A Nameless Coffin first time in paperback
Nobody took much notice when the handbag slashing began in London. A few women found small nicks in their handbags, others huge gashes. John Coffin had a feeling that the cases were going to lead to something far more unpleasant. A similar case in Scotland - of coats, this time - comes to trial in Murreinhead, and Giles Almond, a mild-mannered officer of the Court, is viciously attacked by a knife-wielding assailant.
Then the body of a missing Murreinhead woman is discovered in a rotting tenement in London, and the chase is on…
Coffin's investigation moves between the two locales and suspense builds as yet another murder victim is discovered… Where is the killer? And what is the connection between London and Murreinhead?
Both of the first two Butlers published by CT Publishing are in their second reprinting!
This is the, featuring her popular sleuth John Coffin!
'Gwendoline Butler is excellent on the bizarre fantasies of other people's lives and on modern paranoia overlaying old secrets; and her plots have the rare ability to shock' Andrew Taylor, The Independent
'[Butler's] inventiveness never seems to flag; and the singular atmosphere of her books, compounded of jauntiness and menace, remains undiminished' Patricia Craig, TLS
'Butler distils her own brand of disquiet: omnipresent and irresistible' John Coleman, The Sunday Times
'The imaginary Second City of London... together with its well drawn characters, make this a quietly compelling read' John Welcome, The Irish Independent
'Melville imparts a dreadful disquiet to whatever she so cunningly touches. The Sunday Times
'Jennie Melville shoots to the top of the crime class with The Morbid Kitchen. Peterborough Evening Telegraph Praise For Gwendoline Butler
'Butler is the last traditional English crime writer we have and one of the very best' - Crime Time
'One of the world's top hundred writers of crime fiction' The Times
'Butler distils her own brand of disquiet: omnipresent and irresistible' The Sunday Times
'Butler combines elements of the uncertain worlds of Ruth Rendell with the gruesome attention to detail of Prime Suspect or Patricia Cornwell' Crime Time
Paperback - CTPublishing (1998)
Coffin In Oxford See Review by
John Boyles
First time in paperback "If was like a Chinese puzzle. In St Ebbe's was a flat, in the flat was a trunk, and in the trunk was a body. The body of a woman..."
Ted was brought round from the first attack, if you could call it an attack, with difficulty. He had been found shut up in a cupboard with a scarf tightened around his neck: his own scarf, to add insult to injury…
Like a cat sneaking onto your lap, Butler's plots get their claws into you almost without you noticing; suddenly, you're aware of... something. In Coffin in Oxford, a long hot summer is the background for the mysterious death of an even more mysterious woman. The chief suspect for the murder is nowhere to be found, nor is his landlady, and his girlfriend fears the worst.
This is a story in which people's assumptions about identity and each other are challenged - how well do we ever know anyone else, or even ourselves? Only John Coffin, a policeman gifted with unique insight into the criminal mind, realises what is going on, but will he be able solve the puzzle before someone else is killed?
Butler recounts this tale with a lightness of touch which counterpoints her trademark atmosphere of growing unease. You won't be able to tell how she does it, but you won't be able to resist it… 'Butler's imagination could give Patricia Cornwell a run for her money in the unpleasantness stakes…' Crime Time
A Nameless Coffin
See Review by
John Boyles
A Nameless Coffin