Gwendoline Butler (1922–2013)

Author of Coffin Underground

78+ Works 1,717 Members 19 Reviews 4 Favorited

About the Author

Gwendoline Butler, née Williams was born on August 19, 1922 in South London, England. She was a British writer of mystery fiction and romance novels since 1956. She also used the pseudonym Jennie Melville. Credited for inventing the "woman's police procedural", is well known for her series of show more Inspector John Coffin novels as Gwendoline Butler, and by female detective Charmian Daniels as Jennie Melville. She was educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she read History, and later lectured there. In 1956, she started to publish John Coffin novels under her married name, Gwendoline Butler. In 1962, she decided to use her grandmother's name, Jennie Melville as pseudonym to sign her Charmian Daniels novels. In addition to her mystery series, she also wrote romantic novels. In 1981, her novel The Red Staircase won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Her titles include Receipt for Murder, Coffin Following, Coffin's Ghost, Coffin Knows the Answer and Loving Murder. She died on January 5, 2013. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: Jennie Merville, Jennie Melville, Gwendolyn Butler, Gwendoline Butler, gwendaline butler

Disambiguation Notice:

Gwendoline Butler aka Jennie Melville

Image credit: B&W image, no credits given.

Series

John Coffin

Charmian Daniels

Major Mearns and Sergeant Denny

Works by Gwendoline Butler

Popular Recent

Coffin Underground (1988) 126 copies

Coffin in the Black Museum (1989) 92 copies

Coffin and the Paper Man (1990) 86 copies

Death Lives Next Door (1960) 72 copies

A Coffin for Charley (1993) 71 copies

Coffin on Murder Street (1991) 69 copies

Coffin Knows the Answer (2002) 64 copies

The Coffin Tree (1994) 63 copies

A Double Coffin (1996) 61 copies

Cracking Open a Coffin (1992) 60 copies

A Grave Coffin (1998) 58 copies

A Dark Coffin (1995) 55 copies

Coffin's Game (1997) 52 copies

Coffin in Fashion (1987) 52 copies

Coffin on the Water (1986) 48 copies

Coffin's Ghost (1999) 48 copies

Dread Murder (2006) 35 copies

Windsor Red (1988) 33 copies

A Coffin from the Past (1970) 31 copies

Murder Has a Pretty Face (1981) 29 copies

Dead Set (1992) 28 copies

A Coffin for the Canary (1974) 25 copies

Making Good Blood (1989) 23 copies

A Coffin for Pandora (1973) 21 copies

Witching Murder (1990) 20 copies

A Cold Coffin (2000) 19 copies

Coffin in Oxford (1962) 17 copies

A Nameless Coffin (1966) 17 copies

Murder In The Garden (1987) 17 copies

Whoever Has the Heart (1993) 17 copies

Coffin's Dark Number (1969) 17 copies

Coffin in Malta (1964) 15 copies

The Morbid Kitchen (1995) 15 copies

Footsteps in the Blood (1990) 14 copies

Dragon's Eye (1976) 14 copies

Baby Drop (1994) 14 copies

Axwater (1978) 13 copies

The Dull Dead (1958) 13 copies

The Red Staircase (1979) 11 copies

Sarsen Place (1974) 10 copies

Hunter in the Shadows (1969) 10 copies

Receipt for Murder (1956) 9 copies

Coffin Following (1968) 9 copies

Raven's Forge (1975) 9 copies

Meadowsweet (1976) 8 copies

Stone Dead (1998) 8 copies

A New Kind of Killer, an Old Kind of Death (1970) 8 copies

Nun's Castle (1973) 8 copies

Come Home and Be Killed (1962) 7 copies

Ironwood (1972) 7 copies

Revengeful Death (1997) 7 copies

A Coffin for Baby (1960) 6 copies

A Different Kind of Summer (1967) 6 copies

Coffin Waiting (1964) 6 copies

Dead Again (2000) 5 copies

Nell Alone (1966) 5 copies

Murderers' Houses (1964) 4 copies

The Woman Who Was Not There (1996) 4 copies

The King Cried Murder! (2000) 4 copies

The Vesey Inheritance (1975) 4 copies

Make Me a Murderer (1961) 4 copies

The Murdering Kind (1958) 4 copies

Albion Walk (1982) 3 copies

The Hand of Glass (1983) 3 copies

The Painted Castle (1982) 3 copies

Complicity (2000) 3 copies

Dead in a Row (1957) 3 copies

The Interloper (1958) 3 copies

Butterfly (1997) 2 copies

Burning is a Substitute for Loving (1963) 2 copies

Cavalcade (1984) 1 copy

Coffin for Coffin 1 copy

There Lies Your Love (1965) 1 copy

The Summer Assassin (1971) 1 copy

Let There be Love (1997) 1 copy

Listen to the Children (1986) 1 copy

The Sisterhood [short fiction] 1 copy

Loving Murder (2001) 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

Verdict of 13 (1978) — Contributor — 71 copies

The Oxford Book of Detective Stories (2000) — Contributor — 69 copies

The Edinburgh Mystery: And Other Tales of Scottish Crime (2022) — Contributor — 65 copies

Royal Crimes (1994) — Contributor — 17 copies

Winter's Crimes 11 (1979) — Contributor — 13 copies

The Best of Winter's Crimes: A selection from Winter's Crimes 1-17, .Vol 1 (1986) 7 copies

Winter's Crimes 13 (1981) — Contributor — 6 copies

Winter's Crimes 17 (1985) 6 copies

Winter's Crimes 4 (1972) — Contributor — 4 copies

Winter's Crimes 6 (1974) — Contributor; Contributor — 3 copies

Tagged

1960s (16) 1970s (14) 1980s (11) 1990s (21) 1st (14) @A27 (14) anthology (30) Available at the Library (17) British (35) British crime fiction (14) British mystery (9) Charmian Daniels (38) checked (16) Collins (17) Commander John Coffin British Detective Mystery (12) crime (32) crime and mystery (12) crime fiction (23) detective (10) detective fiction (43) ebook (14) England (18) fiction (180) Geoffrey Bles (15) gothic (13) Great Britain (15) hardcover (35) John Coffin (80) London (23) Macmillan (23) mysteries (30) mystery (404) paperback (10) read (12) romance (14) short stories (26) suspense (19) to-read (42) UK crime fiction/mystery (13) unread (17)

Common Knowledge

Legal name: Butler, Gwendoline Williams
Other names: Butler, Gwendoline
Melville, Jennie
Birthdate: 1922-08-19
Date of death: 2013-01-05
Gender: female
Nationality: UK
Birthplace: Deptford, London, England, UK
Places of residence: London, England, UK
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Surrey, England, UK
Education: Oxford University (Lady Margaret Hall)
Occupations: academic (Oxford University, Oxford, England, UK)
Relationships: Butler, Lionel (husband)
Awards and honors: Crime Writers’ Association’s Silver Dagger Award
top two hundred crime writers in the world by The London Times.
Short biography: Gwendoline Williams was born on 19th August 1922 in South London, England, UK, daughter of Alice (Lee) and Alfred Edward Williams, her younger twin brothers are also authors. Educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she read History, and later lectured there. On 16th October 1949, she married Dr Lionel Harry Butler (1923-1981), a professor of medieval history at University of St. Andrews and historian, Fellow of All Souls and Principal of Royal Holloway College. The marriage had a daughter, Lucilla Butler.

In 1956, she started to published John Coffin novels under her married name, Gwendoline Butler. In 1962, she decided used her grandmother's name, Jennie Melville as pseudonym to sign her Charmian Daniels novels. She was credited for inventing the "woman's police procedural". In addition to her mystery series, she also wrote romantic novels. In 1981, her novel The Red Staircase won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Disambiguation notice: Gwendoline Butler aka Jennie Melville