Gwendoline Butler is a writer of mystery fiction

Mystery fiction

Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...

 credited for inventing the "woman's police procedural

Police procedural

The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...

" and known for her series of Inspector John Coffin novels. She has also published a series featuring female detective Charmian Daniels under the pseudonym Jennie Melville. Butler read history at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford

Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford

Lady Margaret Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located at the end of Norham Gardens in north Oxford. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £34m....

 and later lectured there; her husband, the historian Lionel Butler, Fellow of All Souls

All Souls College, Oxford

The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford or All Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....

 and Principal of Royal Holloway College, died in 1992.

Selected works

• Death Lives Next Door (1960)
• Make Me a Murderer (1961)
• Coffin in Oxford (1962)
• A Coffin for Baby (1963)
• Coffin Waiting (1964)
• A Coffin in Malta (1964)
• A Nameless Coffin (1966)
• Coffin Following (1968)
• Coffin’s Dark Number (1969)
• A Coffin from the Past (1970)
• A Coffin for the Canary (1974)
• Coffin on the Water (1986)
• Coffin in Fashion (1987)
• Coffin Underground (1988)
• Coffin in the Black Museum (1989)
• Coffin and the Paper Man (1991)
• Coffin on Murder Street (1992)
• Cracking Open a Coffin (1993)
• A Coffin for Charley (1994)
• The Coffin Tree (1994)
• A Dark Coffin (1995)
• A Double Coffin (1996)
• Coffin’s Game (1997)
• A Grave Coffin (1998)
• Coffin’s Ghost (1999)
• A Cold Coffin (2000)
• Coffin Knows the Answer (2002)

External links

• Gwendoline Butler at Fantastic Fiction
• Bibliography at Classic Crime Fiction
• Interview by John Kennedy Melling at Crime Time