John Coffin is the title character in the John Coffin series of novels by popular British detective crime mystery author Gwendoline Butler. The series features detective John Coffin as the chief protagonist in a series of criminal mysteries in East London. We first meet Coffin in the first book of the series, the Receipt for Murder where he is a leading detective in South London. Unlike his colleagues in the police department such as Inspector French, he is highly ambitious, fast rising to the rank of Chief Commissioner in later book. He has been twice married, tying the knot with a famous actress after the death of his first wife. While Coffin has come to represent the entire series of 29 books, he did not take a leading role in the first …show more content…
In this novel, John Coffin faces the prospect of losing everything that he holds dear after unearthing a deadly conspiracy. When terrorists detonate two bombs in London, a body with a face mutilated beyond recognition is found on the scene. The police believe it could have been a suicide bomber, but upon a closer analysis of evidence found on the scene, they are convinced that the corpse could be that of famous actress Stella Pinero, Coffin’s wife. The evidence could not have been more bizarre; inside the blue Chanel bag found on the body, the police find a photograph showing her eating a human arm. The coroner soon concludes his investigations and declares that the corpse is that of a man. Nonetheless, questions remain as to why the dead man would try as much as he did to implicate Stella in a terrorist attack. Meanwhile, the real Stella is nowhere to be found and with more people, being killed in the city, Coffin’s professional and personal life becomes ever more complicated. However, Coffin’s and his team have yet to fail to uncover any criminal mystery, and true to form, they crack this one