Coffin’s Game

Coffin’s Game
Gwendoline Butler

‘ inventiveness never seems to flag; and the singular atmosphere of her books, compounded of jauntiness and menace, remains undiminished’ Patricia Craig, TLSIn the aftermath of a terrorist explosion in London’s Second City, a woman’s battered corpse is found in a damaged building. But it is soon evident that this is no bomb victim. A sadistic killer has mutilated the remains, removing the fingertips and leaving the face unrecognizable. The only clue to the dead person’s identity is a handbag found on the scene. Its owner: Stella Pinero, actress wife of Chief Commander John Coffin.The investigation which follows is complicated by Coffin’s refusal to believe that the remains could be Stella’s, and Chief Superintendent Archie Young faces the unenviable task of questioning a superior officer as to the sort of men his wife was in the habit of associating with. Meanwhile, the secretive Inspector Lodge of the Terrorist Investigation Squad harbours fears of his own.When a second body is discovered, Coffin finds himself drawn into a nightmarish game. The murder inquiry reveals terrible truths as it unfolds, bringing pain and bitterness to John Coffin as he is forced to confront death and treachery in his own backyard.

GWENDOLINE BUTLER

COFFIN’S GAME

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_1d0b813c-661c-5d65-bfd4-b19e2e59564e)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 77–85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1997

Copyright © Gwendoline Butler 1997

Gwendoline Butler asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2014

Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

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Source ISBN: 9780006510116

Ebook Edition © JULY 2014 ISBN: 9780007545483

Version: 2014–07–08

DEDICATION (#ulink_f7c73cfb-0497-5e2b-9814-9daf646dc0ac)

My thanks to Professor Geoffrey Lee Williams for help about terrorism and terrorists, and to Inspector Euan Forbes and John Kennedy Melling for details of technical procedures.

CONTENTS

Cover (#u862bba3d-974c-5270-a4d3-6ffcbdd70b8c)

Title Page (#ud5436624-c88f-56a9-aa88-aa8316cfdd09)

Copyright (#ulink_c5ac6b2e-fdb7-544e-bc57-6e631b93c8bb)

Dedication (#ulink_63341935-f07b-51ea-9265-260e269d6b4f)

Prologue (#ulink_a428024b-ba55-57fd-9b01-8f3790abc3b3)

Prelude (#ulink_dfe18ffa-c734-5bc2-bc56-81e208075601)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_75552aea-3c62-5f0a-938d-8cd836395bb3)

Chapter 2 (#ulink_b7cdb842-c376-5a22-b75a-93f62c09ae65)

PROFILE OF THE AVERAGE TERRORIST (#ulink_6f33ef1e-3ac7-52e3-87d1-e0bee3b60b44)

Chapter 3 (#ulink_2a514233-28e7-55f3-bff5-29ec26c44ceb)

Chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

THE CASE OF ALICE YEOMAN (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Author’s Note (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

PROLOGUE (#ulink_10a77c60-932b-5461-8912-84992494e97a)