Coffin’s Ghost

Coffin’s Ghost
Gwendoline Butler

When a parcel containing dismembered limbs is found outside a women’s refuge with the initials J.C., Chief Commander John Coffin is forced to confront the ghosts of his past. A gripping crime novel from one of the most universally admired English mystery writers.Everyone has a few ghosts in their lives, especially John Coffin, Chief Commander of the Second City of London’s Police. He had thought all his were laid to rest though, and, newly recovered from a gunshot wound, is hoping for a calmer life with his actress wife Stella Pinero.But he is soon to learn how wrong he is when a parcel containing dismembered limbs is found outside a women’s refuge. The Serena Seddon Shelter for battered wives is located in Barrow Street, not far from Coffin’s own home in St Luke’s Tower. The link to Coffin, though, is more sinister than mere proximity, for the initials J.C. are written on the package, and the shelter is housed in the building where he lived on his arrival in the Second City.The discovery opens a door, through which troop a succession of horrible and violent events: lies, deception and sudden death.Thus Coffin’s ghost walks…

GWENDOLINE BUTLER

Coffin’s Ghost

Copyright (#ulink_71597e72-9135-5879-9e7c-44053d4ca70b)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Harper

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1999

Copyright © Gwendoline Butler 1999

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2014

Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com (http://www.shutterstock.com/)

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

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

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780006513612

Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2014 ISBN: 9780007553914

Version: 2016–12–19

Dedication (#ulink_10d291c1-0bdf-59e9-b596-83b8d863465e)

I wish to record my thanks to Dr Barker, Dr Fink, and John Kennedy Melling for the help given me with this book.

Contents

Cover (#ua266119e-ade0-5305-a53c-1ab4ab25a616)

Title Page (#u1423ed81-a830-5138-99c7-cc83abece393)

Copyright (#ulink_0c63eb3d-2913-5409-ac63-e3872bde3b59)

Dedication (#ulink_38e236f3-190c-5f87-afed-d12d65334fea)

Prologue (#u012301ba-ca9f-5234-bed4-302f8f798fa9)

Prelude (#u14240c06-976c-5c46-b0ea-6fa0776dbf7e)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_d3e2025c-c404-5682-8e5a-34106da70a57)

Chapter 2 (#ulink_b42d6d96-90ff-554d-ae04-b6339f64ddb2)

Chapter 3 (#ulink_9567ea0c-bc87-5d14-940c-1b9995865ebc)

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)

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 (#u2d79282d-352c-525d-a13e-bdec92fff95b)