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John Coffin Mystery #14
Coffin's Dark Number
Three little girls are reported missing in the same district of South London and Superintendent John Coffin suspects there could be more. A gripping crime novel from one of the most universally praised English mystery writers, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers.
Three little girls have been reported missing recently in the same district of South London and Superintendent John Coffin believes there might be others.
The area has more than its fair share of cranks, and Tony Young’s club of UFO watchers is no exception. But Tony’s concerns start to grow as more children disappear, always at a time when members of the club are out investigating a sighting.
While Coffin probes the backgrounds of the victims, trying to establish a pattern, Tony takes matters into his own hands and does some detecting of his own…
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
6 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
Gwendoline Butler
89 books19 followersGwendoline 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 2, 2019
Typically good.
Another very good story, complex, careful, no wasted detail.
The atmosphere is dark and surrounded by layered secrets .About a place that almost existed in an East London that still did when this was written. An acquired taste that I am glad I did long ago.
Another very good story, complex, careful, no wasted detail.
The atmosphere is dark and surrounded by layered secrets .About a place that almost existed in an East London that still did when this was written. An acquired taste that I am glad I did long ago.
October 28, 2014
What IS IT w/ this series...I start - and LOVED - the most recent (at least published as of 2014), Coffin and the Paperman. Thought it was great! Went backwards to the 1st (depending on the eLibrary here but...) - interesting development of character etc etc...moved on to THIS one and whooa. WHAT happened in between? This is like another character stopped in. Yeh, still a bit on intuitive; still the stand-off reputation but still, the whole thing was so different to me.
By my rating one can see - no bad - but it DID catch me by surprise. I pick up there mystery series because I LIKE the characters and the action methodology but 'who ARE these people'. I'm not sure I thrilled w/ the idea that I would have to go step by step, book by book to answer my question.
All THAT aside, it was a goody good good mystery!
By my rating one can see - no bad - but it DID catch me by surprise. I pick up there mystery series because I LIKE the characters and the action methodology but 'who ARE these people'. I'm not sure I thrilled w/ the idea that I would have to go step by step, book by book to answer my question.
All THAT aside, it was a goody good good mystery!
April 17, 2017
Coffin's Dark Number (1969), the fourteenth book in the John Coffin series by Gwendoline Butler, is my second squalid, depressing little mystery in row. Generally speaking, I find books that feature murdered children or children in danger to be WAY out of my comfort zone. That became especially true once I was a mother. It doesn't matter that my son is now 24; I can't bear the thought of children, real or fictitious, suffering.
Three little girls--average age eleven--have disappeared from Superintendent John Coffin's district in South London. One minute they were there and the next they were gone. The district is full of unsavory types and cranks. Including Tony Young's UFO Watchers who investigate sightings and just maybe believe that the girls have been abducted by beings from another world. Or maybe they just walked into another dimension. It is an odd coincidence that the watchers were out investigating a sighting every time the girls have disappeared. Is one of the club members responsible--or someone connected to a club member? Coffin investigates through the usual channels and throws his own spotlight on the UFO club. Meanwhile, Tony investigates on his own and dictates his thoughts and findings to a tape recorder. The two methods converge and we expect Coffin to find the answers.
SPOILERS ahead. Read on at your own risk.
This book is jarring on a number of counts. First, as previously mentioned, there is my discomfort with the little girls as murder victims. Then there are the various points of view. We begin with Tony Young as our narrator. He is speaking into a tape recorder and gives us the background on the UFO Watchers, his own history, and his views on the disappearance of the children. This shifts to Superintendent Coffin who tells us that "there's a danger to it [the tape recorder]. I can see you might get to trust it too much...." Which definitely clues the reader in that Tony may not be the most reliable of narrators. Coffin gives us the official viewpoint. Then, there is the omniscient narrator who takes over quite frequently just so we can see everything (or maybe not).
And speaking of unreliable narrators...having our unreliable narrator wind up being so very involved in the murders didn't create quite the surprise one might expect at the end of a mystery novel. Butler perhaps tries to make up for that by making Tony's involvement a little ambiguous. Should you believe that your unreliable narrator is reliable up to a point (ie he didn't actually do the killing) and we should believe him and not his confederate? Or is it the confederate who is reliable on this final point? It's a bit too ambiguous for me.
These earlier novels in the Coffin series aren't nearly as engaging as those I've read in the latter half of the mysteries. The characters and relationships in Dine & Be Dead (the other early novel I've read) were much more interesting and the academic setting helped. The characters here really aren't appealing at all and the relationships aren't very interesting either. ★ and 3/4. Rounded to two here.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
Three little girls--average age eleven--have disappeared from Superintendent John Coffin's district in South London. One minute they were there and the next they were gone. The district is full of unsavory types and cranks. Including Tony Young's UFO Watchers who investigate sightings and just maybe believe that the girls have been abducted by beings from another world. Or maybe they just walked into another dimension. It is an odd coincidence that the watchers were out investigating a sighting every time the girls have disappeared. Is one of the club members responsible--or someone connected to a club member? Coffin investigates through the usual channels and throws his own spotlight on the UFO club. Meanwhile, Tony investigates on his own and dictates his thoughts and findings to a tape recorder. The two methods converge and we expect Coffin to find the answers.
SPOILERS ahead. Read on at your own risk.
This book is jarring on a number of counts. First, as previously mentioned, there is my discomfort with the little girls as murder victims. Then there are the various points of view. We begin with Tony Young as our narrator. He is speaking into a tape recorder and gives us the background on the UFO Watchers, his own history, and his views on the disappearance of the children. This shifts to Superintendent Coffin who tells us that "there's a danger to it [the tape recorder]. I can see you might get to trust it too much...." Which definitely clues the reader in that Tony may not be the most reliable of narrators. Coffin gives us the official viewpoint. Then, there is the omniscient narrator who takes over quite frequently just so we can see everything (or maybe not).
And speaking of unreliable narrators...having our unreliable narrator wind up being so very involved in the murders didn't create quite the surprise one might expect at the end of a mystery novel. Butler perhaps tries to make up for that by making Tony's involvement a little ambiguous. Should you believe that your unreliable narrator is reliable up to a point (ie he didn't actually do the killing) and we should believe him and not his confederate? Or is it the confederate who is reliable on this final point? It's a bit too ambiguous for me.
These earlier novels in the Coffin series aren't nearly as engaging as those I've read in the latter half of the mysteries. The characters and relationships in Dine & Be Dead (the other early novel I've read) were much more interesting and the academic setting helped. The characters here really aren't appealing at all and the relationships aren't very interesting either. ★ and 3/4. Rounded to two here.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews