COFFIN ON THE WATER (First UK Edition) - Hardcover
British Metropolitan Detective John Coffin investigates a spate of murders involving a deranged man who kills and mutilates people, offering each victim as a "" gift"" to a famous actress from her dead son. Reprint. K. AB.
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About the Author:
From Publishers Weekly:
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.
British writer Butler has crafted a grim tale that unsuccessfully blends murder with social commentary. In 1946, newly promoted detective-constable John Coffin arrives in Greenwich to take up his post. Soon after, the body of a young woman floats down the Thames to South London. It quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary murder: the victim has been strangled, stabbed and mutilated. Attached to the body is a note reading "Present for my mother," a reference to former actress Rachel Esthart, whose son drowned under mysterious circumstances 17 years previously, and who has just received a postcard promising an imminent gift from the boy, whose death she has never acknowledged. Then two other bodies are found in the river, murdered in the same brutal way. There is no shortage of suspects, among them: a famous actor who was in love with Rachel; the co-owner of the Theatre Royal; the theater's stage manager; and an ex-army mate of Coffin's who is a black marketeer. Coffin's investigation of the murders is complicated by a missing-child case and his own personal search for an unknown sibling. While interesting for its meticulously detailed picture of bleak post-World War II England, the novel's appeal is severely limited by an intrusive, off-putting narrative voice.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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- PublisherWILLIAM COLLINS SONS & CO LTD
- Publication date1986
- ISBN 10 0002314479
- ISBN 13 9780002314473
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages192
- IllustratorNone
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Coffin on the Water
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. None (illustrator). 1st Edition. First edition first printing of the eighteenth novel in the John Coffin series. Light edge wear and a light wave to the dust jacket due to being in brodart cover that was too tight. Price clipped otherwise in near fine / near fine condition. Seller Inventory # 18882
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. None (illustrator). 1st Edition. First edition first printing of the twentieth novel in the John Coffin series. Price clipped otherwise in fine / fine condition. Seller Inventory # 18883
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. None (illustrator). 1st Edition. Some wear to edges and corners of dustjacket, edges creased and worn, some small rips and nicks, top and bottom of spine chipped and worn, Underjacket in good condition, some light wear to edges and corners, Corners a little bumped, Top and bottom of spine bumped and worn, Internally in good condition, pages crisp and clear. Seller Inventory # 020324
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Book Description None (illustrator). FIRST EDITION. Hardback. 8vo 8 x 5.5 inches. Red cloth with gilt titles. 192 pages. No inscriptions. Very Good in VG un-price-clipped dustwrapper. Seller Inventory # 2434
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