Scotland Yard's eminent Detective John Coffin was a mere sergeant in the Sixties. Anticipating a promotion, he buys a house. It needs repairs and workmen find the body of an adolescent boy under the floor....Darting into odd corners, this mystery is a corker, filled with richly atmospheric scenes of London in the "age of Aquarius" as experienced by Coffin and the rest of Butler's well-realized characters.
Coffin in the days before Stella! He buys a house with a terrible secret under the floorboards, and the mystery builds with some romantic interest among the characters and suspects. Butler is always a good read and the picture of London in earlier days is great.