. Could Alex Randall have murdered his wife? It’s known that their relationship was difficult.

‘Alone in her office, she had far too much time to reflect.’

So, where Martha would usually seek assistance from Alex, she cannot. She also feels constrained by her own friendship with him, and she has some concerns about her daughter. Will Martha find answers to both the personal issues concerning her as well as about the deaths?

This is the seventh novel to feature Coroner Martha Gunn of Shrewsbury, UK, but it is the first that I’ve read. While I enjoyed the story, I was impatient with the amount of time spent while Martha agonised. I could understand her focus on aspects of the cases she was investigating, but I found the amount of personal agonising disconcerting. That said, I will be looking to read other books in this series. I found Martha an interesting character and I want to read more about her.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

#BridgeOfSighs #NetGalley I had not read previous books in the Martha Gunn series but, although there were some obvious references to the relationship between Martha and DI Randall that presumably were covered in previous books, I felt that this was perfectly able to be read as a standalone. The gist of the story was a good one and I was intrigued to see how Martha identified the connection between the two suicides. However, I found the book quite repetitive in parts and too much time repeating Martha's thoughts rather than getting on with the action. When there was action it was well written but then there were pages and pages of ramblings all very much along the same lines. I also felt that the relationship between Martha and Alex was left very much up in the air - presumably...…..to be continued.

I really enjoyed this book. It was really intriguing and kept me guessing throughout. It wasn't the most action packed of stories but I actually enjoyed the slower pace of this. I loved the way the pieces of the puzzle were slowly revealed bit by bit until everything was tied up at the end.

Thank you NetGalley and Severn House for the eARC.
Coroner Martha Gunn has to decide whether the death of a young beautiful woman was a suicide or an accident. The woman drive into a wall at 60 miles per hour without her seatbelt on. She was the mother of a much-loved son, the daughter of a beloved mother, was about to get married and had a successful career...why on earth would she kill herse!f?
The 2nd suicide is just as puzzling and when the wife of her close friend DI Alex Randall dies from breaking her neck in a fall from a staircase, Martha very conflicted. Are the deaths connected? Could Alex possibly have had a hand in his troubled wife's death?
It was a good enough story, but very verbose, way too much thinking on Martha's part. I like this series, but would like to either have Martha and Alex get it on or just have a platonic friendship; there has been enough dithering!
I will definitely read the next in the series, but hope it will less verbose.

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House Publishing for an e-galley of this novel.

3.5 stars rounded down
I have read several other books in the Coroner Martha Gunn series and have enjoyed them. This seventh book of that series was harder for me to continue to read because I don't like reading stories which include the death of a child. I would not have chosen this book if I had been aware one of the victims was only 12 years old. I have tried to put aside my own aversion to the death of that victim and to review this novel without considering that bias.

Martha Gunn is called on in her capacity of Coroner for the county of Shropshire to investigate the death of a young woman who seemed to have everything to live for. What could have made her commit suicide? Then a second death happens and then a third; could there be a link between these people and their deaths? Martha is going to have to solve these riddles on her own because DI Alex Randall has problems of his own. These are complex cases that seem to have no connection at all yet Martha doesn't feel comfortable issuing a finding of suicide.

I did like this story even though Martha ended up walking straight into trouble without thinking through all the circumstances which irritated me because the author keeps trying to convince me that Martha is smarter than that. And it really wasn't necessary because there were alternative methods which could have been used to accomplish the same thing. Her relationship with Alex Randall has been whisper thin in all the novels so I really wanted her to finally make some decision about where they stand and stop waffling around. Enough already with the maybe/kind of/sort of thinking because as a reader I'm pretty much tired of it. I'm sure I will want to read the next book in this series, but something needs to be settled between Martha and Alex.

3 stars

I read the Kindle edition.

A young barrister with everything to live for commits suicide by crashing her car into a wall. Her name was Gina Marconi. She was engaged to be married and had a young son. Did she really commit suicide? This is the question that Coroner Martha Gunn has to answer.

When young Patrick Elson also commits suicide – at just twelve-years old, Marth wonders if there is a connection between the two deaths. Another mysterious death throws Martha into a tailspin. When a police officer’s wife also dies, Martha is flummoxed. DI Alex Randall is her friend. He can’t have killed his wife.

This book, although well written, rambles on something terrible in places. Martha dithering and pontificating just was too much for me. I like my books with more action and less soap-box grandstanding. I liked the previous Martha Gunn story better than this one.

I want to thank NetGalley and Severn House for forwarding to me a copy of this book for me to read and review.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher, Severn House, for an ARC.
This book started so very well - a mysterious, shocking, apparently intentional suicidal death of a young woman - the writer effectively created an atmospheric cloud of thought and emotion which this reader really got caught-up in.
The story flowed fairly well onto yet another unexplained suicide of a schoolboy.
The Coroner feels there is a connection between the two. Then add-in a tentative romantic liaison between the Coroner and her favourite detective, and you have a very nosey Coroner. Basically, this was a very good story - a Coroner interested in the 'why' which could very easily lead her into trouble.
I say the Coroner 'feels' there is a connection between the two deaths because, quite frankly, the enormous amount of prose dedicated to the thought-musings of the coroner was boring verbosity at its worse. This book could have been reduced by at least forty per cent if the adjectival mental musings were removed from the pages. Very, no, Extremely, re-pet-it-tive!
In my opinion, with a lot of trimming, it could have been a very good read. Unfortunately, I noticed before having read fifty per cent of the book, that I was indeed 'sighing' - saying to myself please - just get on with it. You are detracting from this potentially good story with all these unnecessary, incessant and repetitive 'musings'.
I'd really like a further story between the Coroner and her detective, but not at the expense of my patience.
Sorry, but that's my opinion.

Coroner Martha Gunn is handling the autopsies of two people who seemed to have every reason to live. Gina was a successful attorney with a husband and child and Patrick was a bright, popular 12-year-old student. While trying to find a motive or perhaps a connection between the two cases, Martha is blindsided by the suspicious death of colleague DI Alex Randall’s wife, Erica. Randall is placed on leave until after his wife’s death is explained and Martha is left to try to understand what happened. She needs answers, even though she’s beginning to wonder if Randall might be a cold-blooded killer