Customer Reviews

Coffin in the Museum of Crime

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Not the best book in the Coffin series, but a fun read all the same. This is a reliably entertaining series whose characters keep me interested and reading without relying too much on broadly drawn eccentricities or far-fetched plot points.

Detective John Coffin, with new digs and a new job, finds murder a little bit close to home when a severed head in an urn is found on the steps of his new building. When a hand to match the head turns up in the apartment of his neighbor Stella Pinero, then Coffin is pulled into an investigation that is to have far-reaching implications for the entire district.

Overall, I liked this book, particularly the detail Butler put into the Second City universe and the care she used in portraying the novel's characters. Some of the segues from scene to scene were interesting in an almost cinematic way, and I appreciated how it enhanced the story line.

I thought, however, that some of the clues should have clicked together in Coffin's mind long before they did, instead of being saved for a somewhat rushed wrap-up at the novel's end. Other than that, my only complaints are Butler's indulgence in confusing head-hopping and annoying comma-spliced sentences.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. I think any Coffin fans would as well. True picture of characters in the former docklands of old London. A new city.