Product Description

In the wake of a series of killings, Inspector John Coffin becomes seriously worried when someone begins stalking his wife and is challenged to connect the present-day incidents to a twenty-year-old murder. Reprint. K. AB. PW.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1704425 in Books
• Published on: 1996-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 250 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Crime in Butler's (Cracking Open a Coffin) fictional Second City of London continues to leave its mark on the unsettled life of high-ranking copper John Coffin, who's newly married to his thespian lover, Stella. Three young woman, all with bitten fingernails, are murdered, seemingly without a struggle. Beside the body of one lies a cassette tape that seems to name her killer, which strikes Coffin as suspiciously easy. That victim is the sister of Annie Briggs, whom Coffin met 20 years ago when Annie, as a child, witnessed a crime perpetrated by members of the neighboring Creeley family. Meanwhile, Stella is being followed and Coffin's sister vanishes with stolen money. These twisting narrative paths lead to a transvestite club; the clues lead to Eddie, youngest of the Creeleys, who was dating Annie's sister when she was murdered. Butler excels at suspending such disjointed fragments in an uneasy urban atmosphere where wealth and squalor are tightly juxtaposed and in letting the narrative sparks fly. It's an admirable technique that, capably handled, can render subtle gems like this one.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Butler's John Coffin stories are somber, dark, and oddly disturbing, but there are few better authors in the police-procedural genre. Copper Coffin's latest case involves his new wife, actress Stella Pinero, who senses she's being followed by a mysterious watcher who could be harmless--or extremely dangerous. Then Annie Briggs, a disturbed young woman who's an admirer of Stella's, also reports being watched. When a young woman is found brutally strangled nearby, and when shortly afterward one of the apprentice actresses in Stella's repertoire company is also found dead, Coffin is fearful that the killer may be the same mysterious watcher who has been frightening Stella and Annie. As if Coffin doesn't already have a difficult-enough life, his niece is kidnapped, his sister disappears, and things are suddenly out of control. But trust the ever-steady, always-professional Coffin to keep his head and solve the multiple mysteries despite his personal involvement. In short, another successful police procedural from Butler for readers who enjoy literate, intelligent, thoughtful writing and the challenge of a bizarre and twisted plot. Emily Melton

From Kirkus Reviews
Danger takes a thousand shapes for women in Butler's mythical Second City of London. Years after her childhood testimony identified Willie and Lizzie Creeley as murderers, Annie Briggs still lives in fear of the Creeley family. Now that Willie's stroke has won parole for him and Lizzie, Annie's terror, never far beneath the surface, is renewed with a shock when Creeley grandson Eddie drifts into South London. Has Eddie strangled and smothered ballerina Marianna Manners and Annie's trusting sister Didi to avenge his relatives, or on commission from Marianna's ``friend'' Job Titus, an MP even more independent than his party label would suggest? Before he can close the case of the dead women with the bitten-down fingernails, John Coffin, chief commander of the Second City Police Force (Cracking Open a Coffin, 1993, etc.) will have to establish whether the killer is the wraithlike ``Charley'' mentioned in Didi's notebook--the same man, perhaps, who's been watching both Annie and Coffin's own bride, actress Stella Pinero- -and cope as well with the disappearances of Annie's tenant and of his own well-heeled sister. An impossible tangle of mysteries, it seems, until a third murder throws them into unexpected relief.... By turns haunting, baffling, and breathlessly abrupt, another satisfyingly rich entry in this offbeat, underrated series. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.