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A Dark Coffin (John Coffin Mysteries)
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Product Description
But the couple's double suicide follows closely on the heels of an unexpected visitor from Coffin's past: Inspector Harry Trent. Coffin worked with Trent years ago, and now Trent is searching for his identical twin brother -- a dangerous man; a man who might already have killed a woman; a man Trent fears might have threatened violence to the Macintoshes, the couple who fostered the twins as children.
Coffin quickly realizes that the illusions of the theater mean that nothing is as it seems; such is the case in the Macintoshes' apparent suicide. As Coffin investigates the couple's death, he learns he must find not only their killer but also their true identities.
And then there is the persistent, looming question: Who is Harry Trent and what is he capable of doing? The answer lies in the past - bizarre, terrifying, and horribly real. . .
Coffin will find Stella's knowledge of the theater indispensable if he is to solve this mystery of Jekylls and Hydes on both sides of the footlights
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #3159722 in Books
- Published on: 1996-10-15
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 208 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Dualities and duplicities are threaded like filaments throughout Butler's latest in the long-running John Coffin series (The Coffin Tree, etc.). Commander Coffin, head of the Second City of London's police force, is both professionally and personally challenged by this Jekyll/Hyde puzzler. First, Harry Trent, a police colleague from Greenwich whom he had worked with earlier in his career, shows up with vague warnings about his identical twin, Mark (Merry) Trent. Then, two bodies are found in the theater run by Coffin's wife, Stella Pinero, after an opening night performance. The victims, Joe and Josie Macintosh, are not who they seemed; but in one of many conundrums in this convoluted mystery, who they seemed to be are also victims. Furthermore, Harry Trent and, perhaps, his unseen identical twin were once involved with the Macintoshes. While the police proceed with their routine searches and analyses, Coffin probes the single or dual identity of Harry and Merry Trent and that of the real and the phony Macintoshes. Butler's minor characters are sharply etched and the brooding, thoughtful Coffin watches over his wife and his city like a fallible, but effective, guardian angel. After 40 years and 25 adventures, Coffin appears far from the end of his journey.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Commander John Coffin faces his most challenging case yet when a bizarre double suicide takes place in a local theater. The case becomes all the more intriguing when Coffin discovers that the victims, Joe and Josie Macintosh, were a same-sex couple whose deaths were not suicide but murder. Baffled, Coffin enlists the aid of an old colleague, Inspector Harry Trent, who's visiting the area to look for his missing twin brother. Before long, Coffin begins to think Trent is hiding something, especially when he discovers Trent's been drinking heavily and is on medical leave. Then Coffin learns that the murdered Macintoshes were once foster parents to Harry and his mysteriously missing brother. Coffin's well-developed instincts, sound investigative techniques, and pure doggedness lead him to the surprising solution. Gritty realism, characters of depth and complexity, innovative plots, and a look at the darker side of humanity characterize Butler's fine series. The latest entry is a treat for serious mystery fans looking for a literate, challenging read. Emily Melton
From Kirkus Reviews
A pair of bizarre murders is complicating life for Chief Commander John Coffin in his Second City of London bailiwick (The Coffin Tree, 1996, etc.). The victims are Joe and Josie Macintosh, vendors of food from their street stands around the neighborhood, often in front of the St. Luke's theater complex, which is presided over by Coffin's actress wife Stella Pinero. Someone had sent the Macintoshes tickets for the opening night of a new show at St. Luke's. Now the two are found, carefully stabbed to death, in one of the theater's boxes, with what appears to be a suicide note on the floor. Coffin is also involved with the troubles of Harry Trent, an old friend on leave from another precinct who's looking for his strange and worrisome twin brother Mark. The twins had spent some growing-up, painful years as wards of the Macintoshes, but this murdered pair are not the same Macintoshes the brothers knew--in more ways than one. A thorough search of the couple's shabby house and garden soon provides the reason. At the theater, meanwhile, Stella, her general manager Alfreda Boxer, Alfreda's son Barnabas, who serves as assistant stage manager, and wardrobe mistress May Renier are going about the theater's business as routinely as possible--until the day Stella is attacked and stabbed in one of the storage rooms. The plotting is dense and murky, the writing sometimes oblique and pretentious, especially during a series of dark, anonymous musings on the Jekyll-Hyde theme. But there's a neat surprise in the tortuous puzzle's resolution, and more than enough menacing suspense to grip the reader to the end. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Customer Reviews
engrossing
A dark Coffin revealed some of the backround of coffin'first marriage
and how it crumbled. A must read for cOFFIN FANS
