Cracking Open A Coffin [Paperback]

Gwendoline Butler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1995

A series of apparently indiscriminate murders reveals the work of a very patient, calculating criminal, and Chief Commander John Coffin must discover the link between the victims from an elite London university and a refuge for battered women. Reprint. K.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The latest of the accomplished Commander John Coffin mysteries, after Coffin on Murder Street , revolves around the disappearance of two students from the university of the Second City of London. Although Amy Dean and Martin Blackwell have been missing only two days, Coffin, head of Second City police, starts to investigate, impelled by the still unsolved murder of student Virginia Scott the previous year. Amy and Martin's friends are markedly reluctant to offer information, as are the folks at the home for battered women and children where both Amy and Virginia did volunteer work. Not so restrained is Amy's father, former policeman James Dean, who is convinced his daughter is dead and points his finger at Martin. Formerly Coffin's partner, Dean is adept at finding ways to intrude on the investigation. Adding to the pressure on Coffin are anonymous phone messages warning him to "watch your back" and "tidy up your private life"--presumably a reference to his relationship with actress Stella Pinero. Butler deftly integrates the past and present into Coffin's personal and professional lives, portraying him as a pensive character as ready to turn a critical eye on himself as on those whose lives are caught up in the tragedy he hopes to untangle.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Crises--personal and professional--beset Chief Commander John Coffin of the Second City of London police (Coffin on Murder Street, etc.) as he grapples with the disappearance of local University students Amy Dean and Martin Blackhall, son of University Rector Sir Thomas Blackhall. Amy--the daughter of wealthy businessman James Dean, once a policeman, whose very presence evokes unhappy memories in Coffin--was a volunteer at Star Court House, a shelter for abused women from which another student volunteer had vanished a year earlier. Onetime celebrated model Josephine Day also volunteers there, exorcising a tragic ghost, as does a gang of neighborhood women on motorcycles who provide protection when needed. Amy's body is found, encased in a crude wooden box. Martin Blackhall turns up too--badly injured--and is arrested in an unrelated matter. He appears guilty of Amy's murder; but then another strange death; the work of forensics; and Coffin's ever busy thought processes making connections to the past produce a very different killer--even as Coffin faces a solid commitment to actress Stella Pinero, his on-again, off-again love, and a crucial meeting with superiors that may end his career. A bit flawed by its unusually choppy narrative style and by a too heavy concentration on Coffin's psyche--but, still, solid work in one of the genre's most interesting series. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Worldwide Library (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373261713
• ISBN-13: 978-0373261710
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,058,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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