Gwendoline Butler

(1922 - 2013)

aka Jennie Melville

Gwendoline Williams Butler (aka Jennie Melville)

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 sing 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.

Awards: RNA (1981) see all

Genres: Mystery, Historical Romance, Romantic Suspense

Series

John Coffin
   1. Receipt for Murder (1956)
   2. Dead in a Row (1957)
   3. The Dull Dead (1958)
   4. The Murdering Kind (1958)
   5. The Interloper (1959)
   6. Death Lives Next Door (1960)
     aka Dine and Be Dead
   7. Make Me a Murderer (1961)
   8. Coffin in Oxford (1962)
   9. A Coffin for Baby (1960)
   10. Coffin Waiting (1963)
   11. Coffin In Malta (1964)
   12. A Nameless Coffin (1966)
   13. Coffin Following (1968)
   14. Coffin's Dark Number (1969)
   15. A Coffin from the Past (1970)
   16. Sarsen Place (1973)
     aka A Coffin for Pandora
   17. A Coffin for the Canary (1974)
     aka Olivia
   18. Coffin On the Water (1986)
   19. Coffin in Fashion (1987)
   20. Coffin Underground (1988)
   21. Coffin in the Black Museum (1989)
   22. Coffin and the Paper Man (1990)
   23. Coffin on Murder Street (1991)
   24. Cracking Open a Coffin (1992)
   25. A Coffin For Charley (1993)
   26. The Coffin Tree (1994)
   27. A Dark Coffin (1995)
   28. A Double Coffin (1996)
   29. Coffin's Game (1997)
   30. A Grave Coffin (1998)
   31. Coffin's Ghost (1999)
   32. A Cold Coffin (2000)
   33. A Coffin for Christmas (2000)
   34. Coffin Knows the Answer (2002)

Charmian Daniels (as by Jennie Melville)
   1. Come Home and Be Killed (1962)
   2. Burning Is a Substitute for Loving (1963)
   3. Murderers' Houses (1964)
   4. There Lies Your Love (1965)
   5. Nell Alone (1966)
   6. A Different Kind of Summer (1967)
   7. A New Kind of Killer, an Old Kind of Death (1970)
     aka A New Kind of Killer
   8. Murder Has a Pretty Face (1981)
   9. Murder in the Garden (1987)
     aka Death in the Garden
   10. Windsor Red (1988)
   11. A Cure for Dying (1989)
     aka Making Good Blood
   12. Witching Murder (1990)
   13. Footsteps in the Blood (1990)
   14. Dead Set (1992)
   15. Whoever Has the Heart (1993)
   16. A Death in the Family (1994)
     aka Baby Drop
   17. The Morbid Kitchen (1995)
   18. The Woman Who Was Not There (1996)
   19. Revengeful Death (1997)
   20. Stone Dead (1998)
   21. Dead Again (2000)

Major Mearns and Sergeant Denny
1. The King Cried Murder (2000)
2. Dread Murder (2006)

Novels

   Hunter in the Shadows (1969) (as by Jennie Melville)
   The Summer Assassin (1971) (as by Jennie Melville)
   Ironwood (1972) (as by Jennie Melville)
   Nun's Castle (1973) (as by Jennie Melville)
   Raven's Forge (1975) (as by Jennie Melville)
   The Vesey Inheritance (1975)
   Dragon's Eye (1976) (as by Jennie Melville)
   Meadowsweet (1977)
     aka Brides of Friedberg
   Tarot's Tower (1978) (as by Jennie Melville)
   Axwater (1978) (as by Jennie Melville)
   The Red Staircase (1979)
   Albion Walk (1982)
   Painted Castle (1982) (as by Jennie Melville)
   Hand of Glass (1983) (as by Jennie Melville)
   Listen to the Children (1986) (as by Jennie Melville)
   Butterfly (1997)
   Let There Be Love (1997)
   Complicity (2000) (as by Jennie Melville)
   Loving Murder (2001) (as by Jennie Melville)