Coffin in the Museum of Crime (Inspector John Coffin) [Paperback]

Gwendoline Butler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 2003 | Series: Inspector John Coffin

Detective John Coffin must find out who killed the man belonging to the severed human head found in an urn on the church steps. Reprint. PW. AB.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Butler's latest novel creates a second branch of Scotland Yard to oversee the historic Docklands district of London, here called Thameswater, where, as major docks of yesteryear are gentrified, the working class rubs shoulders with the elite. In an old church being renovated as a theater, Butler houses an excellently drawn cast of actors, actresses and their associates as well as her sleuth John Coffin ( Coffin in Fashion ), now head of the Yard's new division. From his apartment located in the tower of the church, Coffin is well placed to discover just why someone has delivered the decapitated head and severed hand of an unknown victim to the church. The solution of this crime cannot be reached before a series of murders is literally uncovered in the church's crypt, where several extraneous corpses are found. The tightly constructed narrative offers a perplexing crime, neatly solved, as well as fascinating portraits of intellectuals, children and memorable working-class characters, all interacting believably. A well-researched subplot involves a near-epidemic of a polio-like illness that incapacitates key people in the story.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (December 31, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312312792
• ISBN-13: 978-0312312794
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,134,768 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite detectives in a solid series entry., October 20, 2001

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Coffin in the Museum of Crime (Hardcover)

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.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Procedural in London's "Second City", July 3, 2000

By 

Christina P. Branson "Strixaluco" (Fort Collins) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coffin In The Museum Of Crime (Worldwide Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars Coffin in the Museum of, April 2, 2011

By 

Margot Johnston (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Coffin in the Museum of Crime (Inspector John Coffin) (Paperback)

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.