Sad, savage and bitter is what Stella Pinero says to her husband John Coffin, Commander of London's Second City, of the murder case which cuts into both their lives.
Coffin is at the height of his powers when he is surprised by a visit from the past: Inspector Harry Trent, with whom Coffin had worked years ago, is looking for his identical twin brother- a dangerous man; a man who might already have killed a woman; a man Trent fears might threaten violence to the Macintoshes, the couple who fostered the twins as children.
When Joe and Josie Macintosh are found stabbed to death, Coffin has to discover not only their killer, but their true identities. And even more important is the question hanging over all of them: who is this man called Harry Trent and what is he capable of? The answer lies in the past- bizarre, terrifyingly and horribly real...
Gwendoline Butler was born and brought up in south London and was one of the most universally praised of English mystery authors. Her John Coffin procedural series features the titular police inspector rising through the ranks to Commissioner in London’s Docklands area in the 1960s/70s, and eventually moving to a fictional Second City of London.