A Dark Coffin

John Coffin Mystery #27

by Gwendoline Butler

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.

Genres: Mystery, Audiobook, Crime, Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Gwendoline Williams Butler (aka Jennie Melville)

Gwendoline Williams was born on 19th August 1922 in South London, England, UK, daughter of Alice (Lee) and Alfred Edward Williams, her younger twin brothers are also authors. Educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she read History, and later lectured there. On 16th October 1949, she married Dr Lionel Harry Butler (1923-1981), a professor of medieval history at University of St. Andrews and historian, Fellow of All Souls and Principal of Royal Holloway College. The marriage had a daughter, Lucilla Butler.

In 1956, she started to published John Coffin novels under her married name, Gwendoline Butler. In 1962, she decided used her grandmother's name, Jennie Melville as pseudonym to sign her Charmian Daniels novels. She was credited for inventing the "woman's police procedural". In addition to her mystery series, she also wrote romantic novels. In 1981, her novel The Red Staircase won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Reviews

[Les Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy reading this series

[Jim Collett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This entry in the John Coffin series finds John Coffin involved in a complex series of doubles. There is the issue of former associate Harry Trent, now acting somewhat strange, and claiming an identical twin Coffin never heard of before. Is he real or does Harry Trent have some split personality issue? Then there is the double murder in the St. Luke's Theater of his wife Stella. Followed by the revelation that the pair killed are not the original pair using that name. Finally, early in the novel, there are short chapters involving a Jekyll and Hyde personality. But, who is it?
This is a well-spun tale with several layers that contains a number of twists and turns that will keep the reader turning pages.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haven't read a John Coffin story in a long time - I liked it. England's theatre and Jeykll/Hyde type character makes for a good read. In this one Coffin is married to Stella. I like the way Butler captures the mood and atmosphere of London, and the way she keeps the reader 'jumpy' from the insane, dark and menacing suspense of the story.

[Linda Underwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inspector John coffin solves the double murder mystery involving his wife's theater in the London. OK