The Chronicles of Vance Coldwell, CoronerIn the sleepy Yorkshire village of Little Mumbling, the dead have started talking. Not politely, either - through the beaks of robins, blackbirds, and one deeply unimpressed carrion crow, with grievances, agendas, and, worse, minutes.Coroner Vance Coldwell has seen it all - twice, if you count the parts he saw again on his way down. A man who once fainted at a threshing accident, he now finds himself investigating a talking robin, a stolen biscuit tin, and a rookery that has quietly reorganised itself into something calling itself the Avian Court of Vengeance.Standing between the birds and their next target is Rex Kettlethorpe, property developer, gilet enthusiast, and a man who believes ancient woodland is best described as an "underutilised green asset." Standing between Kettlethorpe and total ruin is a 1911 land covenant, a very determined ornithologist on a shopping bicycle, and one coroner's letter - the strongest-worded correspondence Yorkshire has produced since the Reformation.Cheesy. Ominous. Occasionally both at once. Nightjar is a tale of feathers, fear, and the surprising legal power of good stationery."I have never fainted so much in one book, nor enjoyed it so thoroughly." - Vance Coldwell, on his own memoirs