Madam Coroner: A Memoir of Death and Politics in Suburbia

I’m excited to announce that Madam Coroner is now available for preorder from Exposit Books, an imprint of McFarland & Co! Watch my newsletter for publication updates and book events.

Awarded the 2025 Killer Nashville Claymore Prize for best unpublished nonfiction book, Madam Coroner is an eye-opening memoir about one coroner’s life and many deaths over a four-year period bookended by the opioid epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Elected the first woman coroner in her county’s 219-year history, Dr. Christina VandePol faces a suburban underworld of drug deaths, murder-suicides, unclaimed remains, and overflowing morgues. But it’s the living, not the dead, who pose the biggest obstacle to her fight for transparency and justice.

Upcoming and Recent Presentations

  • Coroners of Pennsylvania: A Field Guide, Special Event, Main Line School Night, October 8, 2025, “the fascinating history and little-known powers of coroners…”
  • Death, Drugs, and Toxins: A Primer for Writers, Killer Nashville International Writers Conference, August 23, 2025, with fellow physician and writer Jen Evans
  • Autopsies: Facts and Fictions, DelVal Chapter, Sisters in Crime, April 19, 2025

Essays

Reports

  • Coroner/Medical Examiner Services in Pennsylvania: A multi-year study using qualitative and quantitative surveys and public information. Conducted under a grant from the Center for Rural PA. Full study here. PDF executive summary here.
  • Letter from the Coroner – 2021 Annual Report: The letters I wrote for the department’s annual report were a personal reflection on both highlights and disappointments of the year, never more so than during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. My last letter is provided here as a PDF. Full reports for this and previous years are available on the Chester County Coroner’s Office website.
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