Regina Street, nicknamed Murder Street, has known more than its fair share of murders and violent deaths – and one inhabitant predicts that worse is yet to come. The local police dismiss him as an eccentric, but then a small boy disappears.
Chief Commander John Coffin takes on the case, and discovers that the boy’s mother, a young actress, is something of an enigma herself. And soon the story behind the boy's disappearance unfolds into a history of jealousy and love.
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.