Coffin on the Water

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Coffin on the Water
Gwendoline Butler

Detective Constable John Coffin investigates the murder of a young woman, whose body is found floating in the Thames with a sinister note attached to her. A gripping crime novel from one of the most universally praised English mystery writers, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie.In 1946, newly promoted detective-constable John Coffin arrives in Greenwich to take up his post. Soon after, the body of a young woman floats down the Thames to South London.It quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary murder: the victim has been strangled, stabbed and mutilated. Attached to the body is a note reading "Present for my mother," a reference to former actress Rachel Esthart, whose son drowned under mysterious circumstances 17 years previously, and who has just received a postcard promising an imminent gift from the boy, whose death she has never acknowledged.Then two other bodies are found in the river, murdered in the same brutal way, and Coffin has a multiple murder case on his hands…

GWENDOLINE BUTLER

Coffin on the Water

Copyright (#ulink_ef42e322-c3a6-537f-afd4-78b9af387dfc)

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 by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, 1986

Copyright © Gwendoline Butler 1986

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 ebooks

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: 9780006176305

Ebook Edition © JUNE 2014 ISBN: 9780007544646

Version: 2017-04-25

Dedication (#ulink_a978b1f3-ea1a-5fbe-8c63-34c956d44e75)

To J.K.M.

Contents

Cover (#u85a5b375-1846-5464-b139-8265ad98528e)

Title Page (#u1614da8a-42fb-5652-a229-5aa02f4ede79)

Copyright (#ulink_0b142d37-665f-5e87-b1ab-a50d1f8daed9)

Dedication (#ulink_c8f62b87-e11c-5f7d-a9cc-0cb033a02183)

Chapter 1: The Delivery (#ulink_54dc1d00-7ce0-5863-8333-d3ff0ebd5415)

Chapter 2: The Shape of the Murderer (#ulink_9ae0180b-383f-5828-8e58-cc6dc3a33961)

Chapter 3: The Stance of the Murderer (#ulink_0422ebec-0169-56d8-a4e1-631532e9ac3c)

Chapter 4: The Feet of the Murderer (#ulink_6b9bd2d5-0413-5bd3-a0f7-72173b908f09)

Chapter 5: Following the Feet of the Murderer (#ulink_a696f0f2-3b9b-5727-ac39-462c33d6f664)

Chapter 6: The Neck of the Murderer (#ulink_ddcacbdc-cb64-5ca5-a510-229bf7a5940c)

Chapter 7: The Neck Feels the Rope (#ulink_842aae6d-c507-5e3a-ad91-e6dcd4c6483d)

Chapter 8: The Hands of the Murderer (#ulink_91646a9c-fe9e-5541-bc2d-ca854c6ea326)

Chapter 9: The Work of the Murderer’s Hands (#ulink_c28a9b0a-62f5-5264-ae94-d6b0377caf3e)

Chapter 10: A Sight of the Murderer’s Hands (#ulink_08619ebd-b71c-5a7e-9a08-5d3d1dd7c609)

Chapter 11: The Way the Murderer Walked (#ulink_758716d5-9bb7-5d99-abf5-15c968f020e9)

Chapter 12: The Face of the Murderer (#ulink_fbe3c4d0-5f59-521b-aba0-651953b3aedf)

Keep Reading (#u17ac86b4-ea75-51c3-88d1-04c4926b96da)

Acknowledgements (#ulink_8e158170-5dd0-5609-8b4f-d8c00bea998b)

About the Author (#ulink_8cca2090-efae-5067-9ebb-ea5c360232da)

Also by the Author (#ulink_c29d44b5-864d-5f8f-a930-512307c9c8f4)

About the Publishers (#ulink_42a7e656-46ed-5c57-9770-6b7f5aa80e67)