In this twenty-third installment

of the Commander John Coffin

series,Gwendoline Butler weaves

a story of intrigue and deception

with her usual finesse. John Coffin,

unusually pleased with his mercurial wife, is

feeling quite content with married life. However,

one day a phone call disrupts his peace of mind

and starts him on a journey from past to present.

Dr. John Bradshaw is a scholar who is

writing a book on the life of Richard Laven-

dar, a former prime minister, long retired and

almost forgotten. When he enlists Coffin s

help to research his subiect, Coffin uncovers

a deadly secret. On a visit to Lavendar, he

hears the respected politician confess that his

father was a serial killer, and that as a boy he

had helped to bury one of the victims, laven-

dar, on his deathbed, is repentant and requests

that Coffin find the body.

Unsure whether the story is true or the

elderly man is delusional, Coffin sets off to

investigate. When a young journalist who has

been digging around in Lavendar s past is mur-

dered, it appears that the sins of the past and

present are coming together with terriflying speed.