Coffin in the Museum of Crime

Butler's latest novel creates a second branch of Scotland Yard to oversee the historic Docklands district of London, here called Thameswater, where, as major docks of yesteryear are gentrified, the working class rubs shoulders with the elite. In an old church being renovated as a theater, Butler houses an excellently drawn cast of actors, actresses and their associates as well as her sleuth John Coffin ( Coffin in Fashion ), now head of the Yard's new division. From his apartment located in the tower of the church, Coffin is well placed to discover just why someone has delivered the decapitated head and severed hand of an unknown victim to the church. The solution of this crime cannot be reached before a series of murders is literally uncovered in the church's crypt, where several extraneous corpses are found. The tightly constructed narrative offers a perplexing crime, neatly solved, as well as fascinating portraits of intellectuals, children and memorable working-class characters, all interacting believably. A well-researched subplot involves a near-epidemic of a polio-like illness that incapacitates key people in the story. (Aug.)