A Dark Coffin - Softcover

Butler, Gwendoline

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312291795 ISBN 13: 9780312291792

Publisher: Griffin, 2001

Synopsis

Marriage is proving anything but dull for Commander John Coffin, keeper of the peace in London's Second City. With grande dame of the stage Stella Pinero in his life, Coffin's days lack no drama." "When the curtain comes down on opening night in Stella's newly transformed theater, Joe and Josie Macintosh are found stabbed to death in their theater box. A curious note left next to their bodies reveals that Joe and Josie Macintosh have carried out a suicide pact.

But the couple's double suicide follows closely on the heels of an unexpected visitor from Coffin's past: Inspector Harry Trent. Coffin worked with Trent years ago, and now Trent is searching for his identical twin brother -- a dangerous man; a man who might already have killed a woman; a man Trent fears might have threatened violence to the Macintoshes, the couple who fostered the twins as children.

Coffin quickly realizes that the illusions of the theater mean that nothing is as it seems; such is the case in the Macintoshes' apparent suicide. As Coffin investigates the couple's death, he learns he must find not only their killer but also their true identities.

And then there is the persistent, looming question: Who is Harry Trent and what is he capable of doing? The answer lies in the past - bizarre, terrifying, and horribly real. . .

Coffin will find Stella's knowledge of the theater indispensable if he is to solve this mystery of Jekylls and Hydes on both sides of the footlights

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Sad, savage and bitter is what Stella Pinero says to her husband John Coffin, Commander of London's Second City, of the murder case which cuts into both their lives.

Coffin is at the height of his powers when he is surprised by a visit from the past: Inspector Harry Trent, with whom Coffin had worked years ago, is looking for his identical twin brother- a dangerous man; a man who might already have killed a woman; a man Trent fears might threaten violence to the Macintoshes, the couple who fostered the twins as children.

When Joe and Josie Macintosh are found stabbed to death, Coffin has to discover not only their killer, but their true identities. And even more important is the question hanging over all of them: who is this man called Harry Trent and what is he capable of? The answer lies in the past- bizarre, terrifyingly and horribly real...

ACCLAIM FOR GWENDOLINE BUTLER:

"Gwendoline Butler writes detective novels that both in method and atmosphere are things apart...she achieves that real whodunit pull".
'The Times'

'The Coffin Tree'
"I continue to find her weave of mystery and menace quite special and enthralling".
John Coleman, 'Sunday Times'

'A Coffin for Charley'
"Butler distils her own brand of disquiet: omnipresent and irresistible".
John Coleman, 'The Sunday Times'

'Cracking Open a Coffin'
"The imaginary Second City of London...together with its well-drawn characters, make this one a quietly compelling read".
John Welcome, 'Irish Independent'

'Coffin on Murder Street'
"Manages at least one between-the-eyes surprise and that's rarer than you think".
Matthew Coady, ' Guardian'

'Coffin and the Paper Man'
"Butler pens a superior procedural, limning her chosen area of London as it undergoes the throes of physical and sociological change".
' Publishers Weekly'

About the Author:

Gwendoline Butler writes under her own name and the pseudonym Jennie Melville. Educated at Haberdashers, she read history at Oxford, and later married Dr. Lionel Butler, Principal of Royal Holloway College. She has one daughter. She is a winner of the Crime Writers’ Association’s Silver Dagger Award. She was also selected as being one of the top two hundred crime writers in the world by The London Times. She lives in Surrey, England.

About this edition

• Publisher: Griffin
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0312291795
• ISBN 13: 9780312291792
• Binding: Paperback